MyFoxBoston.com reports that David Fabrizio, principal of Ipswich Middle School, notified parents last week of his plan to eliminate the event.
"The Honors Night, which can be a great sense of pride for the recipients' families, can also be devastating to a child who has worked extremely hard in a difficult class but who, despite growth, has not been able to maintain a high grade-point average," Fabrizio penned in his first letter to parents, the station reported.
Fabrizio also said he decided to make the change because academic success can be influenced by the amount of support a student receives at home and not all students receive the same level of emotional and academic support at home.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/20/massachusetts-principal-calls-off-honor-night-because-it-could-be-devastating/?test=latestnews#ixzz2OCBUTsyI
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Let me see if I have this right. Students who worked hard, made good grades, and maybe had support at home will NOT be honored because not all students who worked hard made good grades. OH, I get it. Everyone gets a trophy or no one gets a trophy. I'm boiling inside. I'm so mad that I'm sure my blood pressure went up 20 points or more.
How have we reached this point? Heck, I worked hard in school and had good support at home, but I occasionally made C's and D's. I even failed Algebra I and had to repeat it. Did I or my parents go screaming up to school to demand that I be included in an awards ceremony? Did I get into the National Honor Society? Was I devastated over my less than stellar grades? No, no, and yes. But did those things mean I should have been on the stage with my peers who had made the mark and were being honored? No, it didn't.
In the work world, I know I was a better teacher than some of my colleagues. I took work home every night and on the weekends. I came early and stayed late to work with students who needed extra help, unlike some teachers who flew into their rooms as the first bell was ringing and then ran over the kids to get out the room when the dismissal bell rang. Did I get recognized for my efforts? No. Did some of the slackers get recognized instead? Yes, because they were buddies with the administrators.
Life isn't fair. Sometimes we hit the mark and sometimes we don't. Unlike in my day, however, when not meeting the mark meant we worked harder so that we would be successful the next time around, today's parents and students want the awards and rewards without doing the work. Usually, those people scream the loudest. Unfortunately, usually they win and get their way, too. Life isn't fair to the rest of us when that happens.
The principal of Ipswich Middle School should have to sit in the corner with a dunce cap on, because that's what he is, a dunce. He's a pawn of the parents and whiners. He's perpetuating the problems of non-achievers.
I'm sorry that not all children get the emotional and academic support they need at home. But isn't that frequently because they're being reared by parents who also did little or nothing at school? Are we going to continue to pay the price for what those parents and now their children are doing or not doing? Give me a break.
You can be a victim or you can be a can be a winner. And you need to remember than even winners are occasionally bitten by the system. But you learn to deal with it, and you mature when that happens. If you're constantly a victim, maybe you better look into a mirror and see who's the reason for your lack of success.
Shame on you Principal Fabraizio. You've just given the losers another reason for giving up on success. Why work harder? You didn't get an award? Well, the awards should be done away with, right?
Life isn't fair, and this time it's not fair to the students who achieved success. Is everyone happy now? I didn't think so.
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