<p>“… if the criteria are totally objective, like calculating the highest GPA…”</p>
<p>It’s not totally objective in our town! My daughter missed out on being in the Top Five (a huge deal in our town, in a graduating class of 400 - front page news stories with photos, etc. etc.). She was probably the number 2 or 3 kid in the class and according to a number of teachers, she was #1. But the GPA calculation was so arcane, with so many bizarre rules: 9th grade classes didn’t count, except for chemistry, but not biology; freshman Latin didn’t count, because it was Level I, but French and Spanish did, because they were level II (Latin wasn’t taught in middle school but the other were); there were other really incomprehensible decisions about math classes; there was no consistency at all, and the rules were really, really hard to understand. </p>
<p>I found out later that the system can be gamed. The kids that came in ahead of her didn’t take Latin, and their parents knew enough have to have them switch the order and take chemistry Freshman year and Biology sophomore year, etc. etc. etc. I won’t bore you with details but it was mind-boggling - the other parents had older kids, worked for the school, or were otherwise in the know and knew the drill…</p>
<p>On the bright side, DD got about a dozen major awards - more than anyone else - and went on to a top ten LAC.</p>
<p>And I am EQUALLY proud of my beautiful DS, who got no awards but an Honor Society cord to wear.</p>
I’m sure you don’t mean to be offensive, but calling an award for overcoming disability or difficult family circumstances “bogus”? Really? Who thinks like that?</p>
<p>This is a little tangential but FallGirl’s post raises an issue for me - our society is differentiating children earlier and earlier and as a result (as it relates to this thread) parents may bristle at their child being passed over because they perceive that having been passed over, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for their child to excel in the future. This is probably less so for graduating HS seniors who will start fresh wherever they land, but I’m not sure everyone sees things that way.</p>
<p>In athletics, we have travel teams at younger and younger ages and in many communities people tend to view that (inaccurately in my opinion) as selecting the high school team in fourth grade. Certainly anyone with experience in the music field knows that music educators place a significant premium on younger talent and as a result of that, many fine musicians who matured a little later or don’t have musical parents find themselves scrambling to make contact with top teachers. We’re creeping (or we have already crept) into this with academics. In our district we are differentiating math students early in their careers and students are being “tracked out” of the top math courses as early as sixth grade. So when students are passed over for awards, might parents be thinking that their children are being pushed out of the way too early in life?</p>
<p>sylvan, I think that GFG may not have been devaluing alternative and additional awards, but rather asking the school to name awards accurately. That’s what came across to me, anyway. If it’s a B student who tried harder and more consistently than anyone else, he or she is not the most ‘academically excellent’ (probably, unless it’s a very weird grading system), but that student may deserve a different, unique award.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, since GFG brought up ‘diligence’ and ‘disability’ in the same breath, the Diligence award I was referring to is not necessarily one for overcoming inborn or external challenges. (And again, usually LD kids, for example – haven’t seen any physically disabled at the school in awhile – , excel in some other area or areas – very often the arts, and there is a ‘co-morbidity’ statistically overlapping, as they say in medicine, with LD and artists; not always, but often.) The Diligence Award is a culminating award at graduation, offered to the student who over eight semesters has been the most consistently, demonstrably hard-working in every class – offering full effort especially for classes that are not their strongest skill-set or their natural talent.</p>
<p>speihei (post 164): Wow. No, I have definitely not seen that in my region. (Kids early-identified in sports, math, or music; not even for GATE, actually. There’s an early opportunity for GATE identification, but you can qualify at other, later times as well.)</p>
<p>What I have seen, though, and this I find troubling: Parents, not coaches, identifying their sons (especially) as adult soccer stars or baseball stars at the ripe old age of nine. And by that internal family identification, abandoning or ridiculously preferring sports 24/7 to everything else in the young person’s life, including academics. And just try to tell them that maybe it would be a teeny, tiny good idea to encourage Junior to do well in school regardless, “just in case.” Nope. They are totally convinced that early interest and talent is an absolute predictor of a career future. Ohhh kaaaayyy.</p>
<p>My philosophy is to celebrate every accomplishment. If a student feels that her achievements have been noticed by someone somewhere, I don’t think there will be much disappointment if she isn’t honored at the official ceremony. She may get an award at the drill team or choir banquet. If she gets a 100 on a test that she studied hard for, or a 5 on an AP exam, celebrate that.</p>
<p>Calmom, I do think that if someone is honored for an academic award, it should be an informal requirement that they have mustered the wherewithal to graduate with at least a 3.0. Would that all kids could just concentrate on what the love and forget the rest…</p>
<p>As far as I know, our HS doesn’t do anything for the seniors, except for a conventional interminable commencement. No mention of where anyone is going to college, or scholarships or school-selected awards. Just hit the road, Jack.</p>
<p>Our high school has the award night and another night that is dedicated to a Baccalaureate service. It is, of course, optional but it is run by a friend of mine who gathers a clergy member or representative from many different religions together to “bless” the graduates and reflect on this transitional time. When my oldest daughter graduated, this was my favorite night. it was quiet, unrehearsed, sincere and contemplative.</p>
