On academic awards

This morning I spent forty minutes sitting in the bleachers of the high school gymnasium, watching my son – and around 300 other students – receive “academic letters” for three, five, or seven consecutive semesters of maintaining a GPA of 3.0 or higher. I’m not sure how important it was to him that I was there – when I got the letter inviting me to attend, he seemed to regard it as nothing very special. But even if my presence was largely symbolic – as the awards themselves are – I wanted to join in celebrating his and his classmates’ academic achievement.

I took such honors for granted growing up – and at the same time craved the attention and praise that went with them. My sense of my worth as a person was entirely wrapped up in how smart I was and how well I could prove it. It disappointed me that my parents seemed to take little interest in my excellent grades, and that my mother would even change the subject if I talked about it, telling me that there were other important things in life. My eighth grade science teacher told her at a parent-teacher conference that he wished I would put more effort into making friends – which greatly surprised me as Mr. Mariotti wasn’t even my homeroom teacher, and I had had no idea he would give any thought to me other than to grade my work in his class.

As an adult I realized how little my IQ means in the grand scheme of things, and I wondered how to raise my children to excel in school but not to see grades as the most important thing in life. As it turns out, I haven’t had to do much. Whether through nature or nurture (my husband’s as well as mine, of course), both sons have the brains and willingness to learn and get top grades in school, and also make friends reasonably well and seem to enjoy spending time with their peers.

I did make a few observations, this morning, as I sat through the long recitation of names, watching young men and women rise from their places and walk across the gym floor to receive their certificates, then take their places on the risers to be recognized as a group. The first several seniors to be recognized for seven consecutive semesters (of GPA of 3.0 or higher) were all girls. I remembered what I had read in recent years about boys not doing as well in school, the result – presumedly - of an overemphasis on helping girls achieve more, at the expense of the boys, and a learning environment more suited to girls’ learning style.

By the time all eighty names had been read, however, I had counted about thirty-five boys. (I say “about” because it was difficult to match names with faces, and names like Taylor and Chris could be either boy or girl.) That’s about 44%- not much under half (though I have no idea the total population of boys and girls in the school – I simply assume it’s likely to be a pretty even breakdown). Hardly the disproportionate numbers I had heard in some anecdotal evidence (though I realize my own experience this morning is also anecdotal). Back at my desk at lunchtime, I pulled up an interesting report on the subject, which claims that boys are not falling behind, other than certain at-risk groups.

The last group of students recognized, for their volunteer work in and for the community, showed quite different percentages. Of 88 students, only 20 were boys. Are girls more inclined to volunteering? Or do they find more opportunities that fit their abilities and interests? Are teenage boys busier working at paid employment?

A conversation later with a co-worker whose son was in that group revealed something else. In order to be recognized, students must track their volunteer hours and turn in documentation signed by an adult attesting to the time they spent in that effort. My son helps in the 4th/5th grade class at church Sunday mornings, but he has never said a word about needing to report those hours. Are boys less interested in getting the award? Or less organized at documenting their time?

My last observation had to do with the attendance awards. I know attendance is important, but while poor attendance may indicate lack of commitment and often results in low achievement, it always seemed to me that what was being rewarded was an unusually effective immune system or the good luck not to touch or breathe in those nasty germs. I doggedly took my runny nose and my pack of Kleenex from class to class many times (though no doubt others wished I had kept them home with me in bed), but I almost never made it through the year with zero absences.

A separate section of chairs had been set up on the gym floor for students being recognized for perfect or outstanding attendance (I might have managed the latter, if it had been offered in my school). What I noticed, watching students walk forward to receive academic awards, was that relatively few came from the attendance award section. I have no idea if there’s much significance to that, but it didn’t appear that there was much correlation between outstanding attendance and outstanding grades.