Jason’s Morning M.A.G.I.C,

My wife and I sat in a room with four of our son’s 5th grade teachers. “He’s coming along” they said.

“What does that mean?”

“It means he is improving.”

“But…where IS he? In relation to the other students?”

“We don’t like to focus on that. It creates anxiety.”

“Want to see anxiety? Wait until he is competing for jobs with those other kids. Being unable to pay his rent is anxiety. Being unable to buy food. THAT’s anxiety. What are his grades?”

They handed me a page filled with formulas I didn’t understand, related to relative growth.

“Relative to other kids?”

They looked at each other. “Um…no, relative to his previous progress.”

“But where WAS he? Relative to other kids.”

“Look at this numerical score. That’s what you want.”

“But…how does this relate to grades? You know, “A”, “B”, “F”?”

Stone faces.

“We believe that such measures can increase anxiety and make a child’s progress more difficult…”

Arrrrrrgh. Round and round you go. I wanted to grab one of them by the throat and shake her. Was I nuts? Was it unreasonable to want a more direct answer? What I knew was that, whatever downside there was to grades, my mother had been able to tell more about my schooling with a ten-second glimpse at my report cards (My teachers favorite grade for…