Grading President Trump’s report card

I spent my career as a high school teacher and supervisor. It was a long and happy time for me, one in which I saw many high performing teachers do their thing. Be certain I know a good teacher when I see one.

I saw a really good one, the Bush family, at President George H.W. Bush’s recent funeral service held in Washington, D.C. Of course, the Bush family and friends did not frame the service as a reference to President Trump, yet it is easy enough to interpret it as an attendant comment on him.

So, I decided to fill out my own report card on Trump. It consists of a mark for temperament as well as one for effort. The standard for these two aspects of his presidency is the collective evidence of the bar that H.W. set, as presented in the supportive evidence spoken in the various speeches about him during the ceremony.

Keep in mind that the report card is not about policies but is limited to the presidential qualities of leadership, inspiration, positivity, the ability to accept and unite the membership of the melting pot that is America, as well as his efforts to do these things.

The range for behavior or temperament is the standard A, B, C, D, F. For effort it is E for excellent, G for good, S for satisfactory, F for fair, and P for poor.

Here is my report card:

“President Trump looked bewildered during the ceremony, long though it was. Perhaps it was the first time at a public function that he was not the main attraction. Too, the things said about H.W.’s dignified ways of handling the office might have seemed new to him.

“Donald has a way of setting a dynamic of discontent in his persona and in his way of articulating his thoughts. Bush’s policies did not always embrace all, yet he never spoke ill of anyone.

“The Republican Party that Donald heads is the same one that Bush led in a way that was respectful. When he was forced by budgetary considerations, for example, to betray his famous comment “Read my lips” about no new taxes on his watch, he acknowledged it without blaming others, something that Donald has trouble resisting.

“Donald does not come to work each day with a dedication to the tasks that must be done. Nor does he do the requisite reading to be prepared for the day’s work. We are sad to say, too, that he does not work well with others. He tends to denigrate those who do not agree with him.

“Though Donald does try to interact with others, he does not seem to know how to do that constructively. Rather, he plays with other’s fears in a most primitive way, as in ‘I’m watching you,’ or by making fun of others. We expect more, yet he constantly lowers the bar of civility. As president, H.W., with all his faults, always kept that bar high.

“We were impressed when Donald told us that he would ‘drain the swamp’ in Washington, D.C. I’m afraid, though, that he has made little effort to do this. In fact, the swamp seems to be more of a quagmire than ever. His insistence that ‘only I can fix it’ has made the problem more murky than ever. In too many cases, he has given positions to those who he thinks can forward his, and not the people’s, agendas.

“Donald is not a team player, and often seems to be without the capacity to understand the dignity that his position requires, though lately he seems to be more understanding of the requirement. He has gone to visit the aftermath of the California fires, as well as to the flooded area in the Carolinas, and a few more natural disasters. At least he is not throwing paper towels to the crowds any more, though he still forgets to express sympathy to the victims of these disasters.

“The more we see and hear President Trump, the more we see a man loyal only to his own inflated ego. Some sophisticated professionals have identified him as a malignant narcissist.

“In contemplating Donald’s future, we see a man incapable of substantive change. He continues to be self-centered, edgy, offensive, whimsical and pugnacious. It is with sadness that we give him an F in temperament, and a P for effort.

“Though reluctant, we are thinking about expelling him.”

Gerard Brooker is a retired teacher who taught in Westport and lives in Bethel. He was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 1998.