A+++ For Everybody!!

A small story in the San Diego Union-Tribune caught my eye a couple of days ago.
I have been thinking about it ever since.

It seems that the San Marcos Unified School District, located in northern San Diego county, has decided to do away with letter grades for fourth and fifth graders this coming school year. I'm not sure, but I imagine, that it is all part of this "no child's self esteem left behind" idiocy that has taken hold in this country. No hurt feelings; no losers. Everybody gets a blue ribbon for showing up.

How like the real world this is. NOT!
Just ask your boss for a "do over" the next time you screw-up. Or, how about an award for coming to work?

I spent my grade school years in the small town of Leslie, Michigan. It was, and probably still is, a community of roughly 1800 souls located about 30 miles south of Lansing. I was a typical lad of those days dreaming of playing second base for my beloved Detroit Tigers. In my mind I was Frank Bolling, the Tiger's journeyman second sacker. (Talk about setting the bar low!) But, it took me about two weeks of my first Little League season to notice that I suffered from a severe lack of baseball talent. The coach plopped me in right field where my glove was safe from all but a few challenging hits. Also, after a few games I began to notice that catcher Lou Klinger would commence donning the tools of ignorance every time we were at bat with two outs and I was up.
Maybe I wasn't meant to be a baseball player! No blue ribbon, no "atta boy" and no false hopes to delude me.
Idiot kid that I was, I also thought that I was one hell of a singer. I would hide behind our big Philco radio and sing along with Perry Como, my mom's favorite, and she would tell me that she couldn't tell the difference when Ol' Perry and I were harmonizing. Hot damn! I would be a famous singer.




I began to pay attention to kids like Eddie Hodges, (Does anybody remember Eddie Hodges?), who seemed to have a few hit records and was a big movie star.



Eddie Hodges (Who starred with Frank Sinatra in "A Hole in the Head")




The singing star pipe dream sustained me for about a year. I was absolutely certain that it was only a matter of time until a Hollywood talent scout drove into Leslie; heard me sing and signed me up for the whole "Big Star" deal.
Then, in fifth grade, the school system hired an new music teacher named Mrs. Adams. Mrs. Adams would come into our classroom once a week and lead us in singing those "heavy hits" from the public domain. You know..."Row Row Row Your Boat", "Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal" and other toe-tappers that we all know and love.
Well, one day Mrs. Adams announced that while we were all singing she would walk by each of our desks and, while we sang, would grade us on our singing ability. Like a bolt of lightning I knew that this was it! Mrs. Adams would hear me and be amazed that such a monumental talent was right here in Leslie, Michigan! She would discover me! I was on my way!

Mrs. Adams stood by my desk; listened to me sing and left a piece of paper in front of me.
On the piece of paper was my grade.
C-. C-??? I was crushed. How could it be? The answer was simple. She was a moron.

But, I didn't waste my life dreaming of what might have been. I moved on to other things.

Me, scuba diving





Me, in mud puddle belly flop contest




You won't find me embarrassing myself on that idiotic American Idol because some teacher didn't have the guts to tell me that I stunk up the joint!
Rejection is what made America great. "No grades" gives us idiot kids with great self esteem and dumb ass shows like American Idol.