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<p>I was just going to post that same thought. A kid could spend his HS career a step away from expulsion and still graduate with high honors. I guess when that happens the school wil come up with a different method.</p>
<p>Seriously, the SAT/ACT does not reflect what the student did at that school.</p>
<p>Does anyone have a school that doesn’t do awards ceremonies at all? I wonder if anyone would miss them or care. If a teacher or department wanted to give a student a certificate for the hightest grade in the course, they could do it in class and receive the applause (or ridicule) of their peers. Scholarships could be given out at a meeting of whatever group gave them. </p>
<p>If you have a student who receives quite a few awards, is she tickled right down to her toes to get the award, or is having the high grade in the GPA reward enough?</p>
<p>missypie … my S’s tiny HS doesn’t do award assemblies. Doesn’t post grades/rankings. Mails the honor roll certificate home with no warning/fanfair. But this is a school for kids that really did poorly in traditional HS and I think theirs is the right approach for their kids. It eliminates any sense of competition and allows people to shine for who they are. I can’t believe the difference it has made in my S in terms of recovering confidence and having hope.</p>
<p>And for the other ? … Last year, my D (val) did not give the speech, did not tell them any of her scholarship awards (“It isn’t any of their business!”) so it looked like she only got the NMF and the AP Nat or Pres Honor that the school could find out on their own. She didn’t care … and she was right. I should have not cared, too!! But I was a slow learner. </p>
<p>And maybe on another thread, but she got the Harvard Book and the Harvard application yet a rejection from Harvard in the end. She is happy where she is, and still getting all A’s without letting anyone know (“I never heard of a Deans list!”) …</p>
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Hmm. Books on tape? Text from the Gutenberg Project with a screen reader?</p>
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Exactly! It took us a while to reach that conclusion, because they speak in the wildest superlatives about these awards (the subjective, teacher-consensus ones – not such a big deal about the objective, academic ones). But when the award for respectfulness goes to the class potty-mouth, and the responsibility award recipient gets a ticket for forgetting her communication folder the following week… after a while, the kids understand that this is not really a good system by which to measure their self-worth. Your kid’s security in himself and his work is admirable, shawbridge!</p>
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The kids cared quite a bit when our school dropped the athletic awards. Some stayed home from the event in protest of that decision – even those who had no expectation that they’d get a letter, let alone an award. I don’t think that getting rid of the celebrations is the answer… but I confess, I don’t know what is. Maybe part of the answer is just parents like us learning (and teaching our kids) not to get so twisted up over them!</p>
<p>SJTH I feel your pain. I’ve had to try to listen to a concert and take pics and videos while my DH is away. Not fun nor easy and you end up not even watching your kid play. Talk to other parents, someone may have the whole thing on tape.</p>
<p>Our Senior Awards assembly is Monday night – and it is a hodge podge of awards. For example, some departments (Sociology, German) give awards (with plaques); some have a list of "outstanding students;’ and some departments give monetary scholarships. </p>
<p>Names of the top 20 (or is it 15 or 25??) students are read. Some local scholarship winners (who have already received their awards at other occasions) are called up. If the school knows of National Merit Scholars they announce them; if a college has sent notice to the HS of a merit award, they might announce that; but they make no effort to get this information or to be thorough or consistent. We don’t have Val/Sal or graduation with varying degrees of “honor.”</p>
<p>Sometimes teachers call students up for recognition-- D1 got acknowledged for work on the literary magazine …</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s any rhyme or reason to what gets announced or who gets honored. No one knows ahead of time who is getting which awards, or even what awards or recognition will be given.</p>
<p>Parents whose kids are getting something get a letter saying “be there. …” So we’re going, but we don’t know what D2 will be honored for!</p>
<p>I like this idea. The margaritas have been prepared since Mother’s day, my freezer and my mind are happy p-)</p>
<p>At our award ceremony the kids sat where ever they wanted, with their families and friends. There were also folks from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. It was fabulous to see the young men and women who will be going to the service Academies be recognized as well. Anyone who got a scholarship was recognized regardless of the amount. Two major universities, ASU and UofA had their representatives there awarding not only the NMS but also the NHispanic and N Achievement scholars as well as other smaller scholarships. It was long, but nice.</p>
<p>We also have cords for our gowns, I like the idea of the silver and green for the parents. Margarita time!</p>
<p>geek_mom, thanks. I am sometimes impressed by his general lack of insecurity. I sense that he would have liked to say that he had gotten into Harvard, but is only on the WL, so there is a little bit there. However, he turned down better-known schools to go to Amherst.</p>
<p>He does use audiobooks/Kurzweil/Reading for Blind & Dyslexic, etc. I don’t know about Gutenberg. But, it would take a really long time to listen to 800 pages. As a point of reference, The Brothers Karamazov is about 800 pages in paperback and is 28 CDs or about 34 hours of pure listening pleasure (and it is one of the high points of Western literature – think about 34 hours of some turgid history texts).</p>
<p>Forgot to add that the cords were not for academic achievement, they represented the clubs or activities they did while they were in HS. Some had stoles- class leadership, ROTC leadership etc.</p>
<p>I agree that gowns in different color just make a “class” look separate instead of a unit. Interesting that schools would do this.</p>
<p>I don’t think our school does awards really after middle school. D will have the IB stole for graduation and some kids will have the honor cords or high honor cords. Sal and Val will speak but that is it. Most if not all of the clubs, sports teams, societies have individual award ceremonies. With 650 in the class having on ceremony would be a bit much I think. We’d be there for ever!!!</p>
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<p>Actually that was posted by Missypie
No Karma around here.
