<p>Great news about the history paper!</p>
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<p>That kind of goes into the category of messing up awards or names at the awards ceremony. The student puts four years of their life into something and the school shows them how much they careâŠnot very much at all. Disappointing, but you arenât alone.</p>
<p>Glad to hear about the paper, though.</p>
<h1>tm, probably a good thing under the circumstances. If it was worth it, you could go to the administration to get the boneheaded tennis coach reversed. He probably should be fired for that. But, in your sonâs case, less is a lot more.</h1>
<p>yeah for the paper I have had the feeling he will pull this off. no crystal ball, just a feeling. I have had/seen more baloney from coaches (and my husband was one although a good /fair one). I shake my head sometimes.
On the theme of unfair, Dâs friend who was class president for 2 years and awesome BTW.didnât get elected for senior year. she has done so much work and fundraising some kid who has done nothing but wants the resume gets elected they do elections on the 1-2-3-place type of system(canât recall waht that is called) and she got screwed. what are kids thinking?</p>
<h1>tm - GREAT news about Sâs progress!</h1>
<p>If you can muster the energy (not sure I could at this point) Iâd encourage you to report the tennis coachâs behavior to the principal, if only to prevent him from doing it to someone else. Maybe not now but after school is over. I think we collectively, as parents, are often so relieved to be done with a bad teacher or GC that we donât make reports that could help the students and parents who follow us. </p>
<p>There is a teacher at our HS who openly talks to the students about her bi-polar disorder and the status of her boy-friendâs divorce which affects her mood daily (and how she grades and which papers she loses). D2 is scheduled to have her next year. A group of current year parents are meeting with the principal as soon as the school year ends - I am hopeful that she will no longer be teaching come fall.</p>
<p>Laughed out loud about the student of the month thing - we donât have it, which I now assume all worked out for the best. Still Missypie, if they hand it out to a dog, I think you have a seriously valid complaint.</p>
<p>The tennis meeting infuriated me. Are they encouraging student athletes or making it a personality contest? I think you are right, however, about the bigger picture and goals here. Still⊠the coach sucks and I wouldnât let it go completely until youve had a say. While it might not be of benefit to YOUR kid, it may benefit mine. I would like to think there are more parents out there looking out for MORE kids than not. You know? But the truth is, itâs great about the progress on the work load. wonder how heâd feel if an entire group of strangers was rooting him on from the sidelines of a parent forum!!</p>
<p>I will agree with the brainiac thing to an extent⊠cause mostly a lot of these things are popularity and kiss up contests. My S â refuses to be a kiss up. Still, his teachers generally really like him and coaches only see that he plays everythng with his entire heart. If the coach tries to make him stand on his head, itâs not that he wouldnât; do it, but you bet heâs going to ask for a good reason why. If the coach can answer that with more than a âbecause I told you soâ heâll do it gladly otherwise, he might still do it, but youâd know he had lost respect for the process. So⊠as you can imagine, some love him some donât. And there is no way he has any kind of future in the military. :)</p>
<p>tmâoh so glad to hear your son is making headwayâŠhopefully it will encourage him to keep at it. remember the little red cabooseâŠâI think I can, I think I canâ</p>
<p>frustrating and unfair when kids miss out on something bc they are taking an AP exam or the like.high schools do give kids such mixed msgs, about athletics vs academics, etc. </p>
<p>missypie- I agree, the kids who put their all into an ec should be recognized for that, the academics are awarded in other areas⊠</p>
<p>at my dâs hs two kids recvd about 20 awards, while they were deserving, it would have made sense to me to spread it around a bit.<br>
I was very proud to hear that dâs hs improved their graduation rate from 67%â92% in last 3 yrs, while also increasing diversity at the school. all the kids were made to feel they were cared about and that they could succeed.</p>
<p>Regarding awards. I guess my kids were somewhat lucky, as they received many awards over the years for stuff like: student of the week, month, etc. They also received lots of âparticipationâ ribbons, etc. Honestly though, those types of awards were meaningless to them. I would get all excited for them and they would say stuff like, âitâs no big deal, they HAVE to pickeverybody in the class eventuallyâ. As far as the participation awards (athletics), maybe they were snotty about this, but , if they didnât earn a legitimate âplaceâ ribbon, it went straight into the garbage. They didnât feel special at all with a participation ribbon. </p>
