And to be clear, the academic awards ceremony from the OP was donuts with the principal, right? Parents weren’t there, were they? Or the larger student body in some type of school gathering? Guess it would have been better for the school to do nothing in terms of acknowledgment?
No.
The proper thing for the principal to do was to focus his comments solely on the awardee’s academic achievements rather than making comments stating a separate achievement irrelevant to the ceremony’s focus is “really amazing”.
Why can’t academic achievers have a proud moment focused on their achievements without having their parade rained upon by being effectively told their achievement is less important than athletic achievements? That’s effectively what the principal communicated when he said athletic achievements were “real;ly amazing”. Not the appropriate time or the place to make such comments. And the choice of words clearly shows how misplaced his priorities were in that time and place.
What the OP’s issue is getting at and the larger issue many US K-12 schools have is their leaders…including admins like this principal overemphasize athletics and attention to athletic achievement at the expense of academic achievements.
Uh, no…it doesn’t. It’s a plus, but it isn’t required and hasn’t been for a generation.
So, why is it okay to praise the kid who won an athletic sports championship–say state wrestling champion or track and field–more than the kid who worked every bit as hard and didn’t make the play offs?
My kids would have enjoyed the donuts and gone back to class (or come home if the “academic awards ceremony” was at the end of the school day). There wouldn’t have been a thought of a rained upon parade.
And I don’t agree that the principal necessarily overemphasizes athletics at the expense of academic achievements. The kids who got all As but weren’t on sports teams will now be less interested in doing well in school? Seems unlikely. How about the fact that presumably some of those straight A kids worked their butts off and others did very little studying at all? Are the achievements of the kids who didn’t work very hard somehow lessened by the kids who did?
Seems to me this is an example of the over-dramatization that is all to common today.
At the girls’ middle school they had an awards night that basically amounted to Teacher’s Pet night. Each teacher got to pick their favorite student, call them up to the front, and give them a medal. Just because they liked them. That was the only criteria.
I was boggled by it-I kept wondering why the girls were never invited to Awards Night (because they were good at collecting academic certificates but never an invite), and one year when the younger one’s robotics team went to a national championship and won a trophy, I about sat on the principal’s head and said "if that shiny trophy in your display case that we brought back (I was the coach) doesn’t qualify for recognition in Awards Night, what does?!?
She grudgingly agreed, then “forgot” to add the team to the Awards Night booklet.
Once we were at Awards Night, I was like, oh my. It was all Teacher’s Pet, and then, hastily tacked on at the end, the girls were called up for “robotics”. Psshhh.
It’s given them a lasting disdain for awards and ceremonies. If I’d known what the awards ceremony really was, I wouldn’t have pushed for them to be in it.
I felt so bad that I had insisted-next time the Club tries to keep me out of their fun, I’ll listen ):/.
@cobrat I completely agree that academics should be recognized, but the OP seems to think that individual academic achievements should be recognized as often and with as much enthusiasm as team or school wide activities.
To add to @MotherOfDragons comment: at my kid’s schools (especially middle school), most school or teacher academic awards were so subjective that the awards were pretty meaningless. I only pay attention to state and national awards.
For those that asked if I am offended…uh no. And for clarification…my kiddos didn’t come home all sad faced…they rather sad if was just humorous and offensive to even have it if it was going to be another rah rah for athletes to takeover. I don’t see this enthusiasm for theatre or orchestra kids who make all As. People almost go…of course…how hard is it when your talent is music or art???
I don’t get my validation from people loving my kids grades or achievements. But, I do think if some of you guys don’t think that the academics shouldn’t be pushed as much…why are you on CC? We are all overachievers who want to do well and be acknowledged for it via scholarships, awards, ECs, EA, etc. Why are we even on here…but to either find out for ourselves or our kids how to do school well.
