My Worst Grades Ever

As I am constantly pushing my children to get A's in all of their classes, I was remembering the few times that I didn't get an A in a class, and I thought I would share the stories.

My lowest grade came in 10th grade English. We were studying Huckleberry Finn, and the teacher gave an essay test on the first few chapters. She was a teacher like no other. I believe she had been a college professor at some point, but she had enough money and was settled, and decided to teach at our high school. She was very bohemian for the 80's--she wore Birkenstocks daily (with socks when it snowed), and no bra on occasions.  She even had a hyphenated last name, which for the times, was unusual:  Marcia Swenson-Davis.

Anyway, I failed the test. In fact, when I saw the grade, I couldn't process it. It was in the 50's (as in 50%), and I thought I was interpreting it incorrectly. Turns out, just about everyone failed the test. She had wanted us to become DEEP thinkers, spilling our introspective thoughts about Huckleberry Finn onto paper. None of us had ever done anything like that. It was discarding the idea of memorization and sticking to a certain form for organic thinking.

I can't remember if I actually pulled my grade up to an A by the end. I think it was pretty close, but it didn't really matter. I learned so much more from her about writing and about putting thought to paper. Of course, none of this helped when I had to write mechanical reports on Chaucer in 12th grade 

I can't help sharing my worst SEMESTER grade.

I was always an A student. I didn't need to work particularly hard at anything. I just did the work, studied and pulled out an A. Of course, I stressed non-stop about my grades, because I didn't want an A- on any report card.

Anyway, when it came time to choose a science class for my junior year in high school, I naturally picked the most difficult class: AP Chemistry. Little did I know that my brain doesn't process chemistry...AT ALL!

We had the oldest man on the planet as our teacher, and he was diabetic no less. I can remember him droning on for what seemed like an eternity, only to see him suffer from an attack of hypoglycemia. Without a word, he would dash back into his office (behind the chalk board), grab a roll of Life Savers, shove several in his mouth, and continue lecturing...while trying to get those Life Savers down! It was the most awkward thing ever.

It wouldn't have mattered though if I'd had any other teacher. I couldn't wrap my head around chemistry.

This was the first class I ever attended that was graded on a curve. In fact, my much smarter boyfriend at the time had to explain to me how that even worked. Nobody was getting below a C from Mr. Dosse.

And thank heavens for that, because I would have failed the class otherwise.

Yep, he would post the grades on the window of his classroom, and who consistenly set the curve for everyone else? You guessed it.

The only solace I took from the whole thing was that it was an AP class, and so grade point wise, it counted as a B.

So, I didn't learn my lesson from AP Chemistry, and for my senior year, I chose to take AP Physics. I'm laughing right now, thinking of the hubris I exhibited...

Thankfully, I was smart enough to drop the class after the first semester--my grades were already in for college applications, and I didn't need the class, seeing as I was going into music. Too, I will never see the point in understanding the physics behind the spider who is hanging from my rear view mirror while I'm driving 40 mph. In all honestly, I would reach up, grab it and kill it. Obviously, that answer wouldn't fly on the exam.

I'm sure other students were sadly disappointed to know that I wouldn't be setting the curve for them again during the second semester.

See kids?  I'm not perfect.  I know you're disappointed, but it's true...