Uncle Dan's Report Card
"I believe that today, more than ever, Uncle Dan's Report Card can help our busy parents teach the basic fundamental behaviors their children need to be successful in school and in life."
Kathleen Sebelius
Governor of Kansas
May, 2004
A unique approach to teaching children timeless values, inspired by the discovery of a 1914 report card.
When parent educator and author Barbara Unell discovered her Uncle Dan's fifth grade report card from 1914, she found an amazing 2-sided treasure. Yes, this was not your ordinary school report card. The left side listed the subjects taught at school...reading, writing, arithmetic, and the like.
But... the right side...ah yes! The "right side" was of equal importance!! It was the home report of the subjects that were expected to be taught at home-truthfulness and honesty, morning chores, evening chores, care of clothing, care of teeth, evenings at home, sleeping with the windows open, and a dozen more! Her grandparents noted the progress of her uncle in learning these right-side habits, just as the teacher marked the left side.
About the Book
In this groundbreaking book, Barbara and Bob Unell share the miracle of how Barbara found the treasure of her uncle's report card, and describe the motivation of the parents and teachers in 1914 to raise children by its values and healthy habits. Then they give those of us charged with loving and raising the next generation from toddlers to teens practical, easy to use, proven tips to practice and reinforce this Report Card checklist, proven to be the habits of a lifetime.
These values and behaviors were those taught to what Tom Brokaw called, The Greatest Generation, the grandparents and great-grandparents of today's children.
How "great" children were raised in 1914, reminds us of how great children are raised today.
Uncle Dan's Report Card is the new parenting book that reveals, through a hidden family heirloom, how children were raised in early 20th Century America, the children who grew up to become what Tom Brokaw called "The Greatest Generation". And how children can be raised that way again.
The Prologue of the book is a memoir of the discovery of Daniel "Uncle Dan" Brenner's 1914 Kansas City, Kansas Public School Report Card. Featuring a unique "Home Report", alongside a traditional "School Report", it belonged to author Barbara Unell's beloved Uncle Dan, who kept this timeless code of conduct close at hand for nearly ninety years.
The book's first and second sections take readers back to the time when Dan was a boy in 1914 America, a time when everyone worked together with a common purpose: to raise a great generation of hard-working young people who respected their elders, behaved responsibly, and believed in a better future for themselves, their community, and their country. And the authors contrast that time in our history with a clarion call that illuminates the urgency for our parents and other caregivers to get "back to basics" today, an urgency that we cannot afford to ignore any longer.
In Uncle Dan's report card's day, everyone knew that "the home" was expected to focus on Books Read, Helping Mother, Helping Father, Care of Teeth, Things Made, Money Earned, Truthfulness and Honesty, Habits of Kindness, Promptness, and the other half-dozen basic, healthy habits and virtues found on the Home Report. It's what everyone did, without question, the most basic tenets of family life.
For those of us who believe in raising "great" children according to these habits and virtues on Uncle Dan's Report Card, the third section of the book gives the easy directions, step by step. This isn't just a fantasy about the past; it's the practical means to the goals we all have today: to raise the next great generation.
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