<p>Ours is tomorrow night and my daughter is going to light one of the candles during the ceremony. I’m looking forward to it and will focus on the beauty of the moment while celebrating the adults that these kids are becoming. </p>
<p>By the way, the latest post by the OP was dead on in describing the real issue with the awards. I think that it put into words the feelings that many of us have been struggling to express.</p>
<p>“those selected for these awards tend to be perhaps 3, 4 or 5 in the class but have far more impressive CVs overall while the val might have had a few extra GPA “bonus” points from a random extra AP course but basically had no life whatsoever outside academics. That’s obviously a generalization but more often than not that’s how it plays out.”</p>
<p>I have yet to meet a val or a sal who wasn’t involved in many aspects of high school and community life.</p>
<p>Agree on the English award. After noticing over the past 5 years the English award and the Math Department award etc. sometimes goes to one of the top 2 students, but just as often falls to on of the top 10%. And yes, not all kids are evenly “balanced” between math/science/English and often the most wonderful writer is not necessarily the bookish gets all As kid. I think the schools do a pretty good job of sorting it all out, sometimes there are oddities, but in general I can feel happy and proud for all the kids being honored. Interestingly 3 years ago there was a young person who was up and down all night receiving every award for community service from every group imaginable. I happened to know this person and the awards were well justified as this person spent their life involved with community service groups. I could heard the sniffles from some of the parents but honestly there was no other kid in that class more deserving of those particular honors and accolades. Things are not always as they seem and there are “honors” bestowed for all kinds of things other than all As.</p>
<p>My kids get their share of awards, but I was telling my H that I want to sponsor an award for the kid who works hard but is not top 10 percent but has adversity or LD or whatever but has character and strength. the one who never gets anything and sits there watching others. this is of course when I actually have some money!!!</p>
<p>I’ll be honest: I still remember my high school awards. Over half the awards were given to a single student-- our val who went to Harvard. I still remember my friend saying, "Would it have killed them to give the Good Driving Award (yes, our school had one) to some other student who would never have received an academic award? The Good Driving Award meant nothing to the val but it could have meant something to one of the many kids in our class who never even went on to college. </p>
<p>She had more sense at 17yo than the whole lot of administrators had at 40-something.</p>
<p>Our HS has a formal application for senior awards-- multiple essays involved-- which by mid April of senior year-- right before APs-- that was the last thing my D wanted to do write another application-- we assumed that any such local award held no value – and wasn’t even resume worthy- no one will ever ask about a local high school award from this point forward…regrets…</p>
<p>After the fact, we learning $$ was involved…we didn’t bother to attend the senior awards ceremony- several well meaning parents asked where our D was and commented that their senior had garnered multiple awards…some worth $500…</p>
<p>Hence, with that info…my S recycled his college ap essays this year and applied simply for the chance at some money …the award, couldn’t care less… he’ll find out this week-- awards night is Wednesday (he was emailed to attend- he’s getting something I guess)…
Hope the air conditioning is turned on that night…
it’s been off during school hours given state budget issues…</p>
<p>IMHO-- Don’t bum out over this…any award given publicly probably means more to the bragging parents than anyone else, perhaps even the student. And for the record, there isn’t going to be a job, program or school application from this point forward asking your S or D to list a local high school award. National award - sure-- local meaningless. Anecdote: Anyone Remember the movie where Will Smith tells the financial execs in an interview for the prestigious stock broker program he was “first in his high school class”…and then we find out only 11 were in that class…that’s the deal about high school-- it is over, and that’s that.</p>
I can do better than that. Our middle school made a big hoopla about coming in second in their category of the Music Festival at Hershey. Second out of three!</p>
<p>As far as I can tell the high school spreads out the awards, and while some kids get multiple awards, no one hogs them all. There are clearly awards for all levels of students. </p>
<p>Another sort of head scratching moment was when our middle school decided to gush over the top student’s SAT scores and CTY activities. Our son’s SAT score was over 100 points higher in each section, and he’d also gone to CTY but got no mention. I thought that was over the top anyway. Getting top grades in middle school seemed like accomplishment enough.</p>
<p>Not to mention how inappropriate it is to gush over someone’s SAT scores. Jeez. Why not have a list of the student’s IQ’s on the Award brochure? That would be perfect.</p>
<p>Mimimom – re your post #168 – are you saying that at your kid’s high school, “academic honors” are bestowed on all students with a 3.0 GPA? (The threshold for “honors” was higher at the schools I and my kids attended – so I would have associated your initial reference to “honors” as signifying at least a 3.5)</p>
<p>Nonetheless, I still think that for a particular subject award, there is a possibility that an individual kid’s skill areas could be lopsided enough that they struggle in other areas but excel in one. One rationale for awarding such awards could be to provide a potential avenue for recognition of those very students.</p>