16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, March 19, 1912: We got our report cards to day. It
seems to me he marks rather hard in some things. I got my marks
raised by two points in deportment, but I don’t see as I’ve
improved any in that direction since last month. He was up to
visit our school today. Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments
100 years later: I’m surprised that high school students
received grades in “deportment” a hundred years ago. According
to The Free Dictionary, deportment means “the manner in which a
person behaves.” At least the teacher apparently was pleased
with Grandma’s behavior. A few days before Grandma received her
February report card she’d gotten a new teacher. The old one had
quit mid-year. He caught her cheating shortly before he quit. I
wonder if her February deportment grade had been affected by
that incident—and if her grade had gone up in March because
there were no more cheating incidents.