Middle school cancels honors night

[GaryG]

Because it would make the ones who were not honored feel bad. Maybe the others should be given a participation trophy.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/20/mass-middle-school-principal-catches-flak-cancelin/

[mostpost]

Because it would make the ones who were not honored feel bad. Maybe the others should be given a participation trophy.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/20/mass-middle-school-principal-catches-flak-cancelin/
It's a stupid idea. I mean cancelling the honors night is a stupid idea. Kids need to rewarded for doing well. And kids need to learn how to deal with adversity. There are no participation trophies in life.

In a similar vein, I am not a fan of athletic events in which you don't keep score or statistics. True, in the early years the emphasis should be on teaching skills and teamwork, but one way of telling how well you are doing is by how well your team is doing.

By the time a kid gets to high school the best players should play the most, and the next best players should play the next most and the players with the least skills should feel proud that they were good enough to make the team.

As far as the role of coaches goes, I think the coach of the boys basketball team at the high school I follow put it best. Addressing the parents of the players on his team he said. "Don't come to the coaches and tell us your son should be starting or should be playing more. Your son determines his status by how he practices and how he plays. This is not a recreation league, this is competitive basketball. Our purpose in playing is to win games. We will try to give all players time on the floor, but only in the context of winning games."

This is a successful coach. One who does not hesitate to sit a player for even a minor rules violation, and one who does not wait for a convenient game to do so. He takes pride in running an honest program. The result? Success; more twenty win seasons in his fifteen years than in the previous 90 years of basketball at the school.

Sorry I rambled there. My point is, do well and you will be rewarded. Do poorly and you sit on the bench.

[wisconsin]

When I coached youth football, some years I played players equally, and some years, I played subs sparingly. Either the talent was there, or it was not.

I sell cars for a living. I sell 20+ units per months and make good money. Should I be asked to give the guy selling 7 a few of my units in the name of fairness?

Well, that is what this school is teaching.

[Greyfox]

The Self-esteem Movement is winning over the Meritocracy movement.

Everybody passes and many can't read.

Public schools are issuing a mediocre product in general upon graduation day.

[Tom]

Alright you guys, which one of you hacked into mostie's account and are posting for him? :lol:


mostie, I must say, you are very "right" here! :ThmbUp:

[BlueShoe]

Alright you guys, which one of you hacked into mostie's account and are posting for him? :lol:


mostie, I must say, you are very "right" here! :ThmbUp:
Aw, Tom beat me to it, was going to say pretty much the same thing. :D Now, what was that old saying about broken clocks------? :)

[FantasticDan]

Someone explain to me how a middle-school principal changing an award ceremony from the evening to the day becomes any sort of "news" story :rolleyes: :p

"And later tonite.. the Tater-tot Tuesday scandal.. who's really to be blame? And will liberal lunch ladies replace it with Fruitful Friday?" :eek: :eek:

[Mike at A+]

My point is, do well and you will be rewarded. Do poorly and you sit on the bench.
That same logic should apply to government handouts. Unfortunately too many rewards are given to people sitting on the bench.

[mostpost]

Alright you guys, which one of you hacked into mostie's account and are posting for him? :lol:


mostie, I must say, you are very "right" here! :ThmbUp:
You're thinking that this is the same thing as being on welfare. Well it is not. In the first place, the kids in that school all had the same opportunity. The same teachers-in their respective grades, the same facilities, the same opportunities.

In fact the less successful students may have had more support in terms of tutoring etc. Also, none of the teachers are actively working to hold any students back.

On the other hand, in the real world there are powerful forces working against the worker. Wages are kept at the lowest level the employer can get away with paying, not at a level that provides both a fair wage and a just profit. Benefits are constantly being diminished. Employees have to work harder and harder for less and less money.

I know there are people who are gaming the system, but I would rather pay benefits to one of those people than not pay benefits to someone who justly needs them.

