Prompt from Mrs Pencil: Holmes's School Report Aged 10

SHERLOCK HOLMES: SCHOOL REPORT 1864

General Notes

Sherlock is a fascinating child to teach. He is certainly one of the brightest children to have ever come through our doors, but also one of the most reticent. I worry about his home life, as he rarely interacts with other children. As you already know his obsessiveness has led to mixed academic results, as well as problems with misbehaviour towards the other children during some lessons, particularly science. I feel that if Sherlock were given a concrete direction to follow, such as a family trade, his behaviour and concentration would improve, as he would know how to direct his talents. He would also be more able to find children who have common interests to him.

Mathematics

In this subject, Sherlock excels. He would benefit from private tutoring, as I believe he has a career in this area, should he want it. He has a good head for figures, particularly in trigonometry. His estimation skills are second to none. In fact, he has good judgement of proportions in general, and has told me it is as if there is a wall of colours in his head, with the colours being numbers, and different spectrums of colours representing interrelated patterns of numbers. I have only heard of this phenomenon until now, and it is rarely seen in children. It is widely recognised as a sign of mathematical genius. However, this also works against him in algebra, as mixing numbers and letters seems to confuse him – he would prefer to work solely with numbers when it comes to mathematics. I also wish he would volunteer his answers and questions more, as they are always thoughtful and often instructive.

English Literature

Sherlock is certainly one of the most eloquent pupils that I have ever had the pleasure of teaching. He has a lovely, soft, engaging speaking voice, which does him very well when required to present material to his classmates. However, it also means he is easily drowned out in discussions, and he needs to work on being more assertive. His comprehension skills are sound, particularly his ability to find the meaning in a technique or detail, but he lacks creativity; his writing style is bland and he misses many opportunities for description and elaboration. His poetry is slightly better, presumably because of his ability to focus on details. He may not have a career as a writer, but I am sure his speaking skills will come in useful somewhere in life.

Art

Sherlock's progress in art has been limited. I have tried to impress upon him the importance of seeing the whole of a picture in the mind's eye as one creates. However, he has irreversibly, I fear, fallen into the habit of starting his picture in the top corner and working down. He does have a very good eye for colour and proportion and captures detail and likeness extremely well, particularly when using paints and drawing pencils, but he is inflexible in style, preferring to produce photographic work rather than experiment with impressionism and style. I will say though, that his work is attractive. Perhaps the experimentation will come in time, but who knows?

Music

Sherlock has, rather surprisingly, excelled in this subject. He has a particular talent for absorbing and connecting information, making his commentary on compositions and renditions extremely informative. His violin sound and technique have improved dramatically with the proper tuition. It is important that this talent is cultivated and encouraged outside of the school area. I would encourage you, his parents, to enter him into a youth orchestra, where he can grow with peers of his own ability. Sherlock's group-work also needs improving, and I feel that being in an orchestra with people of equal ability will address this issue too. His compositions are dreamy and often have a hypnotic quality to them, although he needs to work at transitions between moods: One should not switch suddenly from lulling to lively, as it spoils the effect of both. All in all, Sherlock shows remarkable promise as a musician and composer. He seems to use it as a stress-reliever, and he derives a great deal of pleasure from it too.

French

Sherlock's French skills have grown quickly since he has begun this lesson, although he does not show equal commitment across all areas of the subject. For example, his listening and reading skills are excellent, whereas his writing and speaking skills are patchy. His French spelling is questionable, and it may be worth considering extra tuition in order to help these rules sink in. I feel that once he understands the structure of the spelling system, he will have no further trouble. With regards to speaking, he will carry on the most involved conversation with his teacher, and yet seems to be unable to consistently do simple things such as conjugate the verb 'avoir'. His vocabulary is extremely extensive in certain areas, such as physical descriptions and giving directions, but when it comes to home, family and school vocabulary, he has picked next to nothing. Again, private tuition may well iron out these discrepancies. Overall he has been an intriguing, if at times infuriating, child to teach this year.

Games

I am afraid that I do not feel Sherlock has made much progress in this subject. His team skills are extremely poor, unless he is the designated team leader. He can also be extremely clumsy, and although his game plans often appear logical, he is highly inflexible when it comes to putting them into practice, or reverting to a different plan as games play out. His anatomical knowledge is inconsistent. He has no motivation or interest in solitary sports whatsoever, with the exception of boxing and other combat sports, in which he excels and which, unfortunately, are not taught officially in this school.

History

Sherlock's motivation in this subject seems to depend wholly upon what he considers useful to him. As such he knows a very great deal about certain aspects of history, such as European politics, but very little about domestic history of the common people. His essay-writing skills are generally good, with strategic laying out of evidence and presentation of his argument, however this too is proportional to the interest he has in the questions set. He never misbehaves in class, but he does tend to be easily distracted, and to need jarring back to the real world. If he applies himself I am sure we will make something of him yet.

Science

Any fool can tell from observing Sherlock that science is his favourite subject. Given the chance he would spend all day in the laboratory, and he has often remained in class with me asking questions long after the lesson, and indeed the school day, have finished. His questions can be a little disturbing, as he has a slight preoccupation with death and the process of decay, as well as the chemical methods of manipulating this. Often I have been forced to research the answers to his questions myself, or to verify the truth of his statements. I feel confident that these are merely the workings of an eager mind, and I foresee a bright future for him in the sciences.

Technology

Sherlock's efforts at technology have been admirable, if at times dangerous and unorthodox. His techniques are unique, to say the least, and he seems to have little regard for his own safety. He enters into everything he does with a mood of experiment, which can be both a blessing and a curse in such a subject. He has on occasion injured his classmates though not, I am sure, intentionally. He prefers mechanical construction and design to woodwork, and has recently been going through a fascination with clockwork. He has little patience with forward planning and design, although I think this is because he enters into all his projects with a clear, fully formed idea in his mind. If he were to become a carpenter or mechanic I would trust him with his work, but I would stay well clear of his workshop when he was working.

After School Activities

Sherlock is without a doubt the school's, and indeed the district's, best chess player. This leads us into a moral dilemma of how to give the other children he plays against a chance of winning. This is something we have not yet resolved, as it does not seem fair to tie his hands, so to speak. He would benefit from attending boxing lessons or a martial arts class. Apart from anything else this would make him less of a danger to his classmates.