In cleaning out drawers I found another paper I wrote for a class. This one was the results of a survey of junior high students on discipline and grades. In December 1974 I surveyed 60 students per grade level at the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. Summer 1975 I was taking a class at the Univ. of Wyoming and thought the results would make a good paper and nobody could question them.
To make a long survey short:
DISCIPLINE
1. boys preferred swats (these were unenlightened, dark ages of discipline) to sentences, detentions, automatic suspension after a certain number of transgressions and last by a mile notifying the parents.
2. girls preferred detentions at all three grade levels
3. sentences were the second choice of both genders because they could always get friends to help write sentences over the lunch hour (no, we weren't stupid).
4. The least favorite punishment (both genders) was to have parents informed. That's back when society wasn't blaming teachers and education in general for everything.
GRADING:
1. At all three grade levels student preferred an A,B,C,D,F grading system.
2. The least favorite was parent conference (guess which direction we went on that one, right-at lest three to five times a year). Remember these are students responding.
3. 7th graders compared to 9th graders by a slight margin (91% to 84%) replied that grades were important to them. Ironically 9th graders are working on high school credits and GPA's.
4. About half at all three grade level said grades were more important to parents than to the students themselves.
5. The big one: 7th graders (68%), 8th graders (65%), and 9th graders (81%) believe that too much emphasis is put on grades.
REMEMBER:
A. This survey was done over 35 years ago.
B. I did get an A on the paper. The UW instructor was in Casper and visited me to see if I wanted to do a follow-up (was this a hint of dissertation?), but I said no that I want to go on to other things.
C. The sample was pretty small and I did it just out of curiosity.
D. 55% of 7th graders compared to only 21% of 9th graders thought the counselor should administer discipline. I must have really fooled them in 7th grade.

Sent by a friend-senior bumper stickers:
"I'm so old I don't buy green bananas."
"And under no circumstance take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night."