Kindergarten Graduation

Amelia had a graduation program today at school. They got diplomas and sang some songs. They also gave out some awards.....Here is where I go off on my rant. Ok so in years past they have given out awards too, not all kids receive awards and so there has been some debate about whether or not they should keep doing awards. Their fear is that the kids who don't receive awards will feel sad and left out. My feeling is that those kids who don't receive an award will see that other kids did and they will work harder next year if they want an award. They will also develop coping mechanisms. OK so anyway they gave out some awards this year, they gave out the perfect attendance award, the citizenship award, and the most improved reader award. They completely left out the awards for academic excellence. In previous years there have also been, art, music, academics, and best reader awards. They left these out because they were only given to one kid per class. The child who showed the most skill in that area. This was deemed unfair and harmful to the children's self esteem.......What a load of crap!!! So now instead the kids who are smart and excell at academics have absolutely no incentive to do well. Our society spends so much time trying to make everyone feel equal that we no longer encourage excellence in anything. We are going to end up with an entire generation of people who have never been told no, never been encouraged to push themselves, never been let down, never had to try, and that don't know how to cope with dissapointment. The first time these kids meet rejection they will not know what to do and will go totally crazy and shoot up a school or something. Ok well back to my origional post, here are some pics of Amelia's graduation program.