No more Honor Cords, Stoles etc at future FCPS Graduations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is there a Girl Scout/Boy Scout cord but no cords for sports?

It is not for participation.

The Eagle Scout and Gold Scout awards are international honors that take years to achieve.

Athletes that win a state medal can wear them at graduation.

Students cannot wear scout participation or sports participation or club participation medals or cords at graduation.

Only honor societies, academic honors and major state/national/international honors are worn.

Our school had a cord for both Boy Scout and Girl Scout- nothing about award winners only. Like, they sold some cookies and learned campfire songs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone else's child come home and reported this update for all FCPS graduations next year?

I'm told that since we don't want to make some kids feel bad - no graduates will be allowed to wear honor cords showing their achievements starting with next year's graduations.

Is this what we've come to? Protecting the fragile feelings of some kids who has chosen to concentrate their achievements elsewhere (ie, could be community, sports) or just decided academic achievement wasn't a focus for them. And now no graduates are allowed to celebrate academic achievements.

So disappointed, FCPS.
Want to know if others have heard this as well.

Athletes who win a state championship should absolutely be allowed to wear their medal.

\
What medal? Don't they get rings?

they get a medal and can purchase a ring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO cords are dumb. I went to MIT and it didn't allow anything. In a crazy rat race we don't need even more mini races that don't matter.

+1

It used to be that we made a very big deal out of post-graduate degrees, a big deal out of college graduation, and a minor deal out of high school graduation.

Now, we make a huge deal out of high school graduation (even throwing parties that cost $10K or more), and we expect promotion ceremonies and major school awards at the end of preschool, kindergarten, sixth grade, and eighth grade.

It has gotten way out of hand.

So what? People can celebrate how they want to.

Fine, you can celebrate how you choose. But expecting the schools to host major awards and promotion ceremonies, give trophies for having a pulse, and allow for obscene displays of grandiosity at graduation is out of hand.

So now an NHS stole and a service cord are “obscene displays of grandiosity”? You sound insane.

Aren't most college-bound kids in NHS? Doesn't seem like it's worth any special fanfare.

Wearing a cord or a stole to show what academic honor societies you are in is not fanfare. It’s simply a nice tradition and both parents and students appreciate it. If you don’t care, then either have your child not even join NHS or choose not to have your child wear any cords or stoles showing what honor societies they were in. I really don’t care what you think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO cords are dumb. I went to MIT and it didn't allow anything. In a crazy rat race we don't need even more mini races that don't matter.

+1

It used to be that we made a very big deal out of post-graduate degrees, a big deal out of college graduation, and a minor deal out of high school graduation.

Now, we make a huge deal out of high school graduation (even throwing parties that cost $10K or more), and we expect promotion ceremonies and major school awards at the end of preschool, kindergarten, sixth grade, and eighth grade.

It has gotten way out of hand.

So what? People can celebrate how they want to.

Fine, you can celebrate how you choose. But expecting the schools to host major awards and promotion ceremonies, give trophies for having a pulse, and allow for obscene displays of grandiosity at graduation is out of hand.

Aaaand none of what you describe matches reality.

It's real.

Look at threads from every spring here on DCUM. People complain about there not being promotion ceremonies and awards ceremonies for every little thing.

[Anonymous]

This new rule, if it’s true, is a crock of horse s*it.

So now, apparently, we have to appease the less gifted kids who skated through high school by not letting the kids who put in genuine effort academically and athletically wear their chords, stoles, medals, and any other accessories showing honors.

If that doesn’t show a decline in FCPS’s standards, I don’t know what else f***ing does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO cords are dumb. I went to MIT and it didn't allow anything. In a crazy rat race we don't need even more mini races that don't matter.

+1

It used to be that we made a very big deal out of post-graduate degrees, a big deal out of college graduation, and a minor deal out of high school graduation.

Now, we make a huge deal out of high school graduation (even throwing parties that cost $10K or more), and we expect promotion ceremonies and major school awards at the end of preschool, kindergarten, sixth grade, and eighth grade.

It has gotten way out of hand.

So what? People can celebrate how they want to.

Fine, you can celebrate how you choose. But expecting the schools to host major awards and promotion ceremonies, give trophies for having a pulse, and allow for obscene displays of grandiosity at graduation is out of hand.

So now an NHS stole and a service cord are “obscene displays of grandiosity”? You sound insane.

Of course those two alone are not obscene, but a kid wearing 12-20 cords plus 4-6 medals, which they purchased online, is obscene.

