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The View From The Layby
Over the past weeks, I’ve had the great privilege of reading the report cards of all of our students. It would be a stretch to say that I read every word with great attention, but I do read them all. It’s an opportunity to spend a few minutes with each student, which I love to do, and I feel it’s important I read anything that has my name on the bottom of it.
Writing reports is a big task for a teacher. Twice a year, weekends and late nights are committed to the task of writing report card comments. Our teachers work hard on reports. Their comments about our students’ development – intellectually, socially, emotionally, artistically, athletically and as Georgians – are significant, informed and articulate. I am so grateful for the work.
The reports are a captured moment-in-time of each of our students. They are a state-of-the-student view at this time of year, thinking back to the journey of growth from September. They also provide a prescription on how each student may grow and develop in pursuit of his best self over the remainder of the year.
Education is a big field and a long game. As I read the report cards of each student, at this moment in time, I am conscious of the change in each of them over the years that I’ve had the privilege of walking alongside them. Like all human growth, theirs is so often almost imperceptible in the day-to-day, but unmissable in the year-over-year.
In my reading of each boys’ report, I can recognize their growth and development and the way they respond to successes and, especially, to challenges over many years.
- The reports that most affirm our Mission emerge in a few recognizable patterns:
The boys who made iffy decisions in middle and early high school, from which they recovered, learned, took the second (or third) chance they were offered, and have become really good Georgians. - The kids who arrived so nervous at New Georgians’ Day for Grade 3 or 4, or struggled at Grade 7 or Grade 9 camp with such anxiety and, often tears, who have become so confident and assured in their final years of high school (many of whom, I see, are now outdoor ed leaders).
- The kids who benefitted from being matched up with an older Georgian when they were young and are now set up as the mentor to a younger student.
- The ones who dealt with some crisis during their time with us; a family situation; a loss of some sort, and were held together by caring adults, and have healed and now thrive.
- The ones who went dark during the pandemic and who we wondered if they’d simply missed too much to come back from. And here they are, hitting all the academic and social markers successfully.
Even as it recedes, the pandemic is never far behind us and I think it’s disingenuous to think that we’re not still operating in the significant wake it’s churned up. However, as indicated by their reports, our students are, generally, whole and intact; beautifully resilient. They are hitting the educational milestones that might have seemed in peril.
On the long road of their education, our students are so fortunate to have caring, professional, eager adults to walk alongside them. My colleagues’ words on students’ reports are a testament to this. I am grateful for their work, but far more grateful for their love and care of our Georgians.
About
Royal St. George's College is an independent school for boys located in The Annex neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Our mission is to challenge and inspire each of our students to become the best version of himself.
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