Awards

At my kids school they have an end of year award ceremony. I like that kids are recognized for their hard work. I know it does a lot for self-esteem and can encourage them to keep working or work harder. But sometimes I wonder for what we are awarding them? They have awards for character. I wonder are these kids outstanding or just better than average at trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness,
caring, and citizenship. Both of my kids received awards in these “pillars of character”. Fawn received on for citizenship and Buck received one for fairness- I have met my kids they are not overly good at these thing, as a matter of fact these are behaviors that I expect from them. I expect that all should strive to be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, fair, caring, and a good citizen. So why do we give awards?
In these times schools cannot count on families to teach these things to children. So they have to teach it at school. Since school is about achievement as well as many other things they give awards for not acting like an idiot. I suppose the next thing they will give awards for will be table manners; of course I wouldn’t expect my little animals to get that.
In addition to these awards Fawn got High honor roll for both quarters and most academically improved student. I am very proud of her achievement to get straight A’s I know she has worked hard for those A’s. The most improved student is puzzling because she has always been a good student. She had A’s and B’s first semester and all A’s second semester.
In addition to fairness Buck had three other awards- subtraction facts, over 100 books read, and leader reader. Leader reader is cool only one kid per class gets that award and it is given to the best behaved student that also turns in all their library books on time. I know I just said that good behavior awards seem silly, but for him it is a really big deal. After the bad behavior we had last year this is a really big change and that means that he is behaving even in the library. He behaved so well, that he was noticed by the library teacher and recognized for it.
I am pretty please with my kids- they both did well this school year.