GRADES OR KNOWLEDGE -- YOUR CALL

WISDOM

Those of you who know me can see this one coming.  It happened in first grade.  After getting through the "baby grade", I moved on to the first grade.  I was good with languages, French and English; I couldn't be beaten in Religion; my cursive (yup! less than 7 years old and I could write cursive, just like everyone else) was coming along and believe it or not, I enjoyed music.  Now that is a mystery to me because I can't carry a tune in a bucket.  It didn't matter much at that age, I guess.  Besides I got the hang of the staff, clef, sharp and flat quite quickly, so I thought that stuff was cool.  I still do, but that's the limit of my knowledge of music.  I was never a prodigy, but I guess you could say that I got by fairly well in school from an early age.  That never really changed during my entire life.  You might say that I am blessed.  I even learn stuff out of school.  Go figure.
Like I said, "It happened in first grade."  I got my first report card sometime in late October or early November.  That's when I got my first real lesson about parental expectations.  I got a bunch of grief for not having a string of straight 100's.  It started out with "Your father never got anything less than 100."  Followed by, "I know that you can do better than this."  My father, EFR Dion of deeply respected memory, came home, poured himself the habitual two fingers of brandy, sat down to the tune of, "Paul got his first report card.  He can do better."  So naturally I got the follow-up, "You can do better, but you're going to have to work harder."  Now hear this, Y'all, 65+ years ago we did not have such a thing as an A+, and yes we did have F, and it got given if you earned it.
The next morning after EFR Dion had signed the card, he sent me on my way with a blessing.  "You have 100 in religion and in conduct.  You better not ever come home with less than that in either one of those."  Period, end of story.
Hearing that made me very happy.  It meant that the decision that I had made on my pillow over night was the right one.  I will go to school to learn, not to please anyone, not even myself with grades.  Yes, that's what I did, and am still doing to this very day.  I never crammed a single minute in my life.  I never told my parents or anyone else.  I flat out didn't care what they thought about my grades.  Oh, it was fun coming home every single month with a report card that would start the wringing of hands and the wagging of fingers and the threats of dire things that would happen if I didn't work harder to get the grades that they knew I should be getting.  The chorus waned a little bit somewhere during the sixth grade when EFR Dion decided that he would half-heartedly support his spouse but he essentially gave up on trying to get me to strive for grade excellence.  One thing that taught him to come down from his high horse was that I never did come home with less than 100 in religion and conduct.
But wait, it's not over.  I am still in hot water.  Not that I really care, but the Voice from the Kitchen has been on my tail for a little over 25 years now for telling my children, "Knowing is more important than grades.  Just be sure that you learn all you can.  Grades are not that important."  Now the other half of this marriage will explode when she reads this.  Know why?  She'll remember that it has been at least a week since the last time she laid into me about that.  She is convinced that I ruined the lives of our two boys with my lackadaisical attitude about grades.  Actually, I guess I shouldn't complain.  There was a period there of about 35 or so years that I didn't have to listen to that.  
One final story before I go.  I had been teaching Theology for the Diocese of San Diego for some 14 years when, for the first time, I got called on the carpet by the brass.  So I went to the "meeting" to see what they had to say.  Turns out that a student to whom I had given an A- complained because I had broken her string of straight A+'s.  Prudence urges me to spare you the gory details of what followed.


So now you know why I chose the thematic picture at the head of this piece.  Wisdom first.  Wisdom infused by Divine Grace above all.  Grades are crass human metrics.  Those who would subordinate the acquisition of wisdom to the dominance of the metrics should aspire to politics more than to honest human and spiritual pursuits.  Period.