home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
TIME: Almanac 1990
/
1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
/
time
/
050189
/
05018900.065
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1990-09-17
|
4KB
|
63 lines
BEHAVIOR, Page 75Report Cards Can Hurt YouIn many homes, poor grades trigger a torrent of child abuse
In Atlanta a mother beats her three children -- ages twelve,
ten and eight -- with a rolling pin until they are black and blue.
In Richmond a man forces his nephew to stand at attention and
circles the boy while spitting on him. During a parent-teacher
conference in Detroit, a woman grabs her twelve-year-old son, hits
him in the face until he bleeds, then punches him in the ribs and
walks out of the room. What did these children do to earn such
treatment? They brought home report cards with poor grades.
In America's increasingly competitive society, the bad report
card -- once fodder for Norman Rockwell and Leave It to Beaver --
is no longer a laughing matter. More and more social workers,
educators and police are recognizing that report-card time can
trigger a torrent of emotional and physical child abuse. While no
national statistics are available, experts in communities
nationwide say there is a spurt in the number of children suffering
brutal beatings when report cards are sent home.
In Cobb County, Ga., police have reviewed accounts of child
abuse for a two-year period and found that reports as much as
double in the three days after school grades are issued. Many
experts find that the problem intensifies toward the end of the
academic year. Observes Rosalyn Oreskovich, area manager of
children's protective services in Seattle: "From March to the end
of June, our referral rate will rise dramatically. By spring, the
parents' frustration has really built up."
The harsh reaction to poor grades is a symptom of deeper
problems. "The cards may be an emotional lightning rod," explains
child psychologist David Elkind of Tufts University, who notes that
"grades are a concrete embodiment of many issues." For one thing,
bad grades can unleash parents' anxieties about their social status
and their children's prospects. To the poor, success in school
offers a way for children to escape impoverished lives.
Middle-class parents push their offspring to surpass their own
accomplishments. And wealthy, well-educated people routinely expect
stellar performances from youngsters.
In many families, good marks are equated with good parenting
skills. Says Anne Cohn, executive director of the Chicago-based
National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse: "Many parents
take bad grades as a personal affront." Sometimes abusive parents
are repeating the verbal assaults or whippings that they received
from their mothers and fathers.
Schools contribute to the problem. Often a disastrous report
card is the first signal parents have that Johnny or Mary has been
sailing too close to the academic shoals. Education specialists say
that parents should receive progress notes throughout the year, and
that report cards should praise a child's strengths and indicate
a plan for dealing with weaknesses.
Child-welfare groups and educators in several areas are
mounting public-education campaigns aimed at stopping the
"report-card reflex." The programs, modeled after one begun in
Houston by the Child Abuse Prevention Council, use newspaper ads,
TV and radio announcements, school flyers mailed to students' homes
and brochures inserted into report cards. All these materials
contain the same basic message for parents: raising voices or fists
is not the answer to raising grades.