It’s not a jock vs academic thing. There are some smart athletes…and some academics who choose not to do a sport. It’s a mental hang up that I cannot say I am pleased socially with my kids grades or awards. Why would that offend someone or think I am bragging? Well, I guess I am trying to make up for the fact that soft spoken academics who seek no limelight might just need a little recognition for the sake of it. Share the wealth of high school and college level acknowledgement…
I think academics are absolutely more important than athletics and I too dislike the lionizations of athletes. But I deal wit th that by not participating in it and staying deliberately oblivious to it. I’m a real believer in letting things you don’t like be like the proverbial tree in the forest that falls without a sound. Let people have their bread and circuses and celebrate the football team’s win or whatever. If I’m confident that my focus on academics is the right one (which I am), that carries me through.
You do seem to want / need recognition though - otherwise it wouldn’t bug you not to get it. And I’m asking you to think about your internal compass as your source of recognition. That’s not to say that it’s not nice to be recognized. But if these are people who value stupid things, then why is recognition from them important?
@Gourmetmom My kids’ school has what they call a “state send off” for any team, group or individual who has advanced to any type of state level competition. Marching band and school mascot lead the team, group or individual in a parade around the halls of the school with kids coming out of classrooms to cheer them on. Team, group or individual is then taken by bus or van down to the state competition. Clearly that is geared towards sports teams. And I am sure the wrestling and gymnastics teams get more cheering than do the science Olympiad or debate teams. Team, group or individual gets to determine if they want one. Often the academic group/teams pass on the send off. But your statement about recognizing academic achievements being recognized as often and with as much enthusiasm made me think of that.
My middle child was his HS class valedictorian. While I was very proud when he gave his speech, the number of awards he received at honors night was cringeworthy and pointless. Most of his academic achievements were personal goals, and the school had relatively little to do with it, mostly ignored him for the four years, then made a big too do at the end when he got into Harvard. If I could have, I would have told the other parents, “Don’t look at me – I hate this too!” I always wondered if other parents whose children receive awards feel the same way I do, but clearly not! There are a few gloaters out there, I guess.
I was the kid who got all the (academic) awards at the senior banquet. It didn’t really mean all that much to me because I was so internally driven / focused. I knew I was going to a really great college and that was all that mattered to me. Applause from the C students heading off to our undistinguished state flagship to room with one another to enjoy parties and oh, maybe now and then go to a class, was just not anything I cared about.
"In the sports awards ceremonies I’ve attended in many areas of the US…especially school districts where the prevailing attitude was athletics uber alles, academic achievement/awards weren’t highlighted.
They were kept separate and some sports-parents in those areas tended to take great umbrage at any proposed ideas to do so as they felt it would steal some of the spotlight off of the athletic achievement/achievers."
Can you clarify on what types of occasions you attended high school sports awards ceremonies not at your own high school? Is that a common thing, to travel across the country attending high school sports awards ceremonies?
And since these other high schools were “foreign” to you, how would you have been privy to any discussions as to whether those high schools should combine or keep separate their awards ceremonies? How would you have known who the sports-parents were who objected? Did you sit in on PTA or similar meetings as well to observe? Thanks.
Not my family. I didn’t bring up my kids to “want” public acknowledgement; it’s the intrinsic motivation factors that matter. When kid 1 was asked by the Principal to submit a draft for the HS Val grad speech, he turned down the opportunity, and I couldn’t have been more proud.
HS was just one part of early life, and a steppingstone to something better.
That’s exactly it. HS is just the bridge you have to cross.
These kids are not “important” to your kids’ lives unless they are close friends; the only thing they all have in common is that they have parents who chose to live in the same geographic area, that’s all. They can think what they want. They can think that being the quarterback is far more important than being a straight A student. They can think that Mediocre State is the bestest school in the land and those fancy elite schools are for nerdy losers. Let 'em. You know what they say about people who peak in high school.
It’s too bad the article was just used for many people to air their resentments and insecurities. Even though the title is click-bait it does hit on a phenomenon that is very prevalent in our public education system and really does warrant addressing in the public forum.
@Pizzagirl A lot of arrogance there. Reality is people make different decisions. Doesn’t mean one is right and the other is wrong. Ideally, you want the decisions you make (for you and for your kids) to be right for you/them. But it doesn’t mean the same decisions are right for everyone.
