Awards assemblies. Yay or nay?
As I’ve mentioned before, school was a struggle for me. I received positive feedback for writing and for singing but I never won any awards. I “lettered” in Drama in high school through sheer participation over the course of my high school years. I looked longingly at the cool kids who were named to the National Honor Society, but I also knew full well that I was unwilling/unable to do the persistent academic work that resulted in the grades they had.
They were in my classes, and I spent a lot of my high school years with them. But I was never going to be them. This was not the end of the world. There was far more angst in my teenage life that took precedence over the twinge that I would not be receiving academic honors.
This is the time of year when schools hold awards assemblies/awards nights and I am pondering what it feels like for all the kids who are never recognized. Schools are (or should be) communities first - - communities of learning - - but communities most of all. Do awards assemblies foster community?
Of course, if you look at schools as deliverers of content then it may make sense to award those who are the best at absorbing and regurgitating content. Some say the the American educational system was built on the factory model. If so, rewarding the producer of the most widgets or the best widgets makes sense, I guess. On the other hand, if you look at it that way, the teachers should get the awards. The students are just…widgets.
Some awards are given based on a contest or competition. In my opinion, the younger the student, the less healthy that experience is likely to be. Contests, by their nature, are about winnowing out the unacceptable. You are proud to be selected but your joy is predicated on the necessity that others are rejected.
That’s just the way life is, you say. Kids had better get used to it. If you want something you have to work for it. “Reward merit.”
Here’s the thing. Students have needs and challenges and disabilities that may interfere with their ability to achieve in the traditional sense. How are they valued in the school community? The best principals and teachers create communities where students learn that they are valued wherever they are right in that moment - - not because of their report cards or test scores or award-winning status - - but for who they are.
This concept is sometimes viewed as a wish-washy “everyone’s a winner” mindset. I often see it derided on social media as the Participation Trophy Syndrome. But students who are seen and known and valued are more likely to work harder and take on new challenges and learn more. Funny thing: the same is true for adults in the workplace. “Real life.”
If your kids or grandkids (or students in the classes you teach) are winning awards this Spring I am sure you are proud. You wouldn’t want anyone to take that joy away. I get that.
Just a thought: the majority of young people who graduate from the Howard County Schools will have spent hours and hours of their lives sitting through awards assemblies where their names were never spoken. It’s like waiting for a bus that you know is never going to come.
A life lesson? Or a poor use of instructional time?
What do you think?
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