<p>QuickLikeCat: I think that award should definitely be mentioned on the application, with a brief explanation of its meaning/significance (did you mean that it's the only award your school gives?) A book award is a book, usually donated by an alumni association from a college and is to be awarded to a student with particular characteristics --the school, I think decides who gets it.
Gonzo, that doesn't surprise me...it's likely due to an overcompensation for the fact that your son already received much recognition. Unfortunately, when that happens, the awards lose their meaning.</p>
<p>AMEN Gonzo! Our awards ceremony went on for four and a half hours! And, like yours, most of the awards went to those who were teachers' favorites or athletes or some other "in." Even at graduation, the principal's speech was about how much he liked the kids who spent the night at his house because they were friends with his kids! Amazing little backward town we live in! Can't wait for my son to get to life in the big city! So glad they see his value!</p>
<p>We had kind of strange occurance at our senior awards ceremony. Most of the introductions for the awards were fairly short - maybe 30 seconds or so. Then the head of the math department got up to give the award for the best math student and proceeded to go on and on and on and on. There were comments like, "For 18 years, he opened up his house to help fellow math students." What? The kid is only 18; was he helping "fellow math students" when he was in diapers? And on and on about how great this guy was. The audience wondered what the heck was going on and then she finally announced the recipient of the award: Her son.</p>
<p>My daughter has won her fair share of these academic awards, and I really loathe the practice. I would much prefer to do away with them altogether. She likes to learn and is motivated by that. She knows which teachers value her work, and she has affectionate relationships with them. I find the awards bureaucratic baloney. They make the other students who never receive anything feel lousy as they sit in their seats hearing the praises of the wonder children listed. I attend the darned ceremonies, but I always feel dirty when I leave them. I wish I had had the guts to homeschool, because I just don't like the whole carrot and stick system in the public schools.
Amen, on the perfect attendance. There is no child who can make it through a school year without being sick. We had a child in my D's class who went 12 years with perfect attendance. My daughter said he would drag himself in half dead so he wouldn't be marked absent. I just don't get it, and I don't appreciate the germ-spreading either.</p>
<p>ctymom. Here is another twist. My son was also one of the top collegiate recruits in the country in his sport. Because his sport was outside of the school though, the school did not even invite him to the sports awards dinner for any kind of special award. The whole thing has left my wife and I with such a bad taste. As I said, my son can laugh all the way up I-95 to New Haven. Revenge is sweet when it eating in front of arrogant, pandering school officials.</p>
<p>One of my favorite high school awards was given to an extremely bright girl who went to my D's school. The award?.....................The "I feel good about myself" award.</p>
<p>I am not kidding.</p>
<p>Donemom, there are four awards given out each year, one to a frosh, one to a soph, one to a junior, one to a senior. We don't have any Best in [Subject] awards, or anything like that. A majority of the awards go to athletes (no musicians or theater kids. I hear you all!) and then the school lists off who received National Merit PSAT awards, book awards, or scholarships (to the HS or to a college) sponsored by alumni.</p>
<p>"I Feel Good About Myself"?!?! That's a good one.</p>
<p>OK....I'm the OP here...and the Awards were given out on Thursday evening at DD's school. She said Friday was annoying...with the same four or five kids in her grade who get the "annual awards" bragging about how many and what they got. DD still wonders why she didn't get chosen for an award, but she says it really doesn't matter in the big scheme of things. Right now she is happy that she has a job for the summer (lifeguarding).</p>
<p>My funniest award's moment came when son moved up from 6th to 7th grade. They actually had a three hour ceremony on a very hot june morning. Now mind you, everyone had to takeoff from work. We were dying from all the insipid awards. At the end, the principal gives a long speech about a girl in which he referred to her as the "leader among leaders". We all looked at each other bewildered in sweat. One very feed up annoymous voice in the crowd said "but this is 6th grade, for Christ sake". Dead silence and then everyone laughed as the prinicpal realized the absurdity of his statement. These type of ceremonies should be done away with.</p>
<p>Awards matter...if ad coms didn't care about awards, there wouldn't be a large blank space on the application to list them. </p>
<p>The problem is, school administrators/teachers aren't always fair in distributing awards or recognizing those given outside of their walls.</p>
<p>SplashMom - just a comment..</p>
<p>I had perfect attendence from grades 6-12. i never got sick during school those years. i occasionally got a little cold in the summer, but I never got sick during the school year.. it just worked out that way. if i would of been sick, my parents would of had no problem with me staying home. i missed a few days in elementary school because of chicken pox and i got sick once in 5th grade. my sister has missed a day or two each year because of getting sick.. it just never happened to me. </p>
<p>Maybe other kids are going to school sick, but to do away with an award for someone who actually had perfect attendence doesn't seem fair.</p>
<p>This thread is making me chuckle. We live in a suburban community where there are the "been heres" and the "come heres". We are very much come heres, and it has been a struggle for all of us in many ways. One thing I thought no one could argue with was that my children had great brains, and I thought that was why every year they end up with multiple academic awards. Now I find out in reading this thread that it is perceived to be the "popular" kids that get these awards. I am sure my children will be thrilled to know they are popular and not brainy!!!</p>
<p>Nice for you, csshsm, if your kids went/go to a school where merit is recognized and rewarded. That just isn't true for everyone. If we weren't out of it now, I would find it offensively condescending of you to "chuckle" at those of us with the problem we're discussing.</p>
<p>No, no ctymom, I am really just laughing at my kids and thinking that it would probably make them much happier to think they were "popular" than anything else for which they could be rewarded. I am very sympathetic to all the concerns expressed in the thread, and actually I could write for pages on the subject.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My son was also one of the top collegiate recruits in the country in his sport. Because his sport was outside of the school though, the school did not even invite him to the sports awards dinner for any kind of special award. The whole thing has left my wife and I with such a bad taste. As I said, my son can laugh all the way up I-95 to New Haven. Revenge is sweet when it eating in front of arrogant, pandering school officials.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Gonzo, you deserve to be very proud of your son, but I wouldnt be bitter about a slight at the school sports awards dinner. Maybe they just decided it was outside the scope of the event, which I assume was for school teams. Since your son has high national ranking, then he has probably received much other well-deserved recognition, both local and otherwise. It would have been a nice gesture, but let the ones who play for their school have their day, I say! </p>
<p>That being said, I know what it's like to be disappointed by the awards process. My d, who has a reputation as a math whiz at her school (incl. math team state qualifier, perfect PSAT math score, and tutoring other kids every week after school) still couldn't even manage the minor honor of getting one of the six math awards given per grade - 2 years running now. But she does it because she loves math, not for awards (she doesn't even put in for comm service for the tutoring - too much paperwork, she says!).</p>
<p>csshsm,
congrats to your kids on their awards. The other positive note is that they are on their teachers radar screens - and when it comes time for letters of recommendation, the letters have a better chance of being personalized and passionate.</p>
<p>When choosing recommendors, if one can pick an academic teacher that is also a club advisor, the rec' can do double duty. My son's english teacher was also his drama coach. His CS teacher was also his robotics team coach. They gave my son (unsolicited) copies of the letters - one meaty paragraph on academics, another on the club, and a closing paragraph on the student's character.</p>
<p>Our office manager is a great believer in working no matter what. When she was pregnant with her last child, she did come into work 'to get a few things caught up' when she was in light labor. We still tease her about it when she actually is ill and should go home or to the doctor. Then she tells us, 'it was only *light * labor.'</p>
<p>Kudos to those with study constitutions with well-deserved perfect attendance records. </p>
<p>The rest of us mere mortals should stop with the germ-spreading!</p>