Honor Roll?

[daylily]

Ds is in middle school, and the policy is that if your report card shows grades of C's or higher, you're on the honor roll. B's are "high honors" and straight A's are "highest honors."

What do you think? Does lowering the bar like this raise kids' self esteem and help C students feel good about themselves or does it strip the honor from the honor roll?

According to ds, it's not cool to be smart, so now some C students, horrified at getting on the honor roll, are deliberately striving for D's now.

Also related, I recently read an article in The Washington Post about how enrollment in AP classes has soared--everybody wants to be in AP, with the result that traditional honors level classes are considered a joke. According to the article, no one is in honors anymore. You're either an AP student or you're remedial.

I'm not sure what to think. It's good that kids want to be challenged. There's a strong motivator to take as many AP classes as possible because it looks good on your college application, but if *everyone* is taking them, won't the standards have to be lowered, rendering the AP class as meaningless?

[EFmom]

I think it turns making the honor roll into a total joke. But I'm not really big on tactics to pump up everyone's "self-esteem." It seems to me that self-esteem is something that is gained from honest effort and accomplishment, not by mediocre performance or fluff.

I also think that AP classes are not what they used to be. They have been greatly watered down. Many colleges realize that as well.

[daylily]

ITA that self esteem comes from the satisfaction of a job well done. I'm surprised at how many school counselors don't realize this.

That's too bad about the watering down of AP classes. The one bright spot in the Post article was that the AP exam hasn't changed at all; but the article didn't mention what the pass rate is like these days. It kind of implied that just taking the courses was important, but not the exam. I remember from my own high school days you had to do well on the exam if you wanted the college credit.

[LunaMom]

I think what your ds's school is doing is awful. Kids aren't stupid, and they know that C's should not get a student on the honor roll.

When are people going to figure out that self-esteem does not come from people telling you how wonderful you are no matter what you do? In fact, I've read lately that studies are finding that American young adults suffer from a case of over-inflated self-esteem. My dh often has interns working for him and he tells me all the time how so many of them seem to think that any half-assed piece of work they do is worth gold. Plus, he tells me that they all have the worst writing skills he ever saw, even though they have college educations.

[EFmom]

In fact, I've read lately that studies are finding that American young adults suffer from a case of over-inflated self-esteem.

ITA. My dh is a high school student. He always gets fired up when the administration starts talking gibberish about pointless activities to boost student's self-esteem. The problem is not that they are lacking self-esteem. Indeed some have way too much of it for people who lack any skills, any drive or any motivation.

I heard an interesting interview with an administrator of a previously failing public school. The district had recently had a complete turn around, with test score averages improving sharply. The administrator acknowledged that the improvement had nothing to do with the school itself. They had a recent influx of Asian immigrant children, who consistently out-performed the other students.

The administrator surveyed the kids and asked them what the determining factor was in getting good grades. The American kids replied that it was intelligence. The immigrant kids replied that it was hard work.

[daylily]

That's interesting, EFmom (about the notions of intelligence vs. hard work.)

I once had an elementary school guidance counselor tell me (with a straight face) that an activity she often did with the kids was to have them write a list titled, "Fifty things that are great about ME." :

[Openskyheart]

Here's an interesting article that addresses this very issue:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/...in646890.shtml

My husband has noticed the same thingin some of the younger technicians and engineers at his company as yours has, LunaMom: poor work habits, and atrocious "basic skills" even with college degrees .

Laura