Last week Aidan had final exams. Aidan is in the first grade. I’m trying to think back to when I had my first final exams. High school maybe. Yea, high school. But they weren’t that formal and not all classes had them. In wasn’t until college that I really knew what final exams where really all about. And I certainly never got the grades Aidan got, but more on that later.

The exams were in the mornings of last week, Monday through Thursday, starting promptly at 8am and finishing around 11am. The exams are taken very seriously. If you were not there by 8am, tough luck you missed it. At 8am sharp, students are moved from their normal classroom and to another one to take the test. If you need to use the rest room or through a temper tantrum, well too bad. Wait. After Monday’s exam the teacher called Yang and said Aidan needs to get to school earlier, that he just made the 8am cutoff time. That the shuttle bus that picks him up at 6:45AM is not fast enough. So we drove him the rest of the week, being sure to get their by 7:30am each morning. After each day’s exams Aidan was happy – relived would be to adult a term – and when I asked how he did he said very well. When I asked what subject the test was in he had a hard time picking the right word. This worried me a bit since one of the tests was English.

Today Aidan went to the school for his test results. Which were pretty good. 97.5 for Chinese. 96 Math. 98 English. For the semester he got A’s across the board for subjects and attitude. I asked him if he sold his toys and paid the teacher off.  In some ways I would be happier if he did but apparently he did not cheat, steal, forge, or bribe his way to these grades. There will be more time for that as he gets older. No, he earned them with hard work and his mom’s brain. Sure is a good thing he looks like me at least.

In addition to the good grades Aidan was designated “best citizen” which I guess means he played nicely with the other kids.