Graduation
Well folks, The Boy "graduated" from elementary school this morning. Far more pomp and circumstance than was required for a transition to middle school, but it was cute and I'm sure the kids enjoyed it ;) For the record, Drew's middle school goal is to make the football team, his goal after high school is to go to college, and his career goal is to play guitar in a rock band (all announced as he walked across the stage).
So this graduation thing got me thinking ... I know I for one did not graduate from anything before high school. So when did this trend begin? And how widespread is it? Do kids "graduate" from pre-school or kindergarten? And if they do, why? Is it more for the parent's benefit or the kids? Will the kids even remember it?
Similarly, what is up with "participation awards"? Personally, I think it's silly to give every kid on a team a trophy for simply having been on the team. For one thing, if the team itself didn't earn recognition of some sort why are the kids being awarded at all? And secondly, if every kid receives a ribbon or a metal or whatever, just so "no one feels left out," where's the incentive for kids to try their best? Where's the lesson in winning/losing/sometimes life isn't fair? How can they feel a sense of accomplishment, or reward for hard work? They basically get a trophy simply for having parents willing to sign them up for the activity. And that is no reason to get a trophy in my book.
I don't know, it just seems odd to me. All this fuss over events/occurrences rather than actual achievements.
4 comments:
Lady,
I am sooo with you on this one. How do you encourage a child to be competitive and win if he/she gets an award anyway?
As discussed previously....I will be the parent from hell! "what do you mean-you didn't win"!!??
Cait
Well I distinctly remember "Graduating" from kindergarten (my dad gave me a hard time after I colored my "diploma"), and elementary school, and middle school. You're going to be one of those "And I had to walk two miles, up-hill both ways, through the SNOW..." kind of parents aren't you? ;) Of course the "Graduations" I remember were pretty simple little ceremonies, probably not what goes on today--we didn't have caps and gowns or anything.
I totally agree with you on the BS of giving every child awards/ribbons/trophies, etc. for nothing. This has been a trend for awhile now and it is starting to show up with recent collage grads--the inability to work individually, lack of competitiveness, creativity, etc. It's frightening. I keep hoping they'll snap out of this "we're ALL winners" thing by the time my kids are in school.
BTW, one of these days Drew is going to die when he sees his old goals written out. ;) Aren't blogs the best?
Yes it common for "everyone" to receive an award for doing nothing but participating in an activity. Our old preschool had a graduation ceremony for the Kindegarteners. Kids aren't experiencing healthy competition at all.
I am so with you on this one. What happened to competitiveness and the desire to get ahead and be acomplished. I believe that this trend has set the tone for the next generation to have sense of "entitlement" and that they should get something for virtually no effort. I could rant for DAYS on this one.
Post a Comment