[Anonymous]

It's because kids were buying random cords off Amazon. It has nothing to do with not hurting feelings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This new rule, if it’s true, is a crock of horse s*it.

So now, apparently, we have to appease the less gifted kids who skated through high school by not letting the kids who put in genuine effort academically and athletically wear their chords, stoles, medals, and any other accessories showing honors.

If that doesn’t show a decline in FCPS’s standards, I don’t know what else f***ing does.

Email Reid to complain. Let’s get this fixed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, could you please articulate why this is important to you/your kid?

(To be clear, I ask this question as the parent of kids who do very well academically, and their graduation accessories are not something that matters to me, so I'm trying to understand where you're coming from.)

It is important to many of us that children who do well academically and are involved be recognized the way other students are for their non-academic achievements. At my children's FCPS high school, the athletes are recognized with pep rallies, photos on the school web site, parades, write ups in local publications, etc. Academics? Not so much. I think the cords are a nice equalizer. It's one day. It's nice when the enthusiasm for the talents of others (which we do have - we loved being part of a school with great athletics and school spirit) conveys to academics and involvement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is there a Girl Scout/Boy Scout cord but no cords for sports?

I can only speak for Girl Scouts, but the cord is for them earning their gold award, which is 100 hours on a project that they worked on that better the community. Some of these do focus on global issues. And I believe for the Boy Scouts it’s for their Eagle award so it’s not just because you were a Girl Scout in high school that you get to wear the cord.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is there a Girl Scout/Boy Scout cord but no cords for sports?

It is not for participation.

The Eagle Scout and Gold Scout awards are international honors that take years to achieve.

Athletes that win a state medal can wear them at graduation.

Students cannot wear scout participation or sports participation or club participation medals or cords at graduation.

Only honor societies, academic honors and major state/national/international honors are worn.

Our school had a cord for both Boy Scout and Girl Scout- nothing about award winners only. Like, they sold some cookies and learned campfire songs.

No, the chords are given to the Girl Scouts once they achieve their gold award. Not because they learned some campfire songs when they were in kindergarten they basically did 100 hours of community service on a global project. And they basically did this on their own to solve an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, could you please articulate why this is important to you/your kid?

(To be clear, I ask this question as the parent of kids who do very well academically, and their graduation accessories are not something that matters to me, so I'm trying to understand where you're coming from.)

It is important to many of us that children who do well academically and are involved be recognized the way other students are for their non-academic achievements. At my children's FCPS high school, the athletes are recognized with pep rallies, photos on the school web site, parades, write ups in local publications, etc. Academics? Not so much. I think the cords are a nice equalizer. It's one day. It's nice when the enthusiasm for the talents of others (which we do have - we loved being part of a school with great athletics and school spirit) conveys to academics and involvement.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where's the list of cords?

Doesn't matter because kids are wearing/buying their own. Too many grads for the school to check and approve.

Fcps does not allow kids to wear Amazon cords.

Fcps has a color coded list and only those cords are allowed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is there a Girl Scout/Boy Scout cord but no cords for sports?

It is not for participation.

The Eagle Scout and Gold Scout awards are international honors that take years to achieve.

Athletes that win a state medal can wear them at graduation.

Students cannot wear scout participation or sports participation or club participation medals or cords at graduation.

Only honor societies, academic honors and major state/national/international honors are worn.

NP here. I'm pretty sure I saw an Eagle Scout cord listed in a FCPS graduation program last week.

Correct.

Eagle scout is not a participation cord as others have claimed. It is an earned international honor, which is why students are allowed to wear the cord and why it is listed on the approved cord list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO cords are dumb. I went to MIT and it didn't allow anything. In a crazy rat race we don't need even more mini races that don't matter.

+1

It used to be that we made a very big deal out of post-graduate degrees, a big deal out of college graduation, and a minor deal out of high school graduation.

Now, we make a huge deal out of high school graduation (even throwing parties that cost $10K or more), and we expect promotion ceremonies and major school awards at the end of preschool, kindergarten, sixth grade, and eighth grade.

It has gotten way out of hand.

So what? People can celebrate how they want to.

Fine, you can celebrate how you choose. But expecting the schools to host major awards and promotion ceremonies, give trophies for having a pulse, and allow for obscene displays of grandiosity at graduation is out of hand.

So now an NHS stole and a service cord are “obscene displays of grandiosity”? You sound insane.

Aren't most college-bound kids in NHS? Doesn't seem like it's worth any special fanfare.

No.

One of mine was in the top 20 students out of 600+ seniors. They did not do national honor society because of all the required service hours.