Reply to Silver Spring's Eastern Middle School gets slammed for rewarding good students

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Silver Spring's Eastern Middle School gets slammed for rewarding good students"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think people are responding to the graded treats.  Straight A's, pizza and soda and early entry.  Next level down, soda but no pizza or early entry.  Next level, no food.  Lowest level, not welcome at all.  Who comes up with this stuff?  Educators?  It's idiotic  and embarrassing.[/quote]

Not to mention that the whole party was structured so that only those with straight As could go during the school day -- every one else who qualified had to stay after school to enjoy, which meant, really, most non-straight A kids who qualified for some other level of participation couldn't even participate because most of them have to go home after school for jobs, family care, or because they don't have parents who can pick them up and must take the bus home.  It really speaks to the lack of understanding that the administration has about the lives of their own students. [/quote]

This argument makes sense to me, and on one hand I can definitely see your point. Maybe holding the party at lunch would have been better so that all eligible students could attend. On the other hand, another point of view might be that since this is an optional, invitation, recognition event - the school cannot necessarily be expected to accommodate everyone's schedules and it is up to the students who want to attend or their families to figure out how to make it work. I am probably closer to this viewpoint, because otherwise where do we draw the line? Is it unfair that students who cannot stay after school cannot participate in audition-based extracurriculars too, since those are also a means of recognition? I'm not really sure what the answer is, but it seems that the administration is in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation here: Not offering recognition for strong academics seems wrong somehow for a school, but offering a party to recognize high achievers during the last portion of the day and after school draws the ire of parents.

The major point on which I disagree with you, is that you seem to think it was unfair for those with straight As to be able to attend during the day while others couldn't. Assuming the party was held during instructional time, I disagree with you here. Students with straight As have demonstrated mastery of the subject matter in their classes and can therefore likely afford to miss class time whereas those with a grade lower than an A in a subject are demonstrating that they still need to be in class to learn and master the body of knowledge they are expected to know for the course.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics