Free The Report Card by Andrew Clements Page B

really worried about you, and allthe time you were just goofing around!”
    â€œNo!” I said. “That’s the thing, Stephen—I wasn’t goofing around. I got those Ds on purpose. Because I got mad about the way everyone makes such a big deal about grades. And test scores, too. I had a plan. And now it’s completely ruined and I’m in all kinds of trouble. So how much of a genius could I really be?”
    Stephen said, “You had a plan? What kind of a plan?”
    â€œIt’s all messed up now,” I said. “But . . . I just wanted to show everybody that bad grades don’t mean a kid isn’t smart, and that good grades don’t always mean a kid is so smart either. And I thought the teachers liked giving all the tests and grades and everything. But Mrs. Byrne told me that that’s not really true. A lot of the teachers don’t like all the competition and the testing, especially the Mastery Tests. Like I said, my plan was lousy from the start.”
    Again the only sound was the hiss of the telephone. Then Stephen began talking—slowly at first and then faster. He said, “Everybody’sgoing to find out now, right? They’re going to know that you’re really smart, aren’t they?”
    â€œYeah,” I said, “I guess so.”
    â€œLike all our teachers will know, and Mrs. Hackney? And the kids, too— everybody, right?”
    I said, “Yeah. Everybody.”
    â€œListen! Everybody’s going to know you’re this genius now, so everyone thinks you’re going to be that way—supersmart, right? And they’re all gonna think that now you’ll get great grades and do the gifted program and stuff, right?”
    â€œYeah,” I said. “Probably. Especially my parents.”
    Stephen could barely get the words out, he was talking so fast. He said, “So that’s what everybody’s gonna expect now, right? This super-supersmart kid. But what if you don’t do that? What if you don’t do what everybody expects—like . . . like you break the regular rules about being smart? And you start playing by different rules— your rules!” He paused, waiting for my reaction. But he couldn’t wait. “See what I mean?” he asked. “Do you get it?”
    Stephen’s idea wasn’t like a lightbulb turning on—it was like a blast from a laser cannon. I almost shouted, “Stephen! That’s a fan tastic idea! You’re . . . you’re a genius !”
    Stephen and I kept talking, and in just ten minutes a new plan was born. A better plan. An amazing plan.
    Something else happened as we talked, something that made those ten minutes the best ten minutes of my life. Because during those ten minutes our friendship changed. Completely. Our friendship became a partnership—an equal partnership.
    The new plan involved some risks—for me, and for Stephen, too. But I didn’t care about the risks. And neither did Stephen.
    We were in it together.

sixteen
PHASE ONE
    I read on the Internet about this famous experiment that two guys did way back in 1964. They gave a test to some kids at a place called the Oak Elementary School. After the test they said the results showed that a portion of the kids were going to make fantastic progress during the school year. They called those special kids the “bloomers.”
    Then they gave the teachers lists of all the bloomers so that the teachers could watch those certain kids change during the year. And the kids did. The kids on the bloomer lists all made amazing progress— real progress.
    And here’s the best part: The information was fake! The names of the special kids, the bloomers? Those names were picked out of a hat! The only thing that wasn’t fake was the expectation of the teachers. The teachers actually expected certain kids to make progress, and that expectation was real, and