Photos by Glen n Triest

test again. Students meet
with teachers during lunch
for Study Club.
"OBE is the vehicle
through which we ac-
complish this," Miss Blau
said. "No one is allowed to
fail."
Still, report card day is
nerve-wracking. Some
grades can have less than
desirable effects.
Marlon once got a C in
science and his mother said
if he didn't do better he
couldn't go to baseball.
"That was bad, because if I
didn't go to baseball, how
would I ever become a pro-
fessional baseball player?"
he asked matter-of-factly.
Thank goodness for
citizenship: One is excellent,.
2 is is good, 3 is satisfactory,
4 is unsatisfactory, 5 is
unacceptable.
Any student receiving at
least four l's gets on Honor
Roll. Those who qualify get
to eat their lunch in the
classroom instead of with
the lunchroom hordes or go
on special field trips.
"We only give honor roll
for citizenship since any stu-
dent can be a a good citizen,"
Miss Blau said.

"Grades don't give
students or parents the com-
plete amount of informa-
tion," Miss Blau said. "You
work really hard 10 weeks —
some of those are good and
some are bad. Then it all
gets averaged in together.
"I always tried hard in
school, always followed the
rules, so I did well," she said.
"But when I went to U-M, I

Any student
receiving at least
four l's gets on
Honor Roll. Those
who qualify get to
eat their lunch in
the classroom.

got a C in a physiology class.
I was devastated. I used
every study trick in the
book. So I understand how it
feels to try your best and not
make the grade."
Today, Miss Blau spends
weeks grading report cards.
The night before they were

handed out, she went to
sleep at midnight and got up
again at 4 a.m.
"There are 52 markings to
every report card," she said.
"I have to defend each and
every one I make."
Miss Blau's students
receive individualized corn-
puter printouts filled with
comments. She spends hours
preparing them. Miss Blau
also writes letters to parents
telling them everything she
and their children have
learned and accomplished
together. "There's not
enough room on the report
card for everything I want to
tell them," she said. "I begin
and end each one on a
positive note."
Her effort pays. "They're
like horses at the gate the
day of report cards," laughed
Miss Blau. "All day long,
they want to know when
they are getting their report
cards. There's a lot of ner-
vous energy, but not fear."
"I improved this time,"
said Danny Weiss proudly.
So did many, many others.
"My goal is to help the
children feel confident about
themselves, not fear them-
selves," Miss Blau said.

❑

At top:
Miss Blau reads her letter for parents that
accompanies the report cards.

Bottom:
Larry Stokes takes a serious look at his grades.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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