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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank God the equity bs will be long gone in college. Kids are recognized with cords at college graduation based on GPA.

Have you been to a college graduation recently? All of them wear so many different things now. No one can tell which is for academic honors and which is for some club they were in.

Damn, did seeing that give you cancer or did you lose a leg?

No, but it looks silly and all the pieces of flair have lost any meaning. You can just buy them now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.)

The reasoning the kids were given is to protect the feelings of those who don't have honor cords -- who (whether voluntarily or involuntarily) decided not to join the honor societies or organizations that the honor cords denote. So, some kids are not being allowed to celebrate their hard won success to protect the fragility of others.

This is the same thing as the "participation trophy" in kindergarten soccer - -except now we are talking about adults about to enter the real world.

They can celebrate with family and friends. It is easy enough for a parent to make a toast be say "we are so proud that you graduated and that participated in list of X activities."

I think the problem now is that people are less interested in achievements for their own sake. It’s not enough for the school, family and close friends to recognize achievements. They want the whole world to know because everything is performative now. Parents are worse than their kids with this. Blame social media.

[Anonymous]

Shocked an appalled, an educational institution that refuses to acknowledge educational achievement because it might hurt someone’s feelings. Equity bringing everyone down to the lowest common denominator. Whoops my bad, I used a math term than many may not recognize.

[Anonymous]

OP, where is this info, I would love to see it verified.

Constant dumbing down. We worship all the athletes but academics mean nothing. Well my kid didn't make states in her sport. So I don't think we should hear about anyone who did? See how stupid that sounds.

I still don't know if I believe this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shocked an appalled, an educational institution that refuses to acknowledge educational achievement because it might hurt someone’s feelings. Equity bringing everyone down to the lowest common denominator. Whoops my bad, I used a math term than many may not recognize.

+1,000

[Anonymous]

We live elsewhere in Virginia and our kid graduated last week from high school. Didn't bother to pick up three cords or their stole or a medal, didn't want to participate in the look at me arms race. We were cool with that. Didn't bother to stand up for some parts of group recognition (with all students with a ___ please stand up). Then 90 percent of the graduates stand up. Kid won a huge departmental award the week before and that's all that mattered to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.)

The reasoning the kids were given is to protect the feelings of those who don't have honor cords -- who (whether voluntarily or involuntarily) decided not to join the honor societies or organizations that the honor cords denote. So, some kids are not being allowed to celebrate their hard won success to protect the fragility of others.

This is the same thing as the "participation trophy" in kindergarten soccer - -except now we are talking about adults about to enter the real world.

They can celebrate with family and friends. It is easy enough for a parent to make a toast be say "we are so proud that you graduated and that participated in list of X activities."

I think the problem now is that people are less interested in achievements for their own sake. It’s not enough for the school, family and close friends to recognize achievements. They want the whole world to know because everything is performative now. Parents are worse than their kids with this. Blame social media.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Troll.

I assure you I'm not. I have a rising HS Senior who came home last week and told me this news. I'm trying to corroborate this information here before I send my feedback directly to Michelle Reid!

I know they dropped honoring valedictorian long time ago. If do this for academic side, then shouldn’t varsity sports letters not be given either as kids that didn’t make team feel bad… is this really official and happening?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, where is this info, I would love to see it verified.

Constant dumbing down. We worship all the athletes but academics mean nothing. Well my kid didn't make states in her sport. So I don't think we should hear about anyone who did? See how stupid that sounds.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cords and stoles are completely out of control. It is ridiculous.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good. The cords are expensive and mean nothing.

Why does it mean nothing to get good grades in multiple AP classes, get over a 4.0 GPA, complete service hours, be in National Honor Society, etc.?

I haven't been to a FCPS graduation, but do they actually announce all these things or print them in the program? Is there a program? If not, they are at least a visible way to acknowledge hard work and success.
I think it's crazy to do away with all of that.

