Graduation! It’s that bittersweet time when our children transition closer to adulthood. As students walk across the stage at the end of high school, college, and middle school it’s time to sum up awards. Who won them? Who didn’t?
Awards talk has been running rampant on social media this year. Since school reformers have pushed obsession with college-career-ready hype, winning awards is serious business. And all is not right in the world of medals and trophies.
Awards are really in a student’s head. It’s those voices that tell them that they’re worthy, good people and valued. Everyone is unique. Schools should be about relaying that message to all children.
An Award for Not Paying Attention
There’s the Georgia middle school eighth grader with attention difficulties who received an award stating she was the “Most Likely to NOT Pay Attention.” Perhaps there was nothing interesting for her to pay attention to!
But think of the humiliation. Eighth grade is no picnic to begin with. Most students this age are already anxious about high school. One can only hope this young woman will be able to put this aside and find pride in her abilities. These teachers made a costly mistake and they paid with the loss of their jobs.
A Great Award from a Great Teacher for a Great Student!
On the other side of the humanity coin, also in Georgia, Kimberly Wimbish is a teacher we can hold up as a model. She wouldn’t give up on Jamias Howard, 19, a student at Griffin High School. With only a few credits left, Jamias had to quit school, but Kimberly met him after school to help him finish his work. Here she is presenting him with his cap and gown for graduation. Get out the tissues. This is teaching and learning at its finest.
No Awards
A number of parents have been lamenting that their children received no award during the end of the year honors gatherings. Feeling invisible is a certain kind of hell for children—especially children with disabilities. All children deserve recognition for their strengths.
Teachers should be able to identify accomplishments for each child and especial our most vulnerable students. Schools should not be so overcrowded and impersonal that children are unknown.
Some people complain that too many awards are given to children. I think the key is to find what a child does well and then they will know they deserve the award.
You’re Valedictorian or Salutatorian—But You Still Aren’t Good Enough Award!
For the record, I don’t care for high school rankings, and if valedictorian and salutatorian were eliminated tomorrow I would say good riddance. You obviously need no such award to contribute to the world and be a worthwhile citizen in society.
But the fact is these students work hard and do well in high school. If school reformers have pushed students into AP and to follow rules that doesn’t mean these students turn out to be lackluster.
The recent valedictorian and salutatorian bashing is unfair drivel at best. Karen Arnold, a Boston College did research where she followed 81 of these high school achievers. Most of them went on to work in conventional careers such as accounting, medicine, law, engineering, and education.
So what’s her point? What parent wouldn’t be happy with a child who ended up in one of those careers? But Arnold asks who of these individuals go on to change the world, run the world, or impress the world? The answer seems to be clear: zero.
The obvious flaw in this reasoning is the assumption that, to be somebody in the world, you have to discover the cure for cancer or win the Nobel Prize. Every person who works hard in any job they pursue should impress us all.
Getting On in Life When it Comes to Awards
We live in a world obsessed with awards. There is a country music award show every week!
If a student wins an award they should know to be grateful but not haughty. Haughtiness will not gain them friends, which are more important than any award.
And students should know that if they don’t win an award, that while awards are nice, they don’t define who they are.
Getting a diploma, or passing to the next grade is a great award.
I’d love to hear some award stories here.
Congratulations to all the 2017 graduates!
Nancy–Thought you might enjoy this article on a similar topic.
http://www.learninginmind.com/honors-night.php
I thought this article on awards was very good: http://www.chicagonow.com/mba-mom/2017/05/my-child-is-gifted-but-i-dont-love-the-end-of-year-awards-ceremony/
I’m not a big fan of awards ceremonies either. It’s like honoring people for reaching something on the upper shelf. Almost all the tall people get the award, but also the boy who tried every day to jump higher and the girl who built a stool. The latter were deserving. The former got an award for a genetic characteristic. Now if they measured each person’s height and set the shelf two feet above their reach, then awarded those who retrieved the item, that is far better. Unfortunately few schools do that.
But that is also how schools are measured, so we shouldn’t be surprised that they measure their students that way. The schools that win awards and high rankings are usually the ones in high income areas whose students already test proficient. We need to measure growth instead.
I am a fan of the valedictorian / salutatorian and not just because my wife is one. It provides competition for the kids at the top and that is something they need. If we get rid of those awards, let’s please also tear down the athletic shrines, with state championship trophies and walls of fame in the corridors near the gym. It has always perplexed me why we inspire students to do their best in athletics through massive awards, public recognition, news articles, and stadia more akin to churches worshiping athletes, yet call a one hour honors night with cookies and milk sufficient to honor academics, the reason for schools. We don’t give our valedictorians a giant ring or patch for a varsity jacket, so can we at least leave them with the title?
Excellent points, Joshua! And late congratulations to your wife! I have mixed feelings about awards, but they’re here to stay, As always I appreciate your comment.
Love when every child is rewarded for something.
Thank you for this Nancy – we really should de=emphasize them altogether.
Thanks, Joan! I think the secret is finding every child’s strengths and differences. Thanks for commenting.
I have a good friend who,started the world society of worm biologists. He got his Ph.D. From Kings in London around 1948. He told me he received an award when he was about 12 for something scientific. it was a book about pond life. His teacher saw him out and about later and asked him what he had done about it. The implication was that the award came with responsibility. Prodded by this question, he went to a pond to see what was there. Decades later, this guy has been all over the world, scooping up water and being curious.
Perhaps we should reward status with responsibility.
What a lovely story, Roy. Thanks for sharing.