School Report - could do better?

How do they know?

My school report

My reports said, as did many others, ‘could do better’. And they said that, although I was generally adequate, I was wasting my potential and that I should try harder to maximise this. My argument, right from when I too young for it to be appropriate to argue, was ‘how do they know?’. Maybe I should be generally inadequate and it is only by trying so hard that I manage to over achieve and become adequate. The following, from my journal, may suggest otherwise - maybe I didn’t try so hard at things I didn’t really like doing.

Did it really matter?

But this also made me think ‘does it really matter?’ Isn’t it Ok be be adequate at things I don’t really like doing? In some ways being adequate at things I didn’t really like doing seemed like quite an achievement. And later on at school the only things I wanted to be good at were football and art. I tried really hard at football but I was still little more than adequate - so there was clearly a lot of wasted effort here. And I tried hard at art but was told I was less than adequate at it - this effort really backfired! I was told to think about doing graphic design. I didn’t have to think about it for a long as I didn’t know what it was and no one told me (it was quite a while ago).

And for whose benefit would all this trying harder be for?

I came to realise pretty quickly that all of the trying harder and exam results were more for the benefit of the teachers rather than me - so they they could earn points based on my achievements. I even failed one of my exams intentionally so that the teacher couldn’t take any credit for any achievement of mine. It would have been unfair based on their teaching methods, which consisted of telling us to read a book while we listen to some music. We bought in our albums (on vinyl then of course) and listened to a different one each lesson. And while I would credit this teacher for being a contributory factor in my passion for music, rewarding his teaching method seemed clearly inappropriate.

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Extract from my latest journal:

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What’s coming?

This Substack is intended to expand upon the concepts of the pen and ink sketch journal, to provide examples, inspiration and ‘how to’ guides. From the simplicity of QUAD (quick and dirty) sketching to getting your thoughts and feelings out onto paper. In the next issue I will also be looking at my Worldbuilding Journal - a way to understand, rationalise and bring order to your thoughts.

Thanks for reading this and coming on the journey with me. Enjoy the journey and the destination can just look after itself.
All the best,
Peter