[mostpost]

That same logic should apply to government handouts. Unfortunately too many rewards are given to people sitting on the bench.
Are they sitting on the bench because they have an injury; i.e. they lost their job in the recession or their salary has not kept pace with prices; or are they on the bench because they won't put in the effort to get off?

The former I have a great deal of sympathy for and don't think they should be punished because the latter exist.

[Mike at A+]

Are they sitting on the bench because they have an injury; i.e. they lost their job in the recession or their salary has not kept pace with prices; or are they on the bench because they won't put in the effort to get off?

The former I have a great deal of sympathy for and don't think they should be punished because the latter exist.
Which is a good reason to limit the handouts and use them as the safety net for which they were originally intended. But we all know that many people are taking advantage of these handouts and refusing to apply for jobs because they would rather sit on the couch (or bench) all day and game the system for all they can. I think we all have sympathy for those who want to work but can't because of a disability. There are plenty of jobs available that go unfilled because it's easier to collect a taxpayer funded government handout.

[Robert Fischer]

Someone explain to me how a middle-school principal changing an award ceremony from the evening to the day becomes any sort of "news" story :rolleyes: :p

"And later tonite.. the Tater-tot Tuesday scandal.. who's really to be blame? And will liberal lunch ladies replace it with Fruitful Friday?" :eek: :eek:

:lol:
Nothing worse than finding out pizza or chicken nuggets has been changed to egg salad sandwich...

[Tom]

Someone explain to me how a middle-school principal changing an award ceremony from the evening to the day becomes any sort of "news" story :rolleyes: :p



It is a small segment of a larger new story -the pussification of America, the Rise of the New Castrati. Alone, it is nothing, but we are seeing more and more of our
culture being lowered and success being treated as a bad thing. We are rewarding failure and demonizing winning. And more and more, it is being done by our piss-poor embarrassment of a school system. We fail to teach basic skills, like math, reading, writing, but we make damn sure our kids come out anyways, and fully indoctrinated. We made a lot of fun about some of the stupid people that were supporting Obama in the first election. But the fact is, theses total idiots probably made it through our educational system, and they are out there, voting, driving, breeding.

As a nation, we should be ashamed of this dumbing down and start demanding our schools not only stop failing our kids, but insist that the only acceptable goal is success. There is no room for feelings in school. If you want to earn a trophy in sports, then you damn well go out there and earn it. There is shame in losing, as long as you accept it. If you get mad, get pissed when you lose, if you cry at night because you did not get a reward, then you learn how to stand up and fix that. Not have some empty reward to suckle on.
When you lose at the tack, you don't get a refund so you feel good.

That's the story.

[Tom]

:lol:
Nothing worse than finding out pizza or chicken nuggets has been changed to egg salad sandwich...

This is funny, but sad. I hear over and over how our kids are eating junk food in school and efforts to fix the problem keep failing.

Duh.

who the hell runs the schools? you want all the junk food out - make it happen, not tomorrow, today! When I was in school, you never saw a Coke, or a candy bar, potato chips were sold one day a week, in a portion controlled cup. One slice of hardly a Dominoes pizza.....madatory veggies......good stuff. We all survived. No wonder so many kids are miserable failures - they are being taught by miserable failures. We can't get the basics right because we institutionalize failure.

USA or UWA (United Woosies of Apathy)?

[PaceAdvantage]

Someone explain to me how a middle-school principal changing an award ceremony from the evening to the day becomes any sort of "news" story :rolleyes: :p

"And later tonite.. the Tater-tot Tuesday scandal.. who's really to be blame? And will liberal lunch ladies replace it with Fruitful Friday?" :eek: :eek:That damn right-wing Washington Times...at it again...

Anyhoo...who is John Galt?

[BlueShoe]

I hear it all the time from friends and acquaintances in the real working world about how badly many of these kids react when they enter the labor force and get that first job or two. They expect to get a gold star just for showing up, and when nobody gives a damn about preserving their "self esteem" many are quite shocked.

