Every Child is Special

[Hobbit]

That's what they were told. For as far back as any students can remember, 4.0 graduates from Durango (CO) High School were afforded a special honor. The school's colors are red and white. Most students wear red robes for graduation. Those who have a 4.0 unweighted GPA at graduation always got to wear white robes to highlight that achievement, but not any more. Recently the principal informed these 23 students that while their GPA is still recognizably by knots and they'll still get a mention, they'll have to wear the same color robe as everybody else. The following quote is quite telling.

"Every graduate has met the graduation requirements, and every child is special on graduation day," Lashinsky wrote. "I feel the white gowns worn by some graduates diminish the accomplishment and hard work of other graduates by relative comparison."

For some of the students, the thought of wearing the white robes was a great motivator throughout high school, a goal to reach. Half of them have sent letters of protest.

http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin...ws080417_1.htm

I, personally, think it's asinine. By not rewarding excellence, you are encouraging mediocrity. The efforts of government schools to keep any child from ever feeling inferior, ever (unless, of course, they're not good at football or basketball), they have removed nearly all incentive to succeed, causing us to raise a generation of dunces with no real education and no motivation.

[Hobbit]

And here's a quote on point from C.S. Lewis.

What I want to fix your attention on is the vast overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence -- moral, cultural, social or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how 'democracy' (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient dictatorships, and by the same methods? The basic proposal of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be 'undemocratic.' Children who are fit to proceed may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval's [of the same age] attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT. We may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when 'I'm as good as you' has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway, the teachers -- or should I say nurses? -- will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men.

[Abbey Marie]

The diminshment of excellence. How sad for our country and for these hard-working kids.

We also have to contend with the era of 10 valedictorians per graduation.

[Hobbit]

The diminshment of excellence. How sad for our country and for these hard-working kids.

We also have to contend with the era of 10 valedictorians per graduation.

Yeah, no kidding. My cousin was valedictorian at her high school, but then there was the teacher's kid. This kid had a 4.0 unweighted, but hadn't taken half the AP and honors classes my cousin did to earn her much-higher-than-4.0 weighted GPA, so the school changed the rules to award 'valedictorian' to every graduate who has an unweighted 4.0. My cousin lost a scholarship she was lined up for because scholarship funds don't count you as valedictorian if your school recognized more than one except in the case of a tie.

[mundame]

And here's a quote on point from C.S. Lewis.

C.S. Lewis was wonderfully conservative.

In a way, I don't think it matters. I'm sort of on the side of everyone wearing the same graduation gown colors. I don't think celebrating high IQ is where it's at, because that's a natural gift: might as well celebrate blond or red hair color. That wouldn't really be fair.

It's not necessary to make a big point of young people having smarts, because they are, you know, going to rule the Earth, and the others aren't. So maybe we shouldn't rub that in too much.

I think it would be more important to knock off the fake egalitarianism, pretending that everyone is "special," and just make sure kids are taught at levels suitable to their intelligence. And that discipline is a WHOLE lot better in classrooms, and that kids who want to learn aren't told they'll be beat up for "acting white." Or if they are white, called "fags" for doing their homework.

I'd like to see the schools foster as much learning as anyone can get their minds around, and forget about the colors of the robes at graduation.

[Hobbit]

C.S. Lewis was wonderfully conservative.

In a way, I don't think it matters. I'm sort of on the side of everyone wearing the same graduation gown colors. I don't think celebrating high IQ is where it's at, because that's a natural gift: might as well celebrate blond or red hair color. That wouldn't really be fair.

It's not necessary to make a big point of young people having smarts, because they are, you know, going to rule the Earth, and the others aren't. So maybe we shouldn't rub that in too much.

See, that's the problem right there. Being smart doesn't make you successful. It takes hard work. These kids weren't told 'you have a 150 IQ, so you get all A's.' They had to study hard. They had to do lots of homework. They had to put extra effort into their projects. Once you start assuming that a high IQ is a guarantee of success is when you start crossing into the dangerous territory of offering no incentive for hard work. Those kids worked hard for what they had, and the principal yanked the rug right out from under them so that the students who goofed off and didn't study wouldn't feel bad now that they're reaping what they sow. It's retarded.

[mundame]

Being smart doesn't make you successful. It takes hard work.

And luck. Too true, too true.

However, these kids already get rewards for being smart and working hard: entry to good colleges, scholarships. You don't get that automatically, most kids anyway.

[Abbey Marie]

When my daughter took AP Calculus in Junior year, she ended up doing 2-3 hours of Calc homework every school night. I call that hard work, and worthy of special recognition if she excels at it. Even kids with high IQ's need to work hard in many AP courses.

Not to mention that the school's reputation goes up with the number of kids taking AP courses. And local real estate prices along with it. The kids should boycott all AP courses, and see how fast the school changes it's tune.

[Hobbit]

And luck. Too true, too true.

However, these kids already get rewards for being smart and working hard: entry to good colleges, scholarships. You don't get that automatically, most kids anyway.

And that's not very visible. If you read the article, you'll see that while the kids probably, on some level, realized the importance of success, it was the special recognition and the white robes that motivated them to succeed. We're talking high school students, stupid, blockheaded high school students who are quite likely to think a state football championship is more important than learning algebra. Saying 'good college' and 'good job' over and over again isn't going to motivate high school freshmen. Giving them a chance to draw attention to themselves, however...

[Abbey Marie]

"If everyone is special, then no one is special"

[Hagbard Celine]

"You are not a special and unique snowflake."

[Yurt]

C.S. Lewis was wonderfully conservative.

In a way, I don't think it matters. I'm sort of on the side of everyone wearing the same graduation gown colors. I don't think celebrating high IQ is where it's at, because that's a natural gift: might as well celebrate blond or red hair color. That wouldn't really be fair.

It's not necessary to make a big point of young people having smarts, because they are, you know, going to rule the Earth, and the others aren't. So maybe we shouldn't rub that in too much.

I think it would be more important to knock off the fake egalitarianism, pretending that everyone is "special," and just make sure kids are taught at levels suitable to their intelligence. And that discipline is a WHOLE lot better in classrooms, and that kids who want to learn aren't told they'll be beat up for "acting white." Or if they are white, called "fags" for doing their homework.

I'd like to see the schools foster as much learning as anyone can get their minds around, and forget about the colors of the robes at graduation.

so then we should all have a right to letterman jackets...

[hjmick]

Every time I see the title of this thread, I think of Monty Python's Every Sperm Is Sacred.

[gabosaurus]

The different color graduation robe is pretty garish. The idea of graduation is to honor those who made it through high school (or college).
At my high school, the top 10 percent got to wear a gold braided rope type thing. They also had the honor announced along with their name.
No one likes it when traditions are changed.

[Hobbit]

Every time I see the title of this thread, I think of Monty Python's Every Sperm Is Sacred.

You're not the only one. It's been stuck in my head ALL DAY.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kJHQpvgB8[/YOUTUBE]

The different color graduation robe is pretty garish. The idea of graduation is to honor those who made it through high school (or college).
At my high school, the top 10 percent got to wear a gold braided rope type thing. They also had the honor announced along with their name.
No one likes it when traditions are changed.

It's the way and the reason that get me. If they decided to do it some other way, like maybe a phase out, I'd be more understanding, but they yanked it with less than half the final semester to go for the dumbest, most cliched reason imaginable.