News-Record.com

Mr. Pegram, Welcome to the world of political correctness, one of the favorite tools of liberalism. It works like this: your son set goals, worked hard, and achieved the best. You and I would logically think he should be recongnized for this.

In a PC mindset however, this is unfair to the other students that they were not the best. Some of them might get their feeeeeeelings hurt and that might affect their self esteeeeeem. Poor darlings.

So the PC police who dominate our schools do what they did and honor others who did not acheive the best, thus dumbing down the entire population.

I know it doesn't make sense, but that's the way public schools are run today. That's why I will try to see if I can afford private schools.

Wally,

Sorry to say that you've been "Grier-Ended". Hopefully you can get your hands on one of the latest in Bumber-sticker decorum. You'll love it! If you post your address, I'll be happy to mail one to you. I hear that they will also be appearing on Ebay very soon.

My children too have been Grierended. The end-of-the-year awards are a sham. What they will eventually do is call every child to receive the "top" honors for each class. GC schools are turning into a "fuzzy wuzzy" system that coddles its students. Next they'll bring Barney in to hand out awards and then sing, "Everyone is Special". That's Griers goal, make every child a top performer. His plan: Bring down the top performers, dummy up from the bottom. That's being Grier-ended at its finest.

Mr. Pegram, an injustice has been done your son and your family as a whole. While I will not label those responsible, I will name them: 1) The teacher's of the school; 2) The administration of the school; 3) The school district as a whole.

The concerns of this injustice need to be presented continually until such things happen no longer. I applaud your son on setting and meeting his goals. I only hope that this detour on his life's journey will not discourage him to the point of not setting high goals for himself.

Shalom

I agree with the letter and all comments. This is a sham. It's bad enough that we have to deal with this crap in our careers, but kids should get the credit that is due them.

If they want to make others feel special, they could come up with different awards based on the individual student's achievement. But taking away recognition from the top achiever is NOT the answer.

It is sad to say but after having my 3 children in the public school system (Guilford and Rockingham) for a total of 32 years all together. I expect nothing but injustice and cover ups. It is not an unusual day when my daughter comes home and tell me that she was sent to the office for asking another student (whom doesn't care about their education) to be quiet so she can concentrate on the task at hand. I have made alot of trips to middle and high schools to confront the educator and administration.
I am tired of children that their parent's have no expectations or consequences for bad grades and behavior for their kids. I expect from my own children nothing but A's and B's and staying out of any type of trouble. They know the consequences if this is not followed (grounded and cut off from the world until the teacher sends me a letter saying that they are back where I know they can be, and that situation has only happened once with my oldest). It is terrible that your son has to suffer from the catch 22 that the school system gives to those that care, and the free range that they give those that don't.....I truly feel that it comes down to rewarding your child at home and not expecting the school to do the right thing....because then we are not disappointed and your child won't get upset. Look on the bright side though....your child has learned a valuable lesson from the school that the world isn't a fair place and children need to learn how to pat themselves on the back....cause they will definitely need that for the real world. Tell your son that there are many parents out here that are proud of his accomplishments....and that includes me!!!!!

Great points, Sara, about the real world lesson.

Truth, you are correct about giving the other students other awards. Yeck give them Miss Congeniality or best Teacher Helper or something or "I did not fight today" award. Do not take away from the true top achiver who has worked so hard, sacrificed their free time to study and truly deserve the TOP award.

Wally, thank you for writing this letter. Congratulations on your son's achievements. It shows what great parents you must be to support your son's hard work.

Puh-Leese. The end-of-year awards are no sham. Mr Pegrams son obviously doesnt have to try as hard to acheive his goals as some of the other children who were recognized had to. It may be their only chance to shine. So please Mr Pegram, try to think about how others feel and not about everyone knowing how smart your son is. Hoorah for MMS!!

Mr. Pegram,

This type of behavior by school personnel shouldn't come as a surprise. Remember a year or so ago when Terry Grier and the BOE were debating about whether to cease recognizing salutatorian or valedictorian because of the negative impact it would have on other students who had really tired hard, but had't achieved as much? Well, your son just got grier-ended as well.

Why hasn't that Paul guy posted any thing on this thread about abolishing public education? Paul, catch up! ;)

Has anyone noticed that most of today's LTE's had to do with schools? I think N&R does trends. Like Bush-bashing letters one day, school-bashing letters the next day, and so on...

Maybe we should all choose a theme and write letters about that and see if they'd publish them the same day. Something really different. Like about llamas. Or spelunking.

Well, if we're going to complain about positive reinforcements for kids who may not get it anywhere else (because we all know schools get asked to be parent, babysitter, and any other roles that parents refuse to take on for themselves), can we do away with this "everyone's a winner" motto?; or the "you're a winner just for trying" nonsense? Let's face it, as adults we don't get accolades just for trying.

And can we stop with this idea that every kid should play during the game? Once again, let's face reality; some kids haven't got a speck of athletic ability in their entire body. Yet, mommy and daddy feel like their precious baby should get equal playing time as the kid with clearly superior athletic talent.

Fair does not mean equal. If we're gonna knock self esteem building in one area, let's knock it out everywhere. Playing that clumsy kid is really messing it up for everyone.

It would be interesting to hear the teachers' accounts of what happened. Many of us know parents who claim their children can do no wrong and rail against teachers, little league umpires, beauty contest judges and the like if their child fails to take top honors. The facts may be precisely as the letter writer states. But then again . . .

Now wait a minute. How is playing a clumsy kid ruining it for everyone? We're not talking about giving the clumsy kid the Heisman trophy. We're talking about letting him play.

I don't have a problem with awarding effort. In my opinion, an individual performing at the best of his abilities is a thing to be nurtured.

If a kid has severe disabilities and overcomes them, that takes just as much effort as someone with the talent of Michael Jordan dunking a ball. I think that is admirable.

Let's reward but let's be honest in it. And let's tailor it to the individual. We do that with adults. We don't expect a housekeeper to reconcile our monthly reports but we can still give them a housekeeper of the month award to celebrate what they CAN do.

As outrages go, I can't get that worked up over this one. So what if the undeserving kid gets some phony award? You can rest assured that real achievement, real intelligence, real work are rewarded in the real world. If there's any unfairness, it's toward the kid whose self-esteem is being coddled by the Education Industry and who will find out some day--surprise!!--that such stuff ends at 12th grade. (And please note that it does: "public schools" like UNC don't continue the coddling.)