<p>I always HATED the âeveryone is specialâ attitude (at least for the average kids). It totally dumbs down the system. I believe it takes away incentive to achieveâŠwhy bother trying to be first in class?.. why bother working for the top grades?.. everybody gets acknowledged so nobody gets their feelings hurt. Doesnât make sense to me. The top kid in class SHOULD be acknowledged. The 8th kid in classâŠwell?..maybe they are better at something else. Donât take away from the top kid and put them on par with the average.</p>
<p>Maybe this is why my kids donât keep âparticipationâ awards. Me and my big mouth 
On the other hand, they do work hard to achieve ârealâ accomplishments, and are proud when they do so.</p>
<p>Itâs the criteria for the awards. and what is valued. At my Dâs school they get academic, and yes only one can be #one my D has had to trade this off according to whoâs teacher 's turn it is. It doesnât seem to bother her. What I am most proud of is the awards she has won for citizenship and the quality of her character. this should be rewarded also.</p>
<p>My students loathed those student of the month awards too. What was striking in our high school was that while they did have academic awards - they only came with token gift at best (ie a book or a plaque) while the citizenship, athletic, business and even art awards all came with dollars, some with lots of dollars.</p>
<h1>theorymom, I would definitely report that coach - thatâs outrageous - but you may as well wait till the year is over.</h1>
<h1>TM, crapadoodle about the tennis thing. I HATE that kind of systemâbut Iâm happy for your silver lining, and wahoo to #TS for getting the paper in!!! Baby steps, but I have confidence in him!!! (because of youâŠ)</h1>
<p>Cheers to #TMâs boy for making progress! Itâs looking more and more like #TM will be celebrating with us.</p>
<p>I donât even know about any awards at Sâs school which either reflects on his lack of participation or the huge school system heâs in. I do remember the waiting in elementary school for his Student of the Month award.</p>
<p>At a young age, he realized how meaningless the âparticipationâ awards were. He must have been six years old in soccer and he got the âbest at staying in positionâ award. His comment? âThatâs dumb, it just means I didnât really do anything, why would they give me a prize for THAT?â</p>
<h1>TM, Good deal on the papers turned in. I know there is still a lot of work to go, but as SJTH says 'baby steps!".</h1>
<p>GO LAKERS!</p>
<p>(sorry, but Iâm relishing the diversion from HS/college/life)</p>
<p>so sad for the Celtics boo âŠ</p>
<p>and the Bruins⊠sox???</p>
<p>He got another paper in today. An easy one, a persuasive on âschools give too much homeworkâ.
I may have come up with a system that works for him. Because of his seeming inability to get it all âorganizedâ - unable even of being able to do an outline, I have been writing some rudimentary outlines. Since I have not done his reading nor know his opinion, I am not tempted to add much detail, but I ask question in the outline and that gives him a clear something to answer. It seems to be working OK so far, but a hell of a lot of work for me. Worth it just to get past this and to a place we can take stock of the situation and come up with a plan for him when he has the few courses he will have that require critical writing.
Thank goodness one of the big papers that is due is a senior-project research paper and yipee he already did it earlier this year - itâs required to graduate. He actually does a decent job on research and the subsequent writing (though it takes a while) but as I recall, I needed to help him organize that outline. I finally just remembered that and how much it helped him be able to put it all together.
One more paper to do tonight (or he canât go on the physics field trip tomorrow) This one is partially organized already so it may get done. Weâll see.</p>
<p>I do plan on contacting Mr Tennis Coach once we are safely on the road to dilpomaville or after we have reached it. I feel like I have enough battles to fight at this moment in time.</p>
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<p>Amen to that - youâre in the running for Mother of the Year award among seniors. He has momentum now, and hopefully that gives you the freedom to allow yourself a little hope. I wonder if the revelation that the outlines help might aid in the diagnosis of specifically what his wiring issues are.</p>
<p>Yay for #son! I feel like we need a bar graph or some kind of visual aid to monitor the progress. And what kind of a moron schedules a mandatory meeting during AP exams?</p>
<h1>theorymom â Kudos to you for your creative solutionâ</h1>