Anyone else attend a nongraded school?

[drssg]

I attended public elementary school in the mid to late sixties, and we did not receive letter grades. Our report cards graded us on effort.

O - outstanding effort
U - unsatisfactory effort
Check - acceptable effort
Minus - needs improvement

We received scores on individual tests, but there was no indication of our overall average over time. There was some behind the scenes calculation of real performance, because the occasional kid would get held back a year.

We had independent study time, and we might be doing advanced work in one subject and remedial work in another. It seems to be based on our aptitude and motivation.

I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but it seems strange looking back. This was a rural farming community, and we sang “Jesus Loves the Little Children” in music class. It wasn’t a progressive area.

Anyone else have anything like this?

 

[zzvyb6]

Fortunately not. I applied to a top notch engineering college and they wanted to see 4 years of grades in grades that mattered. They wanted to see SAT scores, course lists and extra curricular activities, not social studies, philosophy of sandbox toys, art or French literature appreciation feedback.

I got a top end job offer, took it, saved money, invested it wisely, bought land with barns, tractors and machinery. Now I'm retired, IRS says I have too much income and this year will be be forced into RMW land. High school classmates who chose the party crowd, feel-good, every body gets a trophy tribe are broke, empty and have nothing to contribute to the betterment of the world. Bob Hope described them pretty well.

So, how did you do ?

 

[drssg]

I did fine. I was a computer programmer for 30 years, and now I’m retired.

To be clear, normal grading started for me in 7th grade. I also took normal standardized testing. It was just kindergarten through 6th grade that were weird.

 

[Jchonline]

We were graded K-12. Most of this has to do with the individual and what they want to make of themselves. Most importantly making good, informed decisions.

 

[Clint S]

We had E, S,N, U. Excellent, satisfactory, needs improvement, unsatisfactory. I really don't recall exactly what the letters were based on. This was the 70s

 

[mddorange]

We had E, S,N, U. Excellent, satisfactory, needs improvement, unsatisfactory. I really don't recall exactly what the letters were based on. This was the 70s

My kids got grades like that in K-2 grade. After that they got A-F grades. Since I was in the military and we moved about every four years, the school systems and curriculum's changed each time.

 

[Oaktree]

No kindergarden when I was growing up. As mddorange noted, we didn't start getting letter grades until the 3rd grade (and ours was A-E, not F).

As far as being held back, do they even do that anymore? When I was a kid it seemed like if you were going to need to repeat a grade, it was 2nd...knew several kids who did. Can't think of anyone who got held back any other time.

 

[Alan W.]

We never had kindergarden. I remember when they started using the E S N U system instead of the A-F, our parents thought it was a stupid idea but it was the progressive wave of the future. I think this was also the start of the why cant Johnny read poster child period.

 

[Ford850]

I did fine. I was a computer programmer for 30 years, and now I’m retired.

To be clear, normal grading started for me in 7th grade. I also took normal standardized testing. It was just kindergarten through 6th grade that were weird.

Are you sure you weren't stuck repeating kindergarten for 6 years? hehe

 

[drssg]

Are you sure you weren't stuck repeating kindergarten for 6 years? hehe

As a matter of fact, they DID threaten to hold me back in kindergarten, due to excessive absence. My mother was a rather free spirit. She believed in the value of education, and she taught me some reading and basic arithmetic before I was in grade school. She also believed that the most important thing to learn today was not necessarily what they were covering in school.

For example, there was an injured great blue heron in our driveway one morning. I got to stay home from school and catch minnows in the creek, and we tried to nurse it back to health. (It didn’t make it.)