School doesn’t celebrate high achieving kids

[Anonymous]

Our Catholic K-8 does a small ceremony for the honor roll recipients, and the criteria for making honor roll are fairly rigorous. I was very pleased to see that they impressed on those children the importance of humility (and this isn't a sour grapes thing--my daughter is in kindergarten and will most likely make the honor roll when she gets to fourth grade).

[Anonymous]

You have to proactively notify the school if you want recognition, in my experience. I think some parents are just more pushy and blabber mouthy about their kids minor accomplishments. You should really ask your kid what they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. So just knowing your child is successful isn’t enough for you? You need the bragging rights and for everyone else to know just how great your kid is?

Maybe the school is highlighting things that help the community or highlighting students who may not otherwise receive any recognition. Maybe they’re hoping that these kids will continue to be excited about learning and helping others.

Sounds like your child already knows how to be a strong student and is used to being constantly praised and highlighted. Why do they need the continual public ego boost?

Who cares what parents say to their kids?

My kid sees the school recognizing others for this or that - kindness award, school athletes, but DC is invisible.

To me it feels that American public schools celebrate mediocrity, because I don’t see the outlier being celebrated and I know they are there from all kinds of families.

It is all kinds of families. It’s unremarkable when a high income family drives their kid to enrichment programs, tutors when it turns out their kid is average intellectually, SAT private and prep classes before taking the SAT test 4 times. Everything is calculated down to the weekly schedule.

Compare that to the kid who walks home to their public housing high rise. No one will be home until 9 pm after their shifts. The majority of kids living there are hanging out outside. This kid stays home and studies all afternoon. Self starter, ambitious, intelligent, doing their best. This kid would have loved a tutor to get their ACT up to a score of 33 but they got a 30 on their own. Not bad.

Seriously, who is more impressive?

Im my opinion, the question is the amount of effort. There are kids who get to 35-36 without tutors. So a score of 30 is not great. It’s like participation trophy - yay, you did some work.

And if a kid has a tutor it still takes hours and hours of practice to get to that level. There is no magic.

It’s really obnoxious to claim 30 score is “not great”. A 30 on the ACT test puts them in the 95th percentile. In case you don’t understand this means that they did better than about 95% of test takers. A 30 and up is considered excellent.

How ignorant are you? And please don’t claim that everyone “in your circle” has kids who get 35 and 36 because that would be a lie.

[Anonymous]

I hope your child has a therapist to undo all the damage you have done to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like this stem program has nothing to do with the school. It was an outside activity you child individually chose to do. Why should the school promote that?

Was there a cost for this internship or was it completely free?

Internship was free.

Who cares if the activity is outside of school. They should be celebrating people.

The old private school did this - kids who won all-state choir, all-state band, chess tournament winners, congressional youth award, etc. etc.

I don’t know if no public school do this or just ours, but it’s deeply disappointing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. So just knowing your child is successful isn’t enough for you? You need the bragging rights and for everyone else to know just how great your kid is?

Maybe the school is highlighting things that help the community or highlighting students who may not otherwise receive any recognition. Maybe they’re hoping that these kids will continue to be excited about learning and helping others.

Sounds like your child already knows how to be a strong student and is used to being constantly praised and highlighted. Why do they need the continual public ego boost?

Who cares what parents say to their kids?

My kid sees the school recognizing others for this or that - kindness award, school athletes, but DC is invisible.

To me it feels that American public schools celebrate mediocrity, because I don’t see the outlier being celebrated and I know they are there from all kinds of families.

It is all kinds of families. It’s unremarkable when a high income family drives their kid to enrichment programs, tutors when it turns out their kid is average intellectually, SAT private and prep classes before taking the SAT test 4 times. Everything is calculated down to the weekly schedule.

Compare that to the kid who walks home to their public housing high rise. No one will be home until 9 pm after their shifts. The majority of kids living there are hanging out outside. This kid stays home and studies all afternoon. Self starter, ambitious, intelligent, doing their best. This kid would have loved a tutor to get their ACT up to a score of 33 but they got a 30 on their own. Not bad.

Seriously, who is more impressive?

Im my opinion, the question is the amount of effort. There are kids who get to 35-36 without tutors. So a score of 30 is not great. It’s like participation trophy - yay, you did some work.

And if a kid has a tutor it still takes hours and hours of practice to get to that level. There is no magic.

It’s really obnoxious to claim 30 score is “not great”. A 30 on the ACT test puts them in the 95th percentile. In case you don’t understand this means that they did better than about 95% of test takers. A 30 and up is considered excellent.

How ignorant are you? And please don’t claim that everyone “in your circle” has kids who get 35 and 36 because that would be a lie.

In my circle 30 is not even worth mentioning.
My friend’s daughter just got a 30 and she is failing half of her classes.

45% of DC school scores >= 30. But no one mentioned the kids who got 35-36. Kindness awards are more important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. So just knowing your child is successful isn’t enough for you? You need the bragging rights and for everyone else to know just how great your kid is?

Maybe the school is highlighting things that help the community or highlighting students who may not otherwise receive any recognition. Maybe they’re hoping that these kids will continue to be excited about learning and helping others.

Sounds like your child already knows how to be a strong student and is used to being constantly praised and highlighted. Why do they need the continual public ego boost?

Who cares what parents say to their kids?

My kid sees the school recognizing others for this or that - kindness award, school athletes, but DC is invisible.

To me it feels that American public schools celebrate mediocrity, because I don’t see the outlier being celebrated and I know they are there from all kinds of families.

