The expectations for “deportment” were explicit throughout my school years. Children were to be quiet, respectful, attentive, and facing forward. Unless your pencil broke during an exercise, there should have been no need to sharpen it during class. You should have thought of that before class. You should time your bathroom needs to correspond to the recess times. Teachers had absolute authority, and there was no chance that your parent would come into school and take your side in any disagreement with the teacher.
Combined, these attributes were a challenge for all children. For me, the biggest hardship was being quiet. There was a subcategory of deportment called “avoids unnecessary talking.” A check mark meant improvement was needed. I got a check mark throughout my school years. Clearly teachers and I disagreed on what talking was “unnecessary.” We never discussed this, of course. I would always intend to correct this character failing, even though I really had no idea what it meant. I always thought that what I had to say was necessary. Why else would I be talking?
Saved By Words 
On our report cards in elementary school there was this one: ‘Refrains from disturbing others’. I don’t remember exactly how I rated but I’m thinking I probably needed some help in this area too. 🙂
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They probably had no idea of how often we did refrain.
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This made me smile. I always got “needs improvement” in unnecessary talking.
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Good. You knew your talking was necessary too.
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😎😎
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My Geordie feels the same way about his barking. We have had many check marks over the years…
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LOL!
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This sounds a lot more strict than on my school days. Good behaviour was expected but not assessed as explicitly.
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They were pretty clear and graded accordingly.
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This did make me smile, Elizabeth. I recall a comment on one of my reports “generally speaking, Robbie is generally speaking.” Of course, a teacher would never make a comment like that nowadays.
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Perfect comment!
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No wonder the kids are confused. First the teachers encourage them to speak, as soon as they learn to talk, they ask them to be quiet.
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Exactly right.
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