Academic Performance

Recently in looking through some relics from my past, I ran into my report cards, which are complete for the first 12 years of my schooling. I noted that my record was no better than average in many respects, though I seem to have done well in spelling and arithmetic. Generally the poorest record was in the first grade and there was a gradual improvement through junior high and the first year of high school.


First grade report card

At that point I seem to have entered a new phase in which I usually had “A” grades. This continued through junior college but when I went to the university there was a dip in my performance during my first year there. But of my last three terms at Iowa (my senior year and the following summer to complete the requirements for graduation) I had all “A’s” for two of them and the third was marred only by a “B” in organic chemistry.

All my life seems to have been rather a similar pattern — of meeting a new situation of phase in my life and performing only moderately well at first with a gradual improvement to a good, but not exceptional level thereafter.

I should mention I think that during my first seven grades in Gowrie the superintendent was one P. A. Leistra, who was a stickler for academic performance and achievement. So the standard by which the students were measured were more exacting than in the small neighboring communities. Indeed I think this may have been one of the reasons why in the end public sentiment sort of turned against him and resulted in the end of his tenure in Gowrie. Certain people in the community became dissatisfied with the emphasis on academic achievement and he finally got tired I think of keeping up the battle.

He was a life-long bachelor. When he left Gowrie I think he had some position in either state education or in some private institution related to education.


Death notice for P. A. Leistra, Sioux City County, October 8, 1953

The reading instruction in Miss Rice’s class was divided as to learning ability and performance and though my performance left something to be desired I think I was in the group of better students. The two groups were labeled bluebirds and redbirds — at this time I’m not sure which was which.

I’m not sure whether if I encountered Miss Rice now (as she was then) that I would recognize her. Physically she resembled my aunt Ruth a little, moderately tall and willowy; and I think she wore her hair in a similar style.