It is all kinds of families. It’s unremarkable when a high income family drives their kid to enrichment programs, tutors when it turns out their kid is average intellectually, SAT private and prep classes before taking the SAT test 4 times. Everything is calculated down to the weekly schedule.

Compare that to the kid who walks home to their public housing high rise. No one will be home until 9 pm after their shifts. The majority of kids living there are hanging out outside. This kid stays home and studies all afternoon. Self starter, ambitious, intelligent, doing their best. This kid would have loved a tutor to get their ACT up to a score of 33 but they got a 30 on their own. Not bad.

Seriously, who is more impressive?

Im my opinion, the question is the amount of effort. There are kids who get to 35-36 without tutors. So a score of 30 is not great. It’s like participation trophy - yay, you did some work.

And if a kid has a tutor it still takes hours and hours of practice to get to that level. There is no magic.

It’s really obnoxious to claim 30 score is “not great”. A 30 on the ACT test puts them in the 95th percentile. In case you don’t understand this means that they did better than about 95% of test takers. A 30 and up is considered excellent.

How ignorant are you? And please don’t claim that everyone “in your circle” has kids who get 35 and 36 because that would be a lie.

In my circle 30 is not even worth mentioning.
My friend’s daughter just got a 30 and she is failing half of her classes.

45% of DC school scores >= 30. But no one mentioned the kids who got 35-36. Kindness awards are more important.

Maybe you should take a hint...Kindness is pretty important

[Anonymous]

Public schools do not do this. Because do they did it would be mostly high SES kids getting all these awards with parents who have resources and time to take them and help them.

[Anonymous]

And at the old private school you were PAYING BIG BUCKS of course your kid got celebrated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public schools do not do this. Because do they did it would be mostly high SES kids getting all these awards with parents who have resources and time to take them and help them.

Why? These research programs, internships, competitions are free and anyone can apply. What’s this got to do with SES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And at the old private school you were PAYING BIG BUCKS of course your kid got celebrated.

no, private schools are sane and know what they’re doing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like this stem program has nothing to do with the school. It was an outside activity you child individually chose to do. Why should the school promote that?

Was there a cost for this internship or was it completely free?

Internship was free.

Who cares if the activity is outside of school. They should be celebrating people.

The old private school did this - kids who won all-state choir, all-state band, chess tournament winners, congressional youth award, etc. etc.

I don’t know if no public school do this or just ours, but it’s deeply disappointing.

All state choir, band…..are school sponsored. Was your child’s internship school sponsored?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. So just knowing your child is successful isn’t enough for you? You need the bragging rights and for everyone else to know just how great your kid is?

Maybe the school is highlighting things that help the community or highlighting students who may not otherwise receive any recognition. Maybe they’re hoping that these kids will continue to be excited about learning and helping others.

Sounds like your child already knows how to be a strong student and is used to being constantly praised and highlighted. Why do they need the continual public ego boost?

I believe kids should be recognized. Recognition is motivation and encouraging. She is saying she doesn't want to brag, she wants to school to acknowledge her sons successes. Nothing wrong with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. So just knowing your child is successful isn’t enough for you? You need the bragging rights and for everyone else to know just how great your kid is?

Maybe the school is highlighting things that help the community or highlighting students who may not otherwise receive any recognition. Maybe they’re hoping that these kids will continue to be excited about learning and helping others.

Sounds like your child already knows how to be a strong student and is used to being constantly praised and highlighted. Why do they need the continual public ego boost?

I believe kids should be recognized. Recognition is motivation and encouraging. She is saying she doesn't want to brag, she wants to school to acknowledge her sons successes. Nothing wrong with that.

Being selected to such programs and receiving the highest scores are recognition. Wanting the entire school to be told about it is bragging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. So just knowing your child is successful isn’t enough for you? You need the bragging rights and for everyone else to know just how great your kid is?

Maybe the school is highlighting things that help the community or highlighting students who may not otherwise receive any recognition. Maybe they’re hoping that these kids will continue to be excited about learning and helping others.

Sounds like your child already knows how to be a strong student and is used to being constantly praised and highlighted. Why do they need the continual public ego boost?

Who cares what parents say to their kids?

My kid sees the school recognizing others for this or that - kindness award, school athletes, but DC is invisible.

To me it feels that American public schools celebrate mediocrity, because I don’t see the outlier being celebrated and I know they are there from all kinds of families.

It is all kinds of families. It’s unremarkable when a high income family drives their kid to enrichment programs, tutors when it turns out their kid is average intellectually, SAT private and prep classes before taking the SAT test 4 times. Everything is calculated down to the weekly schedule.

Compare that to the kid who walks home to their public housing high rise. No one will be home until 9 pm after their shifts. The majority of kids living there are hanging out outside. This kid stays home and studies all afternoon. Self starter, ambitious, intelligent, doing their best. This kid would have loved a tutor to get their ACT up to a score of 33 but they got a 30 on their own. Not bad.

Seriously, who is more impressive?

Im my opinion, the question is the amount of effort. There are kids who get to 35-36 without tutors. So a score of 30 is not great. It’s like participation trophy - yay, you did some work.

And if a kid has a tutor it still takes hours and hours of practice to get to that level. There is no magic.

It’s really obnoxious to claim 30 score is “not great”. A 30 on the ACT test puts them in the 95th percentile. In case you don’t understand this means that they did better than about 95% of test takers. A 30 and up is considered excellent.

How ignorant are you? And please don’t claim that everyone “in your circle” has kids who get 35 and 36 because that would be a lie.

A 30 is not great compared to a 35. It's completely illogical to celebrate a (possibly heavily prepped) 30 but not a (possibly self-studied) 35.