Adventure Boy has always had a problem with Math.  Math has always been difficult, painful, frustrating and elusive for him.

Last year, the C- he eventually scored in Math was kind of a triumph.  The first time he had gotten better than a D in math.

This year, he got an A in Algebra for the first quarter.  Indeed, his lowest grade is a B-.  He has two "A's" (Algebra and Art) and the rest are B's and B+'s.

Yesterday he shuffled up to me with a hang-dog sort of expression and  presented me with a certificate informing me that he has earned an "honor point" in his Algebra class.

"What's this?"  I asked.

"I don't know, some stupid thing, I thought you might want to see it."  He answered.

On the certificate there is a list of attributes that go into earning an honor point.  Several of them were circled, indicating that those are the traits that earned him the Honor Point:

Consistent Effort, Initiative, Helpfulness, Positive Attitude, Participation.

If you get enough honor points, you become a "Student of the Month", and your parents can get one of those smug little bumper stickers to put on their car and brag to total strangers stuck in rush-hour gridlock.

Apparently, Adventure Boy told Rocky "That's the worst thing that can possibly happen to you."

So I guess if he WERE to earn enough honor points, and became a student of the month, I would probably not say anything to anyone about it.  But you know, I think Adventure Boy was still proud of himself, and secretly proud to get the honor point certificate.