<p>Like I said, I’m happy for the kid. I’m happy that the kid did well enough to get admitted to the selective school; that’s a worthy achievement. But at our awards night you see one kid get a modest “scholarship” (which is really need-based aid) and people applaud. Very nice. But then a few minutes later, as the work their way up the “scholarship” hierarchy, they announce some other kid who gets a huge need-based package from the same school and the crowd goes nuts. Even after the applause dies down the crowd is buzzing. “Wow, they must really have wanted him to have offered him so much money. What an achievement!” </p>
<p>Not really. The achievement was getting admitted - a worthy achievement. But the award is so big because his family’s income is lower, not because he was such a better scholar than the other kids admitted to the same school. Most of the crowd is clueless about this, and the school does nothing to distinguish between need-based and merit aid. In fact, they do just the opposite. They want to crow about the size of the “scholarships” their graduates have been awarded.</p>
<p>I’m not a senior yet, but I remember during my brother’s senior awards night it was a couple school awards for each department and a ton of scholarships to local universities and awards for minorities going to community college. My school tries very hard not to look racist, so we give out a bunch of awards to students who are the top of their race- not the actual top students, who are mostly white and asian with the occasional black guy.</p>
<p>coreur–there is another thread on this topic. I think the concensus was that it’s annoying when people don’t/can’t distinguish between merit & finaid awards, but it’s not the end of the world or worth getting exercised about. But your example sets a new low in blatant misrepresentation!</p>
<p>wow, Im offended at how mean spirited this thread is. Why shouldnt a room full of students and parents clap for a kid who gets a big need based package? They got in, and now they get to go to a school that their parents may not be able to afford. Why wouldnt everyone be happy for them?</p>
<p>We went to senior night and had the great opportunity to clap for everyone who had happy events. It was the best night all year.</p>
<p>at our award ceremony kids were honored for most improved “overall”, and the teacher described the bad behavior that said honoree exhibited prior to “cleaning up their act”. I thought this was in poor taste, as it reminds the student publicly of the negativity rather than focusing on the present. kind of misses the point, doesn’t it. also, one teacher announced “don’t hold us accountable if we pronounce your name wrong as our school’s student body represents 60 countries”. huh? each teacher was announcing their top three kids that they’ve known all year, can’t they get those three known names right?</p>
<p>My older son didn’t get the award for best 8th grade math student because he wasn’t taking an 8th grade level course. He didn’t get it the year he WAS in eight grade math because that year he wasn’t an eighth grader though he was the best math student that year too. No big deal - he got plenty of math awards in high school, but it was pretty funny. :)</p>
<p>My real complaint is learn how to pronounce my kid’s name. The accent is on the FIRST syllable!</p>
<p>switters–I’m just surprised they announce the $$ amount of the college finaid scholarships. That’s not something I would want known, personally. Maybe it’s just me?</p>
<p>I think it should be phrased as “full tuition” or “the Trustee’s award” or the “Heritage” scholarship. If you are really nosy you can go to the college web site and look up what that means.</p>
<p>ok mommusic, i get that, at our school it was kind of listed that way, they certainly didnt discuss eveyones aid package, but more like so and so got a full tuition scholarship, and frankly there werent that many only one, to a lovely young man who is kind of an unsung hero amongst his peers.</p>
<p>I was just totally thrilled with our senior award evening. It was casual, and my favorite part was when the parade of kids marched across for the over 3.5 gpa award. It was unweighted, and my S goes to a rocky school with many underachievers. The energy in the room was so great, everyone clapped and cheered for everyones kids. There were separate awards for really high academics, like top 5% of the class, but by doing the 3.5 unweighted, everyone got to feel good for a minute.</p>
<p>Misrepresentation of what? There is nothing in my post that is untrue. I’ve seen this kind of thing happen at every senior awards night I have ever attended at our local high school.</p>
<p>If I were those parents I’d be embarrassed to have others cheering the size of my kids’ NEED-BASED aid. It would be a cheer unwittingly based on my (lack of) income.</p>
<p>“wow, Im offended at how mean spirited this thread is. Why shouldnt a room full of students and parents clap for a kid who gets a big need based package? They got in, and now they get to go to a school that their parents may not be able to afford. Why wouldnt everyone be happy for them?”</p>
<p>I haven’t seen one mean spirited post on this thread. On the contrary, it seems that we all agree that we applaud the genuine accomplishments that merit an award. I am more than happy to give credit where credit is due. That’s exactly why we take issue with the way that many of these events are handled! Many of the deserving kids are not being recognized for a variety of reasons that are sometimes, at the very least, thoughtless and at the very worst, unethical.</p>
<p>I have found that the quiet kids who just go to class, learn the material, get the grades, but aren’t real vocal tend to get overlooked. This is my son. He helps out his classmates all the time, but he tends to not draw much attention to himself. It’s okay though. He got the one designation he wanted, Scholar of Scholars, and he’s going to a great university. It’s not that important in the grand scheme of things.</p>
