The Story of Uncle Dan's Report Card |
 In 2002, local parent educator and author, Barbara Unell, discovered a 1914 “Home and School Report Card,” from Lois Huggin’s 5th Grade class in John J. Ingall’s Elementary School in Kansas City, Kansas.
This Report Card belonged to her most adored uncle, Daniel L. Brenner. Nearly 90 years old, it was still on his desk when he passed away in 2002, at the age of 98.
Why was this Report Card so precious to “Uncle Dan”, as Barbara referred to him? Why did he keep it available to him all his life?
Barbara knew the answers to these questions. His Report Card of 1914 included learning readiness activities and habits of responsibility and respect. These were the very lessons Barbara had learned as a child, and her own children had learned when they were young, from the example and the encouragement of Uncle Dan on a daily basis.
Uncle Dan was a man of great integrity who devoted his life to issues of social justice, education, family, and service to community. A bachelor all his life, he passed those lessons on to his nieces and nephews, and great-nieces and nephews, by personally practicing the habits on his Report Card and
encouraging his family to do the same.
Could this Report Card serve as an inspiration and guide for children today to conduct themselves as responsible workers and respectful human beings, as it guided Uncle Dan’s life and those he taught? Barbara set about the task of finding out if others were as moved by the power of this simple idea as she was.
After consultation with educators, parents, children, state and national leaders, and experts in the field of school-parent involvement, Barbara, United States Congressman Dennis Moore, and the Governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius, joined with Barbara’s staff of The Brenner Family Education Center, to launch the project, Uncle Dan’s Report Card, in 2005.
This project is the new version of the simple, common sense approach to parent involvement and parent-teacher partnerships that characterized Uncle Dan’s Report Card in 1914. The principles and importance of this project 90 years ago are still relevant today.
Though some of the specific habits and the culture in which they are practiced have changed in 90 years, the need for human beings to learn how to work and play well with others and take responsibility for their actions will never go out of style, be a trend, or a fad. |
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Digital Evolution Group | © 2010 Brenner Family Education Center, LLC
