Tag Archives: dog

When Rory and I were walking home from Central Park this morning, we crossed paths with a women and her young son, who were presumably on their way to school.

She was explaining what each of the letter grades (A, B, C, D, F) in school meant, to which he replied:

“Why is there no E?”

Huh. Good question.

She said, “There simply isn’t one,” which I didn’t think was a very satisfactory reply.

But I didn’t know the answer either,  so I asked the Google machine.

Turns out until the middle of the 20th Century, most schools in the United States used the four letter grading system E, S, N, U — Excellent, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, and Unsatisfactory.
When they transitioned to the current system, they eliminated the E to avoid confusion.

So, ma’am, that’s what you should have told your little boy.

Gonna have to mark you down for a lack of research.