I don't know too much about how easily children are scarred for life these days, but if being left off the honor roll is all it takes, then there's got to be something wrong with the way children are growing up.
A list honoring good work in academics is supposed to encourage students to do their best, not whine because they weren't able to get on.
Perhaps the students and teachers involved in the Tennessee cases that are leading lawyers to encourage schools to do away with the practice of displaying good work on bulletin boards or at the front of the classroom are looking at the issue in the wrong way.
An Associated Press story reported that "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."
So what's next, no more spelling bees?
No more gym class?
What happens to some poor child's ego when they are the only one in the class to not be able to do pushups?
What about the ones who need to hear that they are doing a good job?
Student artwork is often displayed in classrooms and hallways. What if this extends to state-funded universities? The hall up on the sixth floor of Smith Hall will be pretty bare when it's been forbidden to display art that received a good grade.
The last I remember, encouraging children to do their best was what was important, not making sure that the ones who are struggling get to struggle in silence while the ones who excel get no recognition.
Perhaps the problem is that the educational system rewards high grades, but not improved grades. Would it be a better situation to congratulate the student who works hard and brings their grades up from a D to a C? Maybe, but we can't just refuse to give a pat on the back to the students who's hard work always shows. Everyone excels at something, to make a child feel worthwhile, maybe we just need to work harder at finding that one thing.
Still there are some who would prefer to do away with the Honor Roll concept altogether. "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," Principal Steven Baum of Julia Green Elementary in Nashville. "I also understand right to privacy is the legal issue for the new century."
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