Senior Awards Rants

Parents Forum
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<p>Every year in high schools across America there are travesties involving senior awards. Here's the place to share them.</p>

<p>Somehow, at D's high school, the valedictorian managed not to receive a single academic award other than the one for being valedictorian. Excuse me, but didn't he by definition have to have done better than everyone else in at least one class or subject?* If not, he wouldn't have the highest GPA! The only non-subject specific "academic" awards were given to the special education kids, though that they were classified kids wasn't clear to most people since it wasn't announced, of course. Not that there shouldn't be awards for them--there should. But calling them "academic awards" and thus honoring kids for taking one AP class was a little ridiculous in the context of the fact that the most academic kid there didn't get one.</p>

<p>Based on the above fact, and on the comments which accompanied the presentation of the honors, the awards seemed to have come down to the strongest student from among only those the teacher liked--not the strongest student period. It seems that ALL of our top students are honest and kind and very enthusiastic too! How would the teachers even know how honest all these kids are or are not?</p>

<p>The school insistst that all local but outside scholarships be administered through them, so they can make sure one student doesn't receive too many scholarships. Interesting that when other people are giving the money, they want to be socialist about it, yet when they give out their own awards to a class of over 700 people, they award one student 3 times as many honors as anyone else (and no one seemed to even know who the heck she was!!!)</p>

<p>Apparently, at our school being black is more important than being Hispanic, because the National Achievement scholars were recognized, but not the National Hispanic Scholars, despite the fact that both use the same measure--the PSAT score.</p>

<p>And lastly, the administrators really need to make sure they get these things right. You can't send an invitation to a kid's parents to attend a ceremony in which their child is going to be honored, and then forget to mention the student/his award. It happens every single year. And by the time this assembly is held, the graduation programs are already printed. Any mistakes made cannot get fixed in time for the big day.</p>

<p>Sigh.</p>

<p>*(He and the sal took all the same classes together, or else it could have been possible I suppose.)</p>

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<p>I find getting those kind of awards so publicly to be embarrassing. I skipped my high school awards program although I was to get an award. Both of my sons skipped theirs even though they would have gotten awards. In all of our situations, we had actually received the awards beforehand (such as National Achievement scholar related ones), so there didn’t seem to be any reason to go to the ceremony except to hear applause .</p>

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<p>Of course kids should be recognized. But sometimes it is not the student with the top grade in the course that a teacher chooses to designate as the top student. It isn’t just about the grades. Many val and sal designation are determined by gpa, but not the top student in a given discipline. Otherwise the val may end up winning all the awards, and the ceremony could be skipped and that fact reinforced when introducing the val.</p>

<p>I remember in high school, a quirky kid who beat me out for the chemistry award. And he deserved it over me. The teacher really liked me, may even have been tempted to give it to me; some hints were made. The kid was truly an unusual student with a passion for chemistry that went above and beyond the classroom. He had trouble with getting some assignments done and his labs were not always true to format, whereas I was diligent, but who was the best in that discipline? He definitel was.</p>

<p>I won the English award despite not being in AP English (dropped it at mid year because I couldn’t stand the teacher who also happened to be the dept chair) I was sure I would not get the award for that reason, but democracy won out and the department vote turned out to be for me. The old witch only had one vote despite being dept head. </p>

<p>Our valedictorian was not in college track courses,nor was our salutatorian. But they had the highest GPAs since the school does not weight. Neither does my son’s private school. So you don’t get that grade boost by taking the hardest courses. Your reward id learning the material at that level.</p>

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<p>Our school keeps it secret what award you are up for. There’s never more than a couple of absentees for hundreds of awards! One thing we noticed was there was lots of money for art, business, and citizenship awards, but not a penny for anything academic. My kids would have preferred a $20 check to a plaque or glass paperweight with their name on it.</p>

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<p>Now I know it’s almost June - time for the annual awards thread! :smiley: mathmom, our school does the same thing. It’s all cloaked in mystery so as not to be “anti-climactic,” as the principal says each year - mispronouncing it every time. My theory has always been that about 6 people would show up if the awards were announced in advance.</p>

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<p>Our HS doesn’t have a program where academic awards are given out by dept, per se. There is a unified sports program end of the year ceremony (that’s in addition to all the season ending banquets fro each sport.) We do have a community scholarship awards night.</p>

<p>I guess I’ve never heard too much rumbling about the program and the recipients, perhaps for the following reasons. One, it’s voluntary. Fill out the paperwork (one common application, yay!) if you want to compete, or not. Only one scholarship allowed per student. On a select morning in May in a large community meeting room, reps from each of the groups providing scholarships sit down and select, from the culled applications, who will get what scholarship. You aren’t allowed to sit and do this the year you have a student graduating (they made an exception for me, since the group I represented had selection criteria that did not match my S, so his application would not be making our pile.)</p>

<p>Our school also awards sal status to all seniors with 4.0 or higher GPAs, although I hear this may change next year. The val, of course, is numero uno. All the CSF qualifying graduates get to wear the gold stoles and tassles at graduation, so it’s less than subtle who the academic stars are … but so what? If you’re not going to acknowledge academic determination and prowess, if you will, at graduation (or some pre-award ceremony), then when?</p>

<p>I guess I’m in the group that feels society doesn’t do enough to encourage and celebrate the academic stars at the K-12 level, in lieu of excess applause for sports and artistic endeavors. I say, level the playing field and celebrate successes of all kinds. And yes, for special ed cases, they deserve a nod as well. Several, in fact, since they are against tremendous odds.</p>

