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Six famous school report comments

To lighten things up at Six Things after the last controversial post and intense discussion I’ve got here a collection of great little report card quotes of famous people. A little light relief. These were taken from Could do Better, a collection of school reports by Catherine Hurley.

1. “Certainly on the road to failure.” on John Lennon

2. “She must try to be less emotional in her dealings with others.” on Diana Princess of Wales

3. “He would much sooner write an intimate memoir of Julius Caesar than a factual account of his Gallic wars. But then, who wouldn’t? Unfortunately examiners demand fact” on Bruce Chatwin.

4. “Scored average for most things, including intelligence.” on George Bush.

5. “I think he is just a teeny bit pleased with himself, or so I am prepared to hazard” on Michael Palin.

6. And my favourite, which is not a report card quote but a real gem nonetheless that can go here: “To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say, well done. And to the C students, I say, you too can be president of the United States.” George W Bush addressing Yale graduates.

Published in: Just for fun | on October 19th, 2009 | 9 Comments »

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9 Comments

  1. On October 19, 2009 at 8:59 am Karenne Sylvester Said:

    Sometimes I do wonder why people don’t openly discuss what makes a bad teacher bad… hmmm…. I smell a 6 things post coming up.

    I mean… we all know that these teachers exist and, unfortunately, in abundance.

    Perhaps I should be all tao and say that there are no bad teachers except… that…. although the various people above did go on to make things out of themselves, what about the thousands of others who didn’t because they thought themselves less – who adopted things like “on the road to failure” as their personal story?

    Did those teachers, did they ever realize the impact of their opinions and actions?

    Did they ever ‘get it’ that their lack of care (and their arrogance) stopped others from achieving their personal bests?

    Food for thought…

    I’ve been writing about motivation and inspiration on my blog ;-) prompted by that very interesting and intense MI discussion.

    Karenne

  2. On October 19, 2009 at 9:19 am lclandfield Said:

    Thanks for dropping by Karenne! Interesting idea. The issue of what makes a bad teacher bad has been explored, in my mind most notably (and in a funny way) by Luke Prodromou who wrote an article called How to be a Boring Teacher for ETP, in which he set forth BTM (Boring Teacher Methodology). The talk he does on it is great. I think you can see a copy of that article here http://issuu.com/mroca126/docs/how_to_be_a_boring_teacher Funny reading.

  3. On October 20, 2009 at 11:24 am intomanc Said:

    I think a more Tao take would be that there must always be bad teachers for good teachers to exist. Yin AND Yang.

    My rather feeble comment is how these reports have disappeared for most of us to be replaced by anodyne, information-free, computer generated virtual reports that may save the teachers time to devote to other bureaucratic demands but leave the parents with the impression that nobody really cares and that their children are being dismissively rammed into cover-all comments. My son even had some comments where he became a “she”.

  4. On October 20, 2009 at 11:31 am lclandfield Said:

    You’re right Diarmuid about those computer-generated reports. God I hate those. It’s a small thing, but even a single personalised sentence from my son’s teacher on his report card can give his mother and I lots to discuss (even when I suspect the teacher wrote something similar for other children). As for he becoming a “she”, well I needn’t tell you that I can completely sympathise. With a name like Lindsay…

  5. On October 20, 2009 at 11:49 am Karenne Sylvester Said:

    Thanks for the article, laughed my head off – all too incredibly true!

  6. On October 20, 2009 at 9:25 pm Lau Said:

    Hi! I have answers about what we talked about this evening :)
    check this link: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/how-to-upload-downloaded-themes#post-273173

    See you on thursday.

    (BTW Very interesting blog!)

  7. On October 21, 2009 at 7:56 am lclandfield Said:

    Thanks so much Lau! That’s great to know.

  8. On October 26, 2009 at 3:48 pm Sandy Mac Said:

    My schools careers adviser, upon my telling him that I wanted to travel and work in the open air, suggested I consider a career as a pavement artist. My induction into the ranks of the Tefl brigade represented a failure in that respect, I suppose … I’m sure I would have made more money decorating pavements!

  9. On October 26, 2009 at 9:11 pm lclandfield Said:

    But then we wouldn’t have the TEFL Tradesman (the Pavement Tradesman doesn’t cut it)! Nice to see you back here Sandy.