Return-Path: <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id f55Emcf11117; Tue, 5 Jun 2001 10:48:38 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2001 10:48:38 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3B1CF0F9.EAC56A3A@ellijay.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Art LaChance <arthur@ellijay.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-LD:3471] Re: FW: Humiliating Awards Ceremony at School X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I) Status: O Content-Length: 3797 Lines: 72 I'm sorry Tom, I don't like any sort of public recognition that promotes "competitiveness". It always turns out to have a negative effect on those who don't achieve, even though it's not readily admitted to. Those who are in community volunteer or tutor functions shouldn't need public recognition, and if they do they're in it for the wrong reasons. Competetion within oneself is intense enough without having to deal with outside competetion. Children, and adults, need recognition for what they do, right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate. Consistency. Somewhere we developed this competetiveness atmosphere in the school classroom, and forced it's carry over into society. It's a beast. It eats it's young. Children are captured and forced to participate in the arena, without option. Over 50% of them will develop mild to moderate symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) as a direct result. It may be related to a single environmental situation (math class) or may be related to the whole environment (school house). Children do not have the life wisdom to problem solve their way through the school experience successfully without help. If they don't recieve that "special" "personal" attention and private recognition that reinforces their attempts they lose. We look good, but they lose. If the recognition occurs in a public forum with non-reciepients as an audience, the negative effect on those who aren't recognized is very high. As adults we may be able to rationalize our way out of the emotional garbage this creates on us, but children are not equipped to do so. I'd be real curious as to how many of your inmates have a history of significant negative emotional experience that ocurred between the ages of 5 and 10, and how many of those were associated directly with the school house. The diploma at the end of the cycle of learning should be sufficient. Either that or somebody needs to start giving me a trophy every morning when I awake, just for managing to stay alive one more day. Art Art LaChance Gilmer Learning Center Ellijay, GA Woods wrote: > Thank you, Art LaChance and C. Rahe, for your valuable comments. I knew > there was a reason why I'm averse to public awards and recognition. In my > school we award high school credits and certificates of completion on a > regular basis, but it is done privately. It is evident that the students > enjoy receiving this kind of acknowledgement, as they do the 100's on their > papers and pats on the back. > > I appreciate your points that awarding achievement publicly can have an > unintended negative effect on those who do not achieve. The implicit message > in such awards is that there is a competition going on. This is definitely > not the message I want to send my guys, who have been on the losing end all > their lives. They can smell a rat a mile off, and they are wise to all the > tricks. That said, I wonder if there is any kind of public acknowledgement > for student work that you would find acceptable and beneficial to all, or do > you feel it's all irrelevant, non-productive, or worse? I'm thinking here of > public thanks for community service, perhaps, or acknowledging the effort of > a student in pursuit of an educational goal, or an award for effort as a > peer tutor. > > Our school, within a prison, is under pressure to make some educational > awards at a monthly awards and recognition night. The intent is to > acknowledge and encourage normal healthy community membership rather than > the typical "us vs. them" prison mentality. I was thinking of acknowledging > the school credits that had been earned by students as they progress toward > their diploma, but now after reading your posts, I'm questioning the wisdom > of this. Any thoughts? > > Tom
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