(Courtesy of Adam Berry of the St. Petersburg Times)
PLANT CITY — Dazmond Patterson’s report cards were never good enough for his mother.
Dazmond was never a bad student — he didn’t get his first C until fifth grade — but he always had to live up to the high expectations of Kenyatta Shaw.
As if the pressure to be perfect wasn’t enough, Dazmond compared himself to his mother side by side, grade by grade. Shaw earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Florida A&M University’s satellite campus in Lakeland while working as a Hillsborough County school bus driver.“We kind of challenged each other about who could do the best,” said Shaw, 36, of her son. “I always showed him, ‘Look. I’m mom. I cook. I do this. I do that. And I still get the grades.’ I graduated cum laude. …”