Calgary school eliminates honour roll; "hurts pride and self-esteem" to not make it

[Coach]

Kids respond to incentive, no matter how small. My boss's 9-year old was freaking out the other day because his dad didn't sign his reading sheet which meant he didn't get a piece of gum. A PIECE OF GUM. I have met this kid a few times and can tell you, he would not be reading an hour a night or whatever if it wasn't for the gum.

People can cry all they want about their kids feeling bad for not being on the honor roll, but what about the kids that work hard and deserve some extra recognition? Cermonies for junior high honors are a little much, but giving a kid a certificate or a medal or something can mean the world to a kid who knows he worked harder than his classmates and now he gets a reward for it. It doesn't have to be big (as bc-chris said, a stamp on the report card would even likely be enough).

I'm not a parent, but I have spent the better part of the last 6 years coaching 13 year olds at hockey, and I have to say that if I had a kid at that age that came to me crying because his buddy was on the honor roll and he wasn't the first words out of my mouth would be "well, did you do as much homework as friend Jimmy did? No? What a surprise."

From the creators of Dissing you Dog, MattyC presents: Dissing Your Kid.

[para transit fellow]

Abolishing Awards Ceremonies and Honour Rolls


http://www.joebower.org/2013/10/abol...onour.html?m=1

This was on the radio recently. Warning, A clip from the radio interview automatically starts playing

Key point to consider: when you focus on the extrinsic motivations (rewards), you diminish the intrinsic motivations (personal desire for doing the best possible job)

Real world example: I worked at a place where they brought in a reward for not using your sick days.... and although a few staffers won awards, everyone else decided to use up their sick time (this was usually coinciding with the quarterly award announcement) .

[Dentoman]

Back in the late 70's and early 80's when they did Participaction/fitness testing in school, I sucked ..... couldn't even get the bronze badge, only the "Thanks for trying" pin. Did it sting .... a bit .... but it certainly didn't kill my self esteem.
There was nobody talking about getting rid of the program because a pudgy 9 year old couldn't do a chin up.
There will always be somebody better than you in something .... and you had better get used to it, and learn how to deal with it.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by Dentoman

Back in the late 70's and early 80's when they did Participaction/fitness testing in school, I sucked ..... couldn't even get the bronze badge, only the "Thanks for trying" pin. Did it sting .... a bit .... but it certainly didn't kill my self esteem.
There was nobody talking about getting rid of the program because a pudgy 9 year old couldn't do a chin up.
There will always be somebody better than you in something .... and you had better get used to it, and learn how to deal with it.

the flexed arm hang was the only one I had real problems with, I remember that well. Being the skinny light weight had it's advantages.

Unreal that they'd remove the honour role.

[kirant]

Originally Posted by troutman

What does it mean to be on the honour roll?

Sweet diddly all. I think it might have held more meaning if you're in high school a few years ago (as a full Rutherford scholarship basically meant "be on the honour roll for all 3 high school years"), but since they eased those up...

[Erick Estrada]

They sure are making things easy for slackers with these low expectations. Not really fair to the hard workers IMO.

[Dentoman]

Originally Posted by habernac

the flexed arm hang was the only one I had real problems with, I remember that well. Being the skinny light weight had it's advantages.

Screw you ....
My wife only found out about my lack of Participaction aptitude about 5 years ago. She still brings up how she got the gold badges with ease. She actually laughed that all I got was the pins.

Participaction ..... still toughening me up to this day.

[onetwo_threefour]

Bah, honour roll was just a consolation prize for those losers (including me) who couldn't win the subject awards... (How's that for negative reinforcement!?!)

[Muta]

No one remembers, or cares, that you were on the honor roll.

[kirant]

Originally Posted by fotze

Speaking of setting the bar low. Do they still have $1500 for the Alexander Rutherford "scholarship"?

Yeah...they still have the 75-79% $1500 runner up scholarship going.

[Travis Munroe]

As someone who rarely got on the honor roll I can honestly say I didnt really care and certainly never lost self esteem over it. In fact, we would joke with buddies who did make it referencing to why they could never come out after school. Not to mention the difficulty in making honor roll when playing sports, sometimes more than 1.

My take-
Making honor roll = Boosts self esteem and pride
Not making it = no big deal. If I was close it would motivate me for the next semester or term.

[Flash Walken]

More kids would get better grades and be better students if they were surrounded by less kids and more teachers.

