Last night, Roy, Hayden, Dean and I went to Joe’s JROTC Awards Ceremony. They younger boys love it because it’s a huge potluck, and when else do they get to eat brownies and cupcakes alongside their mac and cheese?
Some of the awards that are presented have touching stories to go along with them, and that is always nice to see and hear, but we dont’ need to hear EVERY single AWARD, for EVERY little thing!
For one, it’s still school time-which means, kids have to get up the next day for school, parents have to go to work, little brothers and sisters (and in many cases older brothers and sisters) are getting restless. Not to mention they ran out of drinks 45 minutes into the program!
“And this award goes to 40 people for crawling for one hour on Tuesday!”
“Even though, they get varsity letters for the given sport they participate in, I want to take 20 minutes and recognize them AGAIN”
I’m not saying kids shouldn’t get recognition for their achievements, they should, but keep it like the Oscars. Give out the big awards, make a few (WELL) chosen speeches, and let people go. You know an awards ceremony is heading into ‘too long territory’ when even the parents in the audience are starting to roll their eyes, and sigh.
I’ve attended more than my fair share of sports banquets, and I think they are important to the kids and their families. It reminds the kids that we recognize their hard work, we admire their achievements, so we should also keep in mind that when we start giving awards for every little thing, when we start talking just to hear ourselves talk, we in some way make a mockery of the ceremony. The award ceremony should carry a bit of pomp and circumstance, it’s a time to recognize great achievement, and though it might suck, the kids usually know who will and won’t get the big awards.
I like talking, sometimes I probably do talk just to hear myself talk, but when I was a coach and gave out all my swimming awards, I made sure to keep things relatively short and sweet. The one thing I did make sure to do was to say something about eat child that I called up, something that let them (and their families) know it wasn’t just an award I was throwing out, I KNEW they deserved it, and this is how I knew it.
This idea that we HAVE to be fair to everyone, that we can’t celebrate great achievements by our children is ridiculous. Corey is getting ready to graduate, and he told us they do not have a valedictorian, because it 'might hurt other people’s feelings.“ REALLY? REALLY?
Are you telling me the kid with the 2.3 GPA, might actually THINK he/she is in the running?
I heard about another high school in New York that says they are 'banning’ talk about college acceptance, because other kids might get discouraged. REALLY?
Sooo…my kid works his butt off, gets into a good school, but can’t tell his friends at school because someone else might get discouraged?
I get that we want to encourage our kids, we want them to hold their heads high, and learn that doing their best is often good enough, but when does being PC go to far?