Alpha Dogs

The kids got their report cards on Friday, and you’ll never guess. Many of them ignored my Report Cards Are Discussed Before Or After School policy. Go figure. What’s next? Cats petting dogs? Rivers running upstream?

Anywho, along with the normal “It’s not fair” stance (What that means, I don’t know—It’s not fair that I don’t give 100 bonus points on tests? It’s not fair that I don’t drop the lowest six grades? It’s not fair that I assign due dates?) I had a kid who wanted to talk to me about his conduct grade. I was shocked that he even knew what that was. The last time a kid asked me about a conduct grade was to tell me that her middle initial was “K” and not “U”. I had to tell her that the “U” stood for “Unsatisfactory”.

Speaking of unsatisfactory that was this kid’s concern. That’s when I had to remind him that he had brought a classmate down, like a cowboy in a calf roping event. Luckily, his eyes did that roll-up, memory recall thing and he went, “Oh, yeah,” then sat down. I tell you what, for a kid who has a propensity for hand-to-hand combat the whole episode went down extremely well when compared to other chats I’ve had about grades.