Also it's not unheard of for the correct answers in children's multiple choice tests to form some sort of shape. Patty, by sheer luck filled out the correct points of the outline of the face.
To elaborate, the movie makes no attempt to hide the fact that Peppermint Patty made her answer choices in order to make a smiley face while Chuck's were rushed answers to get his test in on time. The only difference is, Patty was lucky enough that her art project coincided with the actual test answers.
It's a huge spoof of the entire concept of the Standardized Test and how worthless it is. Linus gives a speech about it not five minutes before, with Schroeder providing musical accompaniment.
Charlie Brown pulled out The Little Red-Haired Girl's name from the fish bowl to pick as a partner for a book report assignment. Erm... shouldn't this mean he now knows what her real name is? Why does he keep calling her "The Little Red-Haired Girl" from there on out?
Chuck's self-esteem is so low he probably doesn't feel worthy even calling her by her name. From a storytelling perspective though... let's be honest. After all these years do we REALLY want to know her name? We'd still be calling her 'The Little Red-Haired Girl' no matter what.
The Little Red-Haired Girl's name was Heather in some of the old specials, and a Freeze-Frame Bonus of the test scores list shows that's her name in this movie too. note Specifically, it's Heather Wold – "Heather" being the name Bill Melendez gave her for It's Your First Kiss, and "Wold" in homage to Donna Wold, Charles Schulz's former girlfriend who turned down his marriage proposal and became the real-life inspiration for the Little Red-Haired Girl.
Why is Charlie Brown allowed to partner up with someone who's out of town the entire time the report is supposed to be worked on? Even assuming there wasn't any reason the book report was in pairs to begin with, that basically amounts to one student doing another's work, which is generally considered a bad thing. Did she just not let the teacher know how long she'd be gone despite letting the other kids know?
Maybe her departure was sudden and unexpected, since her family was tending to a sick relative. If that was the case, maybe she was gone longer than expected as well. Admittedly it doesn't make a lot of sense for the teacher to assign Charlie Brown all the work. Possibly the idea was for them to discuss the book over the phone, but Chuck was too shy to call her.
Even then, it still does seem weird that the redheaded girl wasn't excused from the assignment - or at least allowed to perform a make-up assignment.
Considering this school has a history (going back decades) of forcing elementary school students to read college-level literature and making them write reports far above their grade level, it's not a stretch to assume they give no leniency for any sort of emergency.
It's Charlie Brown. It would honestly be more surprising if the universe (Miss Othmar in this case) wasn't actively trying to screw him over.
Why does Charlie Brown run to the bus to ask the Little Red-Haired Girl a question when he could have more easily written it in a letter?
There are some things that a person needs to be told in person, when he or she can see the person being asked face to face and witness the sincerity in his or her voice and body language. Chuck most likely knew if he asked in a letter, he'd forever be wondering if she meant what she wrote, or was just saying it to spare his feelings.
That, and he was also planning to return her pencil. He just sort of panicked when this turned out to involve running to catch her before she got on the bus instead of just walking across the street like he expected.
How does getting a perfect score on a test suddenly make Charlie Brown a celebrity? Okay, being popular among his classmates is one thing, but the fact that an assembly is held, he gets a medal, and there's a brief mention that people will be calling this day "Charlie Brown day"? Kids can only do so much - some of that stuff had to be done by the adults.
Must've been one hell of a hard test to have to have gone to that extent. And considering the fact that Charlie Brown is never allowed to succeed at anything…
Marcie reads a letter from the principal, clearly indicating the school was at least involved in the assembly. And Charlie Brown didn't just get a perfect score; he's the first kid in history to get a perfect score. (May just be within the school, but still.)
In the era of No Child Left Behind, Charlie Brown's Peppermint Patty's perfect score on what is likely a very high-stakes test probably netted the school a windfall in federal money.
That was a scantron test and, thanks to No Child Left Behind, those can be some real Serious Business. Explanation for non-Americans No Child Left Behind – abbreviated NCLB, passed in 2002 under George W. Bush – was an attempt to improve American public schools up to the level of Europe's and East Asia's by creating national standards for basic academic subjects and requiring schools to report on how well students are learning. Unfortunately, the law was fundamentally flawed. For one, although central control of schools is standard in most of the world, it's a Berserk Button in the fiercely individualistic USA for a number of historic and cultural reasons; this meant the law continued to leave local school boards in charge but shifted accountability elsewhere. Second, its only way to measure "progress" was through standardized testing – again not an issue in Europe or Asia where such tests are routine and involve actual writing, especially to graduate and/or get into university… but American standardized tests are of the fill-in-the-bubble rote memorization variety seen in this movie, which don't actually prove you've learned anything. Third, despite NCLB's stated goal of improving racial disparities, the law punished underperforming schools (almost always poor and not-White) by cutting their funding and mandating state takeovers… which nearly always led to the racial achievement gap getting worse. Points two and three resulted in standardized tests becoming extremely important, even moreso once states began tying teachers' salaries to the test scores – meaning teachers in poor districts spent valuable class time showing kids how to take the tests rather than on useful subjects, to keep from getting fired. Fourth, and perhaps most crucially, little to no money was ever allocated to implement the law the way its creators envisioned – NCLB is where the term "unfunded mandate" comes from – meaning all schools got for incentive was sticks and no carrots, and constant standardized tests are the cheapest way to do that. The law was extraordinarily unpopular with pretty much everyone except politicians and teachers' unions (though the latter soon turned on it thanks to the pay issue), and after two years in a row where increasing numbers of kids walked out of standardized tests in protest (or parents opted them out), it was repealed in 2015.
In this troper's mind, everyone was just so amazed that Charlie Brown's first success happened to be something as impressive as getting a perfect test score.
If there is an assembly specifically held for Charlie Brown, why does he seat in the public, and gets called to go to the stage? Shouldn't he go to the stage directly?
Narratively, it's to emphasize how special and different he feels after getting the perfect score. In-universe, he may have been so happy that he forgot to talk to the people coordinating the assembly, who would have told him to go directly to the stage.
Another exam issue: how come Charlie Brown never faces punishment for mixing up his exam with Peppermint Patty? Granted, it was a mistake or a freak accident. Still though, even if there was no malice, Charlie Brown should have been yelled at by the principal and would have had to face his parents later on.
Why? It was an accident and the second Charlie Brown realized what had happened he told an entire assembly full of people there to celebrate him that actually they're wrong. It's obvious it wasn't done intentionally. So, what, yell at him (and Patty) for not being careful enough about writing their names? That's not really a yell-worthy offense.