On a superficial level you can look at it as if they are babying this generation , but I don't think so. It's a byproduct of schools teaching less and better grades being harder to attain. There are larger groups of have-not students now than their were before and the work necessary to compensate in terms of homework is often not worth the effort. That says nothing for those students who simply have no aptitude for high level academic achievement but who might otherwise have tremendous skillsets that need honing.

What troutman is saying is a serious problem for some students and is only getting worse as the deficit in education these kids get needs more homework hours to compensate for. Kids are simply learning less in an 8 hour period than the preceding generation, and teaching skills have increased.

The consequences of larger class sizes and increased instances of learning disabilities are not only detrimental to teachers, it's mostly detrimental to the students who are not learning as much as their parents did during the same time period with the same effort.

The amount of homework being done by kids now is to compensate for the amount of work they weren't getting done in class. Not because their teacher is bad, but because their class has 10 more students in it than their parent's class did.

[Flacker]

Originally Posted by habernac

the flexed arm hang was the only one I had real problems with, I remember that well. Being the skinny light weight had it's advantages.

Unreal that they'd remove the honour role.

Most awkward Canada Fitness Test moment, while flexed arm hanging, a young lad sprouted a stiffy in his sweatpants, but he just kept on hanging.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

The consequences of larger class sizes and increased instances of learning disabilities are not only detrimental to teachers, it's mostly detrimental to the students who are not learning as much as their parents did during the same time period with the same effort.

Larger class sizes huh? Maybe people should stop having so many anklebiters!!

[flambers]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

More kids would get better grades and be better students if they were surrounded by less kids and more teachers.

On a superficial level you can look at it as if they are babying this generation , but I don't think so. It's a byproduct of schools teaching less and better grades being harder to attain. There are larger groups of have-not students now than their were before and the work necessary to compensate in terms of homework is often not worth the effort. That says nothing for those students who simply have no aptitude for high level academic achievement but who might otherwise have tremendous skillsets that need honing.

What troutman is saying is a serious problem for some students and is only getting worse as the deficit in education these kids get needs more homework hours to compensate for. Kids are simply learning less in an 8 hour period than the preceding generation, and teaching skills have increased.

The consequences of larger class sizes and increased instances of learning disabilities are not only detrimental to teachers, it's mostly detrimental to the students who are not learning as much as their parents did during the same time period with the same effort.

The amount of homework being done by kids now is to compensate for the amount of work they weren't getting done in class. Not because their teacher is bad, but because their class has 10 more students in it than their parent's class did.

To add to this, many families are hiring former teachers to help their kids with the school work at night in order to make sure they achieve the required grades...

Class sizes are steadliy increasing, amount of teachers tend to decrease....

[troutman]

I was also surprised to learn that the majority of kids at my son's school have an IPP (Individual Program Plan). So many kids need extra help in one area or another.

[Cuz]

I was on the honour roll for every report card in high school (grades 8-12 in BC), and it was honestly a formality for me so the honour roll distinction never meant much to me. My goal was always to get a 4.0 GPA (GPA based on 7 best classes out of 8), which I was able to do about half of the time, usually it was a stupid class like gym (who knows how those teachers based their marks) that cost me a 4.0 GPA. Yes, I was a bit of an overachieving geek in high school....

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by habernac

the flexed arm hang was the only one I had real problems with, I remember that well. Being the skinny light weight had it'sadvantages.

Unreal that they'd remove the honour role.

The theory that the kids who didn't make the list will have self esteem issues doesn't hold up. Here's habernac, who clearly didn't make the honour roll, yet he shows no signs of having poor self esteem. He seems very confident and well adapted to the real world.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

The theory that the kids who didn't make the list will have self esteem issues doesn't hold up. Here's habernac, who clearly didn't make the honour roll, yet he shows no signs of having poor self esteem. He seems very confident and well adapted to the real world.

and you're clearly a dick

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by fotze

I know, compared to the rest of us high achieving winners these kids don't hold a candle. If my kid is only an 8th as successful as I am then I will be happy. I have set the bar pretty high though.

I was a slacker that maybe spent 4-8 hours on homework combined from grades 1 -12. Lived with one parent that worked every evening and didn't read my report cards or care what I did as long as he wasn't getting calls from the principal's office. I still turned out fine but at the same time I would have felt bad for the students I went to school with that tried hard and put in the hard work would get recognized equally with a slacker like I was. I simply don't think students like I was should get rewarded for anything as for the whole self-esteem thing it sure didn't affect me.