No Child Left Behind

I attended my daughter's kindergarten award ceremony. . . . Every child received an award from their teacher for the best smile, best dancer etc. It obscured the real awards such as Excellence in Reading that meant that the student is a year ahead of their peers in this endeavor. . . . .

Now we all know that this is to protect the self esteem of the children who are victims of their upbringing, who have a low self esteem created by a poor parental environment. But what is the turn of the coin?

After minimizing the true accomplishments of the able students (for whatever the reason) - which is what awards are for. . . . The principal gave out awards for attendance. This is the same person that the child who read the most books got to have lunch with. He must be important right? And now he gives out 4 classes of awards for attendance. The final award went to the one child who had not been absent, late, or left from school for a doctors appointment. The principal encouraged the complimentary clapping for this student to become a standing ovation.

Now, I found all this to be quite annoying. Not only have we taken the recognition of achievement out of the award ceremony, but we made it all about the school's 'Bread & Butter', attendance. And now I am being suckered into standing up and clapping like a hypocrite.

And then, I looked over at my daughter. . . she is visibly hurt. She received the Excellence in Reading from her teacher, and I am standing there cheering with the Principal for some child who spent everyday at school. She drags Mom into the bathroom and has a cry.

Now, you can guess I am angry. I have heard about dumbing down education, and scoffed at it as if it is the way of the times. But, now I got to see first hand how I got suckered into injuring my child's self esteem.

My daughter will come out of this. Her family is more important than school. For now it is. So we will repair the self esteem damage done by the school. We can. The school knows it. They have saved many at the risk of the elite few who are smart enough and have the support system at home to help them reco ver.

Is there any damage being done to those poor unfortunate kids who needed that boost in self esteem? They probally learn that all they need to do is show up to work everyday and collect a paycheck. Performance will not be an issue. . . But don't you think that a mind is a terrible thing to waste?