LOL</p>
<p>Awards tonight. Class of about 80, there will be pins and cords and letters and certificates aflowing. One will go to my S. He doesn’t want to go, but he needs to as it is a local scholarship, and he needs to be grateful.</p>
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<p>We do have something similar in the fall for all of the seniors with 4.0 or higher (it seems to come out to about 10% of the class) and it is very nice. It is not sponsored by the school, but by an local education foundation. It was lovely and I sent them a very nice thank you note afterward. </p>
<p>That said, I would still like to see the school itself honor these students.</p>
<p>I got an email last night confirming that D will not be honored at the awards night because her scholarship is not in the booklet. Head g.c. & principal claim to be very proud of D. I am so glad I qualify for the margarita!</p>
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Awesome! I love it. Our school doesn’t teach Italian, but both my kids would take it in a heartbeat if they did ( we are Italian).</p>
<p>At Ds school, cords are given to members of various honor societies and i believe top GPAers sit in the front row.</p>
<p>OK back from Awards - LOOOONNNNGGGGG - me bum still hurts</p>
<p>S got a cord for having a 3.0 or above GPA for all 8 semsters.
He got a $2700 local scholarship for someone who does not have a 4.0 and is not the <em>best</em> student as far as grades go, but shows promise.
He got the faculty award for Math and Sciences (chosen by the faculty) No $ but a nice recognition.
They got his school scholarship and name correct. So it was a pretty good event for him.</p>
<p>Small turn-out as there were only about 40 seniors there to get awards. A small handful of them garnered multitudes of small scholarship awards, big recognitions, plaques and certificates. It went on and on and on. The community really gets behind giving to its students (a few of them anyway).</p>
<p>so it’s pretty much all over but the ceremony. It hasn’t quite hit me yet.</p>
<p>theorymom, congratulations to your son (and the strong woman behind him!!). Sounds like a nice evening - I’m so happy that everything worked out for you both.</p>
<p>it was a long evening on the hard bleachers</p>
<p>But I am happy for the recognition my son received - small as it was compared to the multitudes bestowed on the chosen few (who deserved it, not discounting these great students, just not too sure about these award ceremonies when all but a handful received nothing more than an honors cord. I think they could send out a N/L or something instead, telling everyone who got what - some did not have nagging mothers to make sure the scholarships were applied for!) The school was VERY proud of this class, that netted the largest award monies in the history of the school - something over $800,000 for a graduating class of about 80. Some of those kids got mega scholarships from their colleges on top of the local awards.</p>
<p>I watched some very deserving kids get slighted in their “field” and I just think this could be handled differently. </p>
<p>But it’s not up to me. And I highly doubt they would want my advice. We are (almost) done - barring any unforseen (by me) issues that could crop up tomorrow. And we’ll be moving on - no parties, no fanfare. </p>
<p>Son will sing at graduation - one song, last time I will hear his choir. It is winding down</p>
<p>Deja, I really don’t understand this! How can they want your offers of financial aid letters? That is a personal, private family matter & should not be shared with anyone! That is like asking you to share your income tax returns with the school district office! </p>
<p>Our guidance dept office asks for copies of offers of admission-they do a bulletin board to display them. That is all we are asked for & it is strictly voluntary!</p>
<p>I think the school knows what my D got for merit, they don’t make a big deal of it. I hear it mostly if a parent tells me. Like I said it is a big deal when they are getting recognized and then two days later you realize they start from scratch. It is a good feeling and a bad feeling. So much going on here it is all a blur. I am having a health problem so that puts much into perspective. Just to see them grow and flourish is the gift that I have and should not have lost sight of.
TM-you have worked hard and given your son so much, get a relaxing massage , or do something for yourself-You deserve it.
Everyone-you should pat yourself on the back you are awesome caring parents with such promising kids -congrats</p>
<p>downtoearth, I hope your health issue is one that you can overcome quickly and painlessly. You’re absolutely right - in the big scheme of life problems/stress, graduation (together with the struggle to get there) and its related stressors are minor blips. Sending you healing thoughts.</p>
<p>Since DS has procrastinated on a big project due tomorrow, just got back from the four day senior trip yesterday, and still needs to order the corsage for Saturday’s prom, I’ll be heading to the florist at lunchtime. Of course, I did wrangle the name of his date out of him for the favor. :)</p>