[boxcar]

You're thinking that this is the same thing as being on welfare. Well it is not. In the first place, the kids in that school all had the same opportunity. The same teachers-in their respective grades, the same facilities, the same opportunities.

In fact the less successful students may have had more support in terms of tutoring etc. Also, none of the teachers are actively working to hold any students back.

On the other hand, in the real world there are powerful forces working against the worker. Wages are kept at the lowest level the employer can get away with paying, not at a level that provides both a fair wage and a just profit. Benefits are constantly being diminished. Employees have to work harder and harder for less and less money.

I know there are people who are gaming the system, but I would rather pay benefits to one of those people than not pay benefits to someone who justly needs them.

So, did all those kids have the same parents, too? Did all come into this world privileged to have been born to good parents? Or were some kids born into bad situations where maybe the parent or parents are incapable of providing adequate help and support? Or worse...the parent or parents are indifferent to the needs of their children?

Or did all those kids come into the world possessing the same gifts and aptitudes and skills? Or did some kids come into this world slightly disadvantaged because the good Lord above didn't bless them all the same way?

There's no such thing in this world as a level playing field -- except in Marxist theory.

Boxcar

[GaryG]

Speaking of food offered in schools, it is not just lunch. Now virtually every school system has a breakfast program that includes baby sitting before school. This is a total waste of taxpayers' money. What the hell are parents for? Just another brick in the wall on our goal for cradle to grave govt care.

[Mike at A+]

Are they sitting on the bench because they have an injury; i.e. they lost their job in the recession or their salary has not kept pace with prices; or are they on the bench because they won't put in the effort to get off?

The former I have a great deal of sympathy for and don't think they should be punished because the latter exist.
A few points to clarify here that my previous response did not address. It should be obvious to all that those falling into "the latter" (not putting in the effort) should not qualify for any government handouts. There are plenty of jobs out there where people with minimal skills can put forth minimal effort and receive minimal compensation. And I'm tired of all the whining about what constitutes a "livable wage". There is a government mandated minimum wage in every state and all employers are perfectly in compliance with those mandates. Whining about the compensation received by the CEOs of these companies or whatever multiple it may be of the guy in the mail room scores no points with me. What they make is none of my business and none of anyone's business except the CEOs and the shareholders. Employment is at will by both parties.

As for "the former", injuries sustained on the job are covered by workmen compensation. Injuries sustained elsewhere should be covered by private insurance. People are free to choose to purchase such insurance or they can roll the dice. As for people who "lost their job in the recession", they have gotten typically 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. Those in the low skill jobs who were earning minimal wages should have little trouble obtaining another job somewhere in that 99 week period. Those who possessed more marketable skills and received higher compensation might take a bit longer to obtain a job paying a wage they have become used to. Those people should also have some savings to rely upon during their down time because they are generally smarter than the minimum wage worker and possess a higher level of personal responsibility. As for those whose salary has not "kept pace" with prices, I could write volumes about that. But to briefly touch upon a few points, if advancement in compensation isn't sufficient to any particular employee, that employee needs to make an assessment as to whether he or she wants to continue in that employment relationship or to start "playing the field". Another point to consider is why a salary is not keeping pace with prices. Is job performance an issue? Is a company not as prosperous as it had been previously and forced to limit raises? Is government printing an excessive amount of money thereby devaluing the dollar and causing prices to rise disproportionate to salaries?

The bottom line is that all people are different. Different skill levels, different educational achievements, different work ethic, different family instilled values and yes, even different luck. There are no guarantees in life and it isn't government's job to ensure equal outcomes. Because no matter where they draw the line between who makes and who takes, there will always be people slightly above that line who get screwed. The line should be drawn based upon not how much someone "needs" (as determined by government) but based upon events that cannot be determined or influenced by those deemed to qualify for assistance. Skill levels, educational achievements, work ethic, values and even luck are all controllable to some level by able bodied persons with free will and desire to succeed.