We already don't have valedictorians or class rank, which is a real problem on college applications.

So you just want to be able to show off that you have a smart kid who joined a lot of clubs? Shouldn't the knowledge that your child achieved all of this be enough?

You're way off. My kid is a sophomore and not on track for any of the cords I mentioned, himself. He is a varsity athlete, but I doubt they get cords. I still think that academic acheivement should be celebrated, and what better place than at graduation?
Now, as I said in my PP, if they are being acknowledge in some other way (announced at graduation or in the graduation program or at a separate awards dinner) then that is great and I love not participating in buying expensive cords. But if this is a backhanded way to NOT honor academic acheivement - like not having class rank or valedictorians, then I think it's the wrong decision.

Our school has a “class day” before graduation where lots of kids with special achievements are recognized. And I’d be surprised if graduation programs don’t continue to recognize kids in NHS, AP Scholars, IB diploma-track kids, etc.

This mostly sounds like discouraging a lot of expensive, extraneous, and sometimes controversial bling at graduation so, if it’s true, kudos to Reid.

So if you tell me they are saving $ and will use to actually help teachers in the classroom or to install vape detectors or to do something to keep bathrooms open, fine, go ahead and not do cords, but if not that then let the kids have cords for graduation as Gatehouse doesn’t need more $ going only to administrators.

[Anonymous]

So will FCPS employee also then not wear their stoles for masters or phd? Just writing that makes this is all just silly now- the ceremony is for the pomp and circumstance so if not doing that, just email the diplomas in a .pdf file. If took vote, many would likely vote for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.)

The reasoning the kids were given is to protect the feelings of those who don't have honor cords -- who (whether voluntarily or involuntarily) decided not to join the honor societies or organizations that the honor cords denote. So, some kids are not being allowed to celebrate their hard won success to protect the fragility of others.

This is the same thing as the "participation trophy" in kindergarten soccer - -except now we are talking about adults about to enter the real world.

So you would prefer kids achieve to get external validation? And celebrate by purchasing decorative stuff?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good. The cords are expensive and mean nothing.

Why does it mean nothing to get good grades in multiple AP classes, get over a 4.0 GPA, complete service hours, be in National Honor Society, etc.?

I haven't been to a FCPS graduation, but do they actually announce all these things or print them in the program? Is there a program? If not, they are at least a visible way to acknowledge hard work and success.
I think it's crazy to do away with all of that.

We already don't have valedictorians or class rank, which is a real problem on college applications.

So you just want to be able to show off that you have a smart kid who joined a lot of clubs? Shouldn't the knowledge that your child achieved all of this be enough?

You're way off. My kid is a sophomore and not on track for any of the cords I mentioned, himself. He is a varsity athlete, but I doubt they get cords. I still think that academic acheivement should be celebrated, and what better place than at graduation?
Now, as I said in my PP, if they are being acknowledge in some other way (announced at graduation or in the graduation program or at a separate awards dinner) then that is great and I love not participating in buying expensive cords. But if this is a backhanded way to NOT honor academic acheivement - like not having class rank or valedictorians, then I think it's the wrong decision.

Our school has a “class day” before graduation where lots of kids with special achievements are recognized. And I’d be surprised if graduation programs don’t continue to recognize kids in NHS, AP Scholars, IB diploma-track kids, etc.

This mostly sounds like discouraging a lot of expensive, extraneous, and sometimes controversial bling at graduation so, if it’s true, kudos to Reid.

Sounds like you have a principal takes action and makes these things happen, but unfortunately not all schools do. A blanket no to cords and stoles without a mandatory must have a day or include in programs means some schools will but guessing most won’t.

[Anonymous]

The kids do cord hauls:

https://www.tiktok.com/@caisy.c/video/7508571934544678187

https://www.tiktok.com/@mac.astro/video/7640193774899039501

https://www.tiktok.com/@ava.talks.too.much/video/7509288251874790702