HONOR ROLL...YES or NO!!!

[momrek06]

Do you feel your school should have their students names on the HONOR ROLL?

My Alma mater is making National News with even a mention by Jay Leno on Monday night during his monologue as it makes a major decision to stop the printing and posting the of the Honor Roll.

Needham, Ma has had to deal with the suicide of 4 students in the last two years citing stress and pressure to be on the Needham High School's Honor Roll.

Do you agree or not? Thank you.

http://www.my58.com/education/10515520/detail.html

 

[HSMndLKfan92]

Wow.

My school doesn't list the names of honor roll students in the newspaper; instead fliers are mailed to parents.

:\

 

[Becky2005]

I voted other, I don't really care either way.

However, if students are committing suicide due to not making the honor roll, I think there is a lot more to it than just if it was published in the paper or not. Someone is putting more pressure on them and I doubt it's their name being published/not published.

1/2 the time by the time our honor roll is published we are WAY into the next quarter of of school (I mean nearly finished!) by the time they get the end of the year one published it's late June. We get out early June. Usually I'm not even looking, we get free papers here and I happen to be flipping and see our school name. I don't know anyone would goes out of their way to get a paper when the honor rolls are published.

One thing our Middle School does which is cool, so I think. Is if you make honor roll, you get a gold sticker to add to your ID card and local merchants either give you a discount or a freebie (i.e. free cookie with sandwich purchase or 10% off). We have regular honor roll and then high honor roll. They don't do this in High School.

You only make high honor roll if you get all straight A's, which I don't picture any of my children achieving so it's not big deal. I don't make a big deal out of the regular honor roll either....you make it, you make it. You don't, you don't. No big deal. Of course, my oldest is only middle school & they don't even get grades here until 6th grade so she had no clue what an honor roll was. She didn't even know she had made it until we got a letter in the mail telling us with the sticker.

I honestly can't remember ever putting down on any form that I was on the honor roll.

 

[CPM]

wow, that's a tough one.
They don't list the names on our papers, but they do list them on the school newspaper, along with many other achievments from students. They also get gold ID cards, but I can't remember what that gets them.
We are from Watertown, Ma. and they did list them in the paper up there.
I just don't see how listing it or not would make that much of a difference. Will they also stop listing who made the touchdowns or who got into Harvard?
Seems that maybe they should seek out the children that are stressed and help them.
I'm sure that's easier said than done.

 

[Kimberly]

I would say post them. Praise those students who have done well and it might inspire other students to try harder as well. Praise is never a bad thing.

 

[Beca]

How is it different from publishing who wins or loses a football game, soccer game, etc? I was never in sports growing up, but remember seeing SOOO many athletes written about in our paper. No one ever wrote about the "honor kids" until we started getting scholarships to colleges. Intelligence should be valued as well as athletics.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I had one teacher who never posted her honor roll and such even though the school did. Her theory was that good scholarship and good grades were their own reward. One didn't need the extra coddling of treats or a list or a pizza party for good grades. I can still see the sign on the door. Good grades and good smiles are the only rewards given here. At the time, we thought her a mean old witch. But in hindsight, she was the best teacher we ever had. We learned 3 years worth in her class.

 

[shortbun]

Students already get a grade card and know what their grades are. It should be private. Schools often allow students no boundaries. Children should be protected at all costs. Publishing an honor roll is a school's way of advertising their 'success." I totally am against using children in that way.

 

[barkley]

our school does'nt do honor roll-does'nt realy matter to us or our kids. they/we know how they are performing, and we don't feel that it's necessary to know how they 'stacked up' against anyone else in their class.

i recall in jr. and senior high the 'honor roll'-the only people who even thought to look at those massive listings in the newspaper were the kids/parents who KNEW they were listed on it. someone being on the honor roll was'nt an inspiration to those who were'nt-if they were inspired by someone it was generaly due to their character or how they demonstrated a particular talent/achievement. i recall lots of kids who made honor roll but they took classes i would'nt consider overly challenging (2 p.e. classes/drama/choir-and maybe 3 academics all of which were 'cruise by' classes)-so the honor roll was'nt any huge indicator of someone's intellectual abilities.

i don't see the big deal with honor rolls, and i think the proliferation of 'reccognitions' and 'visual praises' is entirely overdone. our local papers list 'student's of the week', 'superstar students', 'athletes of the week', 'young artists of the week'...it goes on and on. you can drive past any of the schools and see EVERY car plaster with at least one bumper sticker indicating the driver's child has been listed somehow under some reccognition. it just gets overdone to the point where the lists/honors don't carry much weight.