There are a lot of kids who play sports in high school and who don’t get straight As who go on to do well in college and in life. And the ones I know don’t think Mediocre State is the best school in the land or that fancy elite schools are for nerdy losers. And there are a lot of kids who do very well in school and don’t play sports who don’t go to fancy elite schools who are very successful and happy. And kids who go to fancy elite schools who do not succeed.
I agree with your statement (supported by others here) that the reaction to the OP donut “academic awards ceremony” is overblown. People should just let it go. But I find your arrogance here as misplaced as @cobrat claim that the principal would have been fired and blackballed in other countries. People make different decisions. Doesn’t necessarily make anyone right or wrong in terms of life choices.
You say this like it’s a bad thing.
I’ve mentioned it before, but my older two are in a small, somewhat experimental public K–12 school with a rather small high school component. (My oldest is one of 29 juniors; most of the high schools in the district have graduating classes in the low-four-digit range.) I’ve described it at times as the district’s hippie-granola school, 40 or 50 years too late. They don’t have sports teams, but several of their students participate on the more normal high schools’ teams. Everybody knows who the kids in sports are, though, and congratulates them if they did well at something. Similarly, everyone knows who the kids who are academic stars are, and they congratulate them on their accomplishments. But either way, there aren’t any huge school assemblies where anyone is recognized for anything aside, maybe, from the quarterly in-school band/orchestra concerts and the twice-yearly in-school performances by the drama students.*
Even at graduation, there are no recognitions of valedictorian or salutatorian or anything like that (aside from a district-mandated moment saying that everyone graduating with a 3.5+ is wearing honor cords), nor is there any recognition of anything athletic (or anything fine arts, for that matter). Anybody in the graduating class who wants to speak has up to five minutes to speak, then they get their diplomas, and then it’s done.
This is, perhaps, one extreme (and an extreme that I quite like, myself). The other extreme would be assemblies and awards for everything. Between those, though, there’s a lot of middle ground, of all sorts of levels of equity or lack thereof. So, a suggestion: In amongst all the kvetching, it’d be best, I think, if those who are unhappy with the situation at their kids’ schools to suggest, in positive terms, what they’d like to see done, so we don’t just get a “Here’s what happened and that’s horrible!”, but something more along the lines of “Here’s what happened and that’s horrible—and here’s what I’d tweak to fix it.”
- By the way, anybody else here noticed that this thread has become a Jocks-Versus-Geeks™ thread, and fine arts haven't gotten but barely a mention? Intriguing, really.
In many mainstream US high schools from my own experience in public middle school, students who excelled/are passionate about fine arts are overwhelmingly lumped in by the K-12 school bullies, sports-obsessed admins/parents, and many local areas with the academic nerds in ways similar to how students passionate about English literature or classics would be.
I’ve lost count of how many college classmates…including many fine arts/conservatory majors recounted being viciously bullied and regularly targeted for dismissive comments about their fields in manners which were practically identical to how academic high-achievers tend to be treated in many mainstream US K-12 schools. Especially those which have sports-obsessed admins/teachers, parents, and larger local community.
Some undergrad classmates/alums of my LAC have mused as to whether this is one major factor in why a critical mass of our classmates have such a strong disinterest in school team athletics and athletes to the point many student athlete classmates have complained with some justification that sports/athletics are given short shrift by most classmates when we attended in the late '90s and earlier.
Academic high achievers and/or those with a strong passionate interest in intellectual pursuits…including musical performance and fine arts were labeled “Nerds”, not geeks.
IME, the term nerds tend to connotate high academic achievement/intellectualism.
Not so much with “geek”.
A reason why classmates who were high academic achievers…especially at my public magnet proudly aspired to be labeled “nerds”…but not geeks.
Whoa, we are on the same page. I have never said that kids who go to Mediocre State are all losers. Of course not. Plenty of people don’t go to fancy colleges and do plenty well in life. No argument.
And my point is, no we are not on the same page.