Eighth Grade -- Finishing Well

For the eighth grade, 1921-22, it was not a report card that my father, Lester Albertson, received, but a report book. It is rather small, but does have more than one page. It includes the song Oregon, written by Chas. B. Jones, copyright 1905. It also included a section with notes to the teacher and to the parents and another page with rules and regulations.

Of course, it was probably the middle section, Monthly Report of Grade Standings, which would have been most important to my father and also to his father. My grandfather, O. J. Albertson, signed this booklet seven times so it could be taken back to school, so his teacher, Lillian Clingman, knew that the booklet had been taken home. For this year the grades were recorded by letter grades and Lester received all As and Bs and even a couple of A+ grades for arithmetic. The teacher wrote in one subject, not on the printed form, Music. He also received all As for that. I do remember when I sang in the church choir along with my father. For his last year in grade school, Lester received all As for deportment. The teacher wrote that he had attended 252 days of school, but she made a mistake. If you add each month's days together it totals 152. Again it was 0 days absent and 0 days tardy.

Filed with the little book was a paper from the County School Superintendent which gave Lester's scores from the 8th grade examinations, and yes he did pass:

• Arithmetic 97
• Civil Gov. 94
• Geography 95
• Grammar 92
• History 90
• Physiology 90
• Reading 82
• Spelling 92
• Writing 85

I expect that both Lester and his parents were proud of receiving that "common school diploma" dated on 31 May 1922. Although the diploma entitled him to enter high school, he never had the opportunity. Looking at the rest of his life I would say his eight grades of school served him well.