Sunday, December 10, 2000
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Sunday, December 10, 2000 |
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What my report card taught me By MARY JANE HOLT When I was in grammar school I received a report every six weeks. I had to take it home and have it signed by one of my parents. My name and the name of the school was on the front. When you opened it, the subject grades were recorded on the left side. On the right side were little boxes that were checked to the tune of satisfactory, needs improvement, unsatisfactory or something to that effect regarding behavior. And always there was the space for teacher comment on the back. The topics on the right side of the opened card went something like this: ___ Talks too much. ___ Listens to and follows directions ___ Plays well with others. That first little square was the one that caused trouble for me for years. Once I mastered the art of discreet note writing and passing (successful passing of the well drafted piece of communication proved to be a challenge) then the check mark on the right side disappeared. I didn't have any problem listening to and following directions and playing well with others. Maybe I was lucky. I don't know. I do know that everybody was expected to have learned to listen to and follow directions by the time we left sixth grade. As I recall, my sons were expected to know how to do the same by the end of third grade. I know now why it was important to listen to and follow directions. Every gadget and appliance that I've ever purchased has come with instructions to "read and follow directions." I'm a woman. I know. Most forms that I fill out have the same instructions at the top of the page. What am I getting at? Our country and all the world would never have gotten caught up in the confusion, and unbelievably time-consuming, not to mention expensive, litigation procedures of recent weeks if folks knew how to listen to, or read, and follow directions. Yep, I've heard the argument about the rubber that may or may not have grown hard and prevented the stylus from breaking through the paper to fully release the chad (the little piece of paper that falls out when you punch a hole in a larger piece of paper). It doesn't matter now. On voting day when voters were instructed to punch out the holes and examine the cards to be sure the holes were made was when it mattered. If the voter did not follow directions then the vote does not count. It doesn't even matter that voting officials did not clean out the box that caught the chads, thus leading to chad build-up. None of that matters now. The deadlines matter now, deadlines that have passed and that's life. If I make a cake, and do not follow directions, my cake might not be edible. I may have to throw it out or settle for less than what I had envisioned before I failed to follow directions. I'm a wee bit irritated that all the attention in this presidential election has been focused on Florida. I have no doubt that the same problems which have become so evident in the Sunshine State over the past four weeks have occurred all around this country for years. Those problems and more. Then there is the fact that we almost always have disgustingly low turnouts every time voting day rolls around. Such a privilege! Such freedom! Such abuse of privilege and freedom! My irritation grows. No man or woman who refuses to learn all they can about the candidates and issues and vote on the same deserves the right to gripe and complain about anything. Not even in America. Although Greta Van Susteren is the only reporter who still has me wondering if she's a Democrat or Republican, all in all CNN has done a remarkable job of covering this election fiasco. I just hope they take to the limit their coverage of the election procedures in America. We are not there yet, although I do believe a president was decided days, perhaps weeks, ago. We are an imperfect people living in an imperfect world. What's done is done and we need to move on. There are those on both sides of the political fence who feel that four years of leadership by whichever candidate successfully "steals" the election would be a terrible price to pay for voter error. I suspect that the real price would be to not have learned from the events of recent weeks. We need to begin focusing now on the next voting opportunity that will be afforded us. One thing's for sure, third
grade, even sixth grade, is too soon to drop those little squares where
we get graded on how well we listen to and follow directions, AND how
well we play with others. Perhaps, Yale, Harvard, and Princeton are among
those institutions who should take note.
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