On This Date in 1999 (February 4)

I’m slowly cobbling this letter together.

The area around the computer is becoming increasing cluttered, almost to the point where it’s becoming a barrier to accessing this side of the family room. I suppose this is one of the hazards of working at home. JoAnna spends most of the day positioned between the computer desk and our old dining room table. The latter piece of furniture is covered, in no particular order, with papers, a hanging file, a fax machine, a calculator, legal pad with a to-do list filling an entire page, cordless phone, stapler, coffee cup and coaster, reading lamp, scotch tape, paper clips, a UW mug filled with pens, pencils, and a pair of scissors, a pencil sharpener, post-its, a yellow highlighter with a blue cap, and scrap paper for jotting down notes during the dozen or so phone calls that JoAnna receives during the day. JoAnna may be well-organized when it comes to the big pictures, like organizing Shirley Abrahamson’s campaign, but work space tidiness does not appear to be one of her strong points. 

Eddie brought his report card home yesterday. When I first looked at it, I saw a couple “D”s and almost let out an audible gasp. This is terrible, I thought. After a closer inspection, I discovered that a different system of evaluation is used by teachers in the lower elementary grades. A “D” on Eddie’s report card is short for “Developing”, which means that “the child show some understanding and independence”. This is the grade that Eddie received in Reading, Language Arts, and Spelling and is an improvement over the “B” (“Beginning”) he received in these subject for the first quarter. (“The child is working towards completing tasks independently and showing understanding of the skill or concept.”) In his two other subjects, Science/Health and Social Studies, Eddie received S+’s, the highest possible grade. At our conference today, his teacher said that he had made wonderful improvements both scholastically and socially during the first hal of the school year. We’re very proud of both our boys. They are doing very well in school this year. 

Hope to hear from you soon. Happy Valentine’s Day!