 

[Mermaid02]

Kids who score in "the big game" get their names in the paper- why not the kids who get good grades??

 

[slo]

I'm indifferent.

I was never an honor roll student, and I didn't care that my name wasn't posted. I personally knew that I tried my hardest, and I did my best.

Now, my DD on the other hand is very upset that school isn't coming easy to her. She trys and trys and still needs to go to a reading tutor. I could picture her really stressing out someday about not having her name posted on the honor roll list. Because I won't truly know how she'll be for a long time yet, and I won't know how I will react to her reaction for a long time yet, I can't make a true vote right now.

 

[SplshMtnLvr28]

Our school posts Honor Roll in the newspaper. I don't have a problem with. The kids that work hard should be recognized, and the ones who didn't make it might have some motivation.

 

[LBAK]

I have two girls, my 20 yo DD who was lucky to graduate and my youngest who is bright. I think the honor roll is a good thing. The students that work hard should be recognized and the children that didn't make it can strive to work harder. My older daughter never made the honor role nor was ever recognized for any academic achievement. She had learning disabilities. Believe it or not she was never suicidal because of this. There's way more going on then just the honor roll if kids are suicidal. JMO

 

[golfgal]

If kids are committing suicide because they didn't get a name on the honor roll there are a lot of other issues contributing to that, not just the publishing of the honor roll. I see nothing wrong with having a published honor roll. For some kids it is a motivating factor to do well in school. It also causes a bit of peer pressure TO do well in school and that is not a bad thing. I agree with others that it isn't any different then recording the sports successes in the newspaper. If you think about it, everyone is ok with sports scores in the paper, no one would think twice about that information being published, why wouldn't you want to "show off" your best and brightest for a SCHOOL seeing as the goal of a school is to educate kids???

No, not everyone can be an honor student, just like not everyone can be a basketball star.

 

[mickeyfan2]

Why should athletes get there names in the paper but not the kids who do well in school?

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Why should atletes get there names in the paper but not the kids who do well in school?

I agree!!! My youngest will never do a sport but she competes in "Academics"...

As far as students committing suicide over the "honor roll", that is hooey. It may have added to their depression but as you know suicide is completed by people in great pain.

 

[NMAmy]

How is it different from publishing who wins or loses a football game, soccer game, etc? I was never in sports growing up, but remember seeing SOOO many athletes written about in our paper. No one ever wrote about the "honor kids" until we started getting scholarships to colleges. Intelligence should be valued as well as athletics.

Absolutely. I think the thing that annoyed me the most in the article was the principal talking about an "unhealthy focus on grades." Hello. This is a school. Kids are supposed to be there to learn. Shouldn't the focus be on grades instead of just the star football and basketball players?

When I was in high school ( a LOT of years ago) the honor roll students were listed in the paper and we got special medals to wear at graduation. DD consistently makes the honor roll. Frankly, the only people going through that list of names in the paper are parents of kids in that particular class and then they're only looking for their own child's name. Really, how often do the rest of us browse through and say, "Hmm...the neighbor's kid didn't make the list. Loser."

 

[rgf207]

Do you feel your school should have their students names on the HONOR ROLL?

My Alma mater is making National News with even a mention by Jay Leno on Monday night during his monologue as it makes a major decision to stop the printing and posting the of the Honor Roll.

Needham, Ma has had to deal with the suicide of 4 students in the last two years citing stress and pressure to be on the Needham High School's Honor Roll.

Do you agree or not? Thank you.

http://www.my58.com/education/10515520/detail.html

Absolutely. We had our names published in the newspaper for the honor roll. It is a big accomplishment for kids and they work hard. They should be rewarded for their hard work.

 

[golfgal]

Really, how often do the rest of us browse through and say, "Hmm...the neighbor's kid didn't make the list. Loser."

Ok, I admit, I have browsed the list looking for names that "should" be on there and aren't. We had some friends in our old town that were constantly bragging about how well their DD was doing in school, blah, blah, blah. I knew better since I was a sub at the school (their DD is in the same class as our DS14). Well, this "straight A" student didn't even make the B honor roll, humm .

 

[golfgal]

Absolutely. We had our names published in the newspaper for the honor roll. It is a big accomplishment for kids and they work hard. They should be rewarded for their hard work.

At our kids' high school kids get a special letter for their letter jackets for having high grades, they get bars on their coats for other academic distinctions and they proudly wear them. I know that DS14, the kids that almost FAILED 8th grade, was motivated to do well this year to earn that academic letter. YOU BET I support all the academic awards.