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<p>Awards ceremonies always engender more bitterness than they are worth. High School is almost over. In four years this (hopefully) will seem petty. Leave it behind.</p>

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Is this a private school? I don’t think a public school should have the power to do that…</p>

<p>EDIT: I’m not a fan of those ceremonies. Their only purpose is letting parents brag. It’s awkward for the students who receive awards and hopelessly boring for those who don’t. The comparison to athletics is only relevant if we’re making it a competition, and that just adds an ugly flavor to the mix.</p>

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<p>I know I know!!! I’m sure I was ranting during last year’s thread! </p>

<p>Tomorrow is younger D’s 8th grade ceremony. She’s getting the award for CHOIR. No “pie” child has received an academic award…just several choir and last year track. LOL.</p>

<p>The HS ceremony is a joke. For years my kids got perfect attendance and refused to go because it was such an embarrassing award to receive. I mean, they are standing backstage talking about which award they are getting. “I’m getting AP Physics.” “I’m getting APUSH.” “I’m getting Perfect Attendance.”</p>

<p>Groups like Drill Team, Choir and Band give theirs at their banquets anyway.</p>

<p>Teachers are allowed to give multiple awards or no awards.</p>

<p>And my kids laugh at their fellow students who take a blow-off class and then get the award for that, so then everyone knows they took the blow-off class.</p>

<p>Okay, I’m done for now.</p>

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<p>No.</p>

<p>For example, in a school with letter grades and no pluses or minuses, a person who got a 94 in every subject could end up as valedictorian, even though there was at least one person in every class who got a 95 or better.</p>

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<p>Just a question here. Do your schools publish the of the award winners? My own HS announced the winners in the local newspaper and they were also in the school yearbook.</p>

<p>At the HS here, it seems to be a secret. I once asked the school administrators for a list of what awards were given and they refused. They have no such problem when it comes to sports awards, only academic.</p>

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<p>^^
That was exactly my point above. I think it’s ludicrous. People often forget that what they’re seeing with top academics is not just raw talent, but some talent, mixed with determination and drive. How is that any different than what makes a successful athlete, but we’re supposed to be all “hush-hush” about it when it comes to the smart kids?? Just where is our country going with that idea?</p>

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<p>I never see the point in going to events like these. If a person worked hard, they don’t need a cheap certificate/award and some strangers who don’t know how they got to that point clapping for them to feel proud of themselves.</p>

<p>If you really like the clapping, go ahead I guess. Take it all in. =)</p>

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<p>Our high school has a big Sr. Awards Night every year, and even though D1 graduated Sal and D2 graduated Val, each was barely mentioned at this show. But that was okay with me. They were both going off to great colleges, and that’s more what I was concerned about. </p>

<p>The thing that did annoy me about the awards show was that they conflated merit awards, athletic scholarships, and financial aid all together under the title of “scholarships.” So there were always kids getting huge applause and “Wow!!” comments for having gotten a big financial aid award. I’m happy for the kids, but this was need-based aid. Weren’t we in effect celebrating how low their parents’ income was?</p>

<p>My daughters did get regularly honored at the Student of the Year awards banquet, which is a different event. For that one the faculty of each academic department nominates 1 top kid each year (not necessarily a senior), and then from those a grand winner is chosen and announced at the show. It considers subjective factors as well as a big emphasis on grades. Both girls were nominated multiple times by various departments over their four years. But we knew going in that they had no real chance to win the big award, because that always goes to a “story kid.” And neither of my girls had a “story” like that.</p>

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<p>“The thing that did annoy me about the awards show was that they conflated merit awards, athletic scholarships, and financial aid all together under the title of “scholarships.” So there were always kids getting huge applause and “Wow!!” comments for having gotten a big financial aid award. I’m happy for the kids, but this was need-based aid. Weren’t we in effect celebrating how low their parents’ income was?”</p>

<p>Lol. I wonder if other people in the audience realized that…</p>

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<p>I thought only our district does that! Some of the kids even won the biggest international prizes for their age and they didn’t get it announced in the newsletter. We were up in the top 50, probably 25 HS of the USNWR ranking and that mortified the administrators. They threw all kinds of hurdle so kids wouldn’t take many APs. This town must have believed in some utopia!</p>

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<p>There are places where privacy laws prohibit the public release of any academic information about a student – good or bad. Some districts no longer publish their honor rolls for this reason.</p>

<p>The same restrictions may apply to academic awards.</p>

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<p>Many years back, my D was awarded the school’s “Most Improved Student.” She found it so embarassing to be declared that publicly at the Awards Ceremony that she declined to attend her h.s. graduation in order not to hear it twice. </p>

<p>It’s something to say in the privacy of one’s home, don’t you think? And it wasn’t even true, statistically. I don’t know what game they were playing with her head on that. </p>

<p>I think they meant, “Student we never appreciated or understood who got into a great college anyway.” </p>

<p>Just sometimes you have to say about a place, “Don’t Look Back” and this is one of those stories.</p>

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<p>After reading all this, I am very, very glad that my kids’ school gives away no “awards” at all! Especially not at graduation…whew.</p>

<p>And if they ask about scholarship money, I’m not telling.</p>

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<p>Lots of kids get awards they don’t want.</p>

<p>My daughter got a muscial award sponsored by the Marine Corps, which apparently wanted to encourage her to enlist and try out for the Marine Corps Band. Er, uh, no way.</p>

<p>And a generation earlier, I got one sponsored by the Society of Women Engineers, which apparently wanted me to study engineering in college. Also, no way.</p>