Or something like that.
Seems that a high school in Plano, TX says that their National Honor Society members are not allowed to wear their stoles to graduation. What? Those kids worked their asses off, they went to the meetings, they kept up their grades, they did their community service and for WHAT? So that the school can come in and say they are no different than any other kid in their graduating class? BULLSHIT. They worked hard for this honor and they should be allowed to be set apart from the rest without anyone getting a goddamn hair up their ass.
Yeah, I'm pissed. My own daughters are members of their high school's Spanish National Honor Society, and my oldest proudly walked at graduation with her SNHS stole along with other honor regalia that SHE FREAKING EARNED THE RIGHT TO WEAR. You can be damned sure that if her high school leaders told her she earned those honors but could not wear them at graduation, you'd hear my big mouth from here to Jupiter. It's a goddamned disgrace that our society has become so goddamned soft and squishy that we don't want any of the students who didn't earn those honors to feel excluded. BULLSHIT. If they wanted it badly enough, they could've worked for it. NOT EVERYONE gets a goddamned trophy. High school is NOT youth soccer where everyone gets a trophy just for participating. There are MVP's who stand out and there are intelligent, hard working kids who deserve to be singled out because they displayed exemplary qualities.
In my kids' high school they did away with the Valedictorian several years back because of this whole 'exclusionary' bullshit. Now we have the student government give the speeches at graduation. There is no longer the honor of having the highest GPA in your graduating class. It's become a level playing field where everyone is the same. Again, bullshit.
School systems need to knock this shit off and give credit where credit is goddamned due.
Could not agree more.
ReplyDeleteHi Sheila!!!
DeleteI completely agree with you, Teri. All we are teaching our kids with this is that working hard doesn't matter, because the next guy will still get the same as you. After a while they're just stop trying or working hard because it won't make a bit of difference. The world is a tough place, and these situations are only increasing our percentage of cry-babies in the work place in the next generation. They won't know how to handle anything difficult (many don't now). As a parent who wants her child to do her best and succeed (and be able to get credit for that), it's an uphill battle fighting against this, but we must keep doing it. Because it's what's best for our kids - not making them think we're all the same. Newsflash schools - we're not all the same, nor are we ever going to be. We are individuals - it's how we were made. Let's go back to embracing that!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter just graduated from junior high the other night and earned a President's Award pin and National Junior Honor Society cords. All the students who earned those got to wear them (as they should!) I didn't hear one parent complain about it or question it. If we don't let our stars shine who will light the way for others to join them?
Congrats to your daughter, Mags!!
DeleteThese "everybody gets a trophy" kids are gonna be screwed when the real world bites them in the ass someday.
ReplyDeleteAnd the no more valedictorian thing? Don't get me started. It's like not timing races at the Olympics. UGHHHHHHH.
Excellent point, Kathy. The Olympics are next! EVERYONE gets the Gold!
DeleteTHIS IS WHY WE ARE NOT #1. (I said it.)
ReplyDeleteYou said it.
DeletePreach it Sister! Where will it all end? This is so ridiculous. Makes me ashamed to admit it was in Texas. Must be all those California wusses moving to Plano. Smh
ReplyDeleteTexas today, everywhere tomorrow!
DeleteI'm with you. I can't stand that we live in a place where we can't celebrate success because someone else might feel bad. Forgive me for sounding harsh, but so what? Work hard, put your nose to the grindstone as they say, and get your success. We've become a society that is largely happy to sit on its complacent ass and NOT strive for excellence. I love to see people out there who understand the value of hard work and achievement and they should darn well be recognized for it. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree Lisa!
DeleteEXACTLY!! What incentive does a child have to do well if their hard work is not going to be recognized???
ReplyDeleteHere in Berkeley County, at MHS to be exact, we were told who the athletes with the highest GPA'S were, but not who the top or even top 10 students were. They celebrated the athletes and academically minded students were not recognized. Sad.
ReplyDeleteI won't be at all surprised when, in the not-too-distant future, all this "no winners/no losers" nonsense creates a society is made up completely of underachievers with no drive or sense of purpose. Disappointed but not surprised.
ReplyDeleteRidiculously sad, Vinny. What incentive will anyone have to achieve greatness?
DeleteThis is such crap. If everyone is special, then nobody is special. Where's the incentive to put in the effort? Also, even good grades don't mean as much as they used to, because crazy helicopter parents think their kids will be traumatized if they get a C or even a B, much less a D or F. I remember a story a few years ago about how grade inflation has gotten so bad that some schools have 30 valedictorians. I work in a university grad school, and I sometimes see students who should not be here, but they've gotten passed through the system with higher grades than they earned, so they look better than they are, and suddenly they're in a place where they have to do challenging work, and they can't. And they're mystified, because up to now they've always been rewarded just for showing up. It's not doing them any service.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree, Kathleen!
DeleteSo let me get this straight. No Valedictorian, because heaven forbid we honor hard work and intelligence, but totally cool for the school to allow speeches by student government, which as we all know, are the chosen from the golden populars of the school. Right. Priorities. And we wonder why we live in a Kardashian society. Reason 926,431 why we homeschool. That is mind numbingly asinine.
ReplyDeleteYep, sickening and true.
DeleteAll I can say is AMEN, SISTER!!!!! Preach it loud and long!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm screaming it from the rafters!
DeleteThis makes me so angry! It makes me wish some of the parents there would pitch a fit about the recognition that football players get when they achieve something and how that excludes the other special snowflakes. Why is it ok to celebrate athletic achievement at the appropriate time but not ok to celebrate academic achievement at graduation?
ReplyDeleteI think it's because rewarding athletes is so commonplace these days. We look to athletes as heroes, yet scholars are not held in high regard.
DeleteAll honors students DO wear a stole, not the NSAIDS ones, but ones exclusive to the school.
ReplyDeleteEveryone needs to get complete facts before getting their panties all wadded....
*NHS
Delete*NHS
DeleteWait a minute...I never got a stole to wear for being a part of NHS...I didn't even know it was a thing. So I'm going to offer my unpopular perspective (and I totally respect yours). It's like people who wore graduation gowns to middle school graduation (we didn't). It's on a school by school basis, and the only difference between when I graduated 15 years ago and now is that the Internet makes all the information accessible to everyone, and people publish posts when they're pissed about a change. We were getting participation trophies and medals 25 years ago, but people don't seem to remember that...or maybe they do and I'm one of the people they think won't grow up to be a responsible adult.
ReplyDeleteAMEN.
ReplyDelete