I am all for sensitivity toward kids who are struggling with academics, providing them encouragement, and avoiding humliating them.

It seems to me there's a world of difference between that and doing away with recognizing academic achievement.

The school honor roll, a time-honored system for rewarding A-students, has become an apparent source of embarrassment for some underachievers.
As a result, all Nashville schools have stopped posting honor rolls, and some are also considering a ban on hanging good work in the hallways on the advice of school lawyers.
After a few parents complained their children might be ridiculed for not making the list, Nashville school system lawyers warned that state privacy laws forbid releasing any academic information, good or bad, without permission.
Some schools have since put a stop to academic pep rallies. Others think they may have to cancel spelling bees. And now schools across the state may follow Nashville's lead.

I mean, what's next -- disbanding the football team because it humiliates the physically handicapped (not to mention pencil-necked geeks like I was)? Doing away with theater programs because kids with reading problems or speech impediments are less likely to get roles?

Others think it might be a good idea to get rid of the honor roll altogether, as Principal Steven Baum did at Julia Green Elementary in Nashville.
"The rationale was, if there are some children that always make it and others that always don't make it, there is a very subtle message that was sent," he said.

Yes. It is that some kids are consistently doing well, achieving, succeeding. And that some kids need additional help from the school to figure things out.

Modeling is a very powerful tool. So is rewarding achievement. The idea that not being recognized = humiliation = personal disrespect by the school strikes me as a wildly dangerous one.

(via SoA)

Filed under :: School Daze
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This is much more an example of a well-intentioned privacy law being misused than it is an odd school policy.

The state has a law on the books making the sharing of school records illegal without parental permission. Someone noticed that Honor Rolls (and academic pep rallies and other such) violate this law. And, without question, they do... the law is extremely broad in its definition of "school records".

Simple solution... the schools have added distribution of honor roll info to their blanket permission slip each year. This is already done in many other states (it was done in KY 20 years ago when I was in high school).

No news here.

The article certainly describes that aspect of it, but also that a number of people feel that this is as good an excuse as any to get rid of academic achievement awards, rolls, displays, whatever. That's the part I object to.

A few parents are illogical to the point of being wacko.

Meanwhile, the schools make do with a quick, easy fix that will just result in those parents who choose not to allow recognition losing out while others continue on just fine.

Still no news there. The only person I'd be angry with is the news editor who decided to give those "few parents" access to the bully pulpit of national media.

And people wonder why students aren't modivated in school. (sigh) There is no reward for doing well and little punishment for doing poorly.

I put most of this onto the parents. Teachers today have to put up with threats from aprents to give the kids better grades, rather than soliciting help in improving things. Why should a child make an effort, when poor grades are never their fault. Arrrr

Good parents of good kids who work hard in school need to protest as loudly as the bad parents.

Well, a few parents and at least one principal, as quoted.

This privacy law is Tenessee law, a more stringent version than the federal version that many states use instead (as well as I remember it from the radio). Many have fogotten that equal opportunities (which everyone should and may not have), is not the same as equal outcomes.
If you want further reading about the "honorless" or "mass excellence" school of thought read "Class Warfare" byJ. Martin Rochester. I'll glad to lean.
I'm very sorry that the "city on the hill" ideal of a vision of excellence that others can aspire to has been replaced by "let's not offend anyone."

Honestly, I have become sick of, "I'm proud of my honour student," bumperstickers. I'm proud of my _kid_. (Sure, he's the smartest thing since Barry Ween, but we don't have to go advertising.) On the other hand, I made honour roll Each And Every Time until my parents no longer made a big deal out of it. [shrugs] No incentive, no progress.

I find the "I'm proud of my honor student" bumper stickers to be pretty goofy, too, though I'm not sure I can articulate why. Perhaps because it takes academic achievement outside of the school (or the home) and turns it into social one-upsmanship on the street. Or maybe because I find most bumper stickers annoying.

My favorite bumper sticker of all time, seen only once, is "Eschew obfuscation."