Breaking it gently

When I was in grade school, there was a fairly predictable pattern. My parents would go to parent-teacher interviews, and come home ecstatic about all the positive reviews I'd gotten. Then a couple of months later, my report card would arrive and they'd be baffled as to how I'd taken a sudden plunge into mediocrity.

The real reason, of course, was that teachers absolutely hate telling parents bad news - or even middling news - about their kids in person. Like everyone else, though, they're emboldened when they can hide behind their pens or keyboards. Which is just about the best reason I can think of to put the kibosh on their request to scale back the number of report cards; if that happens, it'll take even longer for parents to realize need a little more help before becoming the academic superstars they've been led to believe they are.