<p>“I was just totally thrilled with our senior award evening. It was casual, and my favorite part was when the parade of kids marched across for the over 3.5 gpa award. It was unweighted, and my S goes to a rocky school with many underachievers. The energy in the room was so great, everyone clapped and cheered for everyones kids. There were separate awards for really high academics, like top 5% of the class, but by doing the 3.5 unweighted, everyone got to feel good for a minute.”</p>
<p>Yes! Exactly! You are fortunate to have an event that seems to be handled well and gives cudos to the accomplishment of many while acknowledging the exceptional talent of some. I wish some other high schools could take a lesson from that.</p>
<p>In my school, one kid got almost ALL the awards. And when another kid won an award for a different subject, the teacher announcing it was like “This award goes to student Y because he is hard working, motivated and kind and also because student X does not take this subject.” I am not even kidding.</p>
<p>Lololu’s story about the boy who helped the student in a wheelchair throughout high school brought tears to my eyes. It is a good thing I wasn’t there, or I’d have black mascara rivulets running down my face.</p>
<p>Fortunately, everyone old enough to be in high school can see the value of the boy’s volunteer work, with or without a silver cord–and at least the school let the mom of the student in the wheelchair speak at the ceremony!</p>
<p>You know, I get where you’re going with this, but it kind of bugs me all the same. I have a fairly severe physical disability, and while my friends perhaps haven’t helped me to extent the student in this story did, they have helped me with various things a million times over (helping me up the stairs into my story, bringing me things because I can’t carry them, giving me read when I can’t walk places, etc), and I sincerely hope that none of them saw it as community service. I sincerely hope none of friends have ever considered hanging out, participating an activity, or just chilling with me as commmunity service. I hope–and do think–they have always seen it as being, well, my FRIENDS.
Why is everyone so quick to deny that the child in a wheelchair could have legtimtely been a good–and equal–friend to the boy who wasn’t in a wheelchair? Or that the kid in wheelchair could only go “partying” after prom if “partying” was in quotation marks? And I suppose it’s out of question that the child in the wheelchair could have done community service himself, right?</p>
<p>I’m glad the two boys became friends, but really, the story just smacks of one stereotype after another, not to mention the dehumanization of the kid in the wheelchair. Really?</p>
<p>I have total respect for the award when the teacher briefly describes how the student has met certain criteria. I don’t even mind if the criteria is subjective so long as it is related to the stated title of the award. For example, “This student achieved the highest GPA in AP Chemistry, participated in the Chemistry Olympics for the last threee year and most recently won X outside chemistry prize, etc.” I also don’t mind “In my opinion, this student has assembled the most creative art portfolio…” But it’s really disturbing when the presenter says things like “This student is one of the most pleasant young ladies I have ever had the pleasure to teach. She is always cheerful and helpful and represents all the qualities we want to see in our students. And the English award goes to Suzy Saccharin!” </p>
<p>Here’s a real example from this year: “After we’d decided on all the departmental awards, I felt that I really wanted to give Johnny an award, and the other teachers agreed with me, so Johnny–here it is.” So what’s the award? The we-really-like-you-but-you-weren’t-the-best-student-in-anything-so-we-made-up-an-award-just-for-you? Might have been OK if they had actually said WHY they all wanted to give him an award, such as he was always so hardworking or whatever.</p>
<p>I do understand how it’s possible that no teacher selects the Val as the top student in any subject. But how can you give academic awards to the top special education students who are taking classes like “Elements of Algebra,” but not to the kid who finished high school math by freshman year? And if you can invent an award for Johnny in culinary arts, why can’t you also come up with a few more awards for the tippy-top students like the Val who got nothing? There were a million awards within the art, music, business, and technology departments, but only ONE math award and ONE social studies award. They could have given a separate one for history and social studies, for example, or maybe a separate one for Calculus and Statistics, etc. I mean come on, they even gave awards to the best students in the alternative education program which you get placed in for having too many disciplinary problems, (which some kid dubbed “the derelict awards”.)</p>
<p>And the girl that got an embarrassing number of awards–well one of them was the physical education award. Since every single able-bodied senior has taken gym all 4 years, there is just no way the teachers couldn’t have found another equally unathletic nice kid to give that award to! (Because the phys. ed. award doesn’t actually go to an athletic person. I guess they figure the truly athletic kids get sports awards at another time.) If the awards are based on objective criteria, well then you have to give them to the person who best meets the criteria. But since they usually aren’t objective, why not spread the wealth?</p>
<p>In our school, the underclassmen don’t get awards for every subject. In fact, sophomores are only recognized for math and foreign language. We have know idea why science, English and history are left out of the mix. We also only have 3 boys with GPA at 3.8 or higher so my S and his two best friends win everything related to Outstanding Boy. I can’t help but feel sorry for the girls in the class that are empty handed with 4.0s</p>