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No National Honor Society honors for Plano Senior High grads

Kurt Vonnegut may have missed the mark by a few years...or maybe we will hit it right on.

Harrison Bergeron...Everyone is equal.
 
The rule it seems, if the article is correct, is that no club or organization marks can be worn during their graduation. So I'm assuming that includes sports too.
 
No National Honor Society honors for Plano Senior High grads

No National Honor Society honors for Plano Senior High grads | WFAA.com
That's total B.S.

My son is a National Honor Society recipient, and I know how hard he worked for it, including all the community service he did where he was additionally awarded an Archdiocese service award at a ceremonial dinner with press coverage (yeah - hard to believe he's mine and my wife's, lol!).

I strongly feel kids like this, that work hard and do right, should be recognized and rewarded for their efforts. Nothing quite motivates a young person like peer and societal recognition. This should be what we do as a society, as well as condemn (and punish) those that do wrong.


But also, the article title is a bit misleading and sensationalist, in that all references to awards and participation banned from the commencement - not just National Honor Society.

This all seems misguided ...
 
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The rule it seems, if the article is correct, is that no club or organization marks can be worn during their graduation. So I'm assuming that includes sports too.
Yeah - total misguided insanity.
 
Yeah - total misguided insanity.
The NFL just announced they will not be holding a Superbowl this year, that all players qualified for the All Star game, and that everyone will receive participant ribbons, including the fans who are discriminated against because of their lack of physical ability.

OK...that may just be a rumor.......
 
The NFL just announced they will not be holding a Superbowl this year, that all players qualified for the All Star game, and that everyone will receive participant ribbons, including the fans who are discriminated against because of their lack of physical ability.

OK...that may just be a rumor.......
Is it bad that I can see our society actually going that direction?
 
"KellyAnn Frederick says a National Honor Society sponsor claimed school administrators want everyone to feel included in graduation and not single students out."

If they don't want to single kids out and extoll their accomplishments/scholarships/sports etc, why even bother with the ceremony?

Ceremony?? Heck, why would they bother giving out grades in the first place? We wouldn't want anybody's feelings to get hurt.
 
Ceremony?? Heck, why would they bother giving out grades in the first place? We wouldn't want anybody's feelings to get hurt.
Shouldn't even get a pass/fail. Just a participation certificate to show you actually attended school. The implication being, of course, because we can't actually come right out and say it, that you completed school "successfully".

No, wait, that might leave some people out, too. Hmmm...
 
Is it bad that I can see our society actually going that direction?

Like I said earlier...Vonnegut saw it coming back in 1961.
 
That's total B.S.

My son is a National Honor Society recipient, and I know how hard he worked for it, including all the community service he did where he was additionally awarded an Archdiocese service award at a ceremonial dinner with press coverage (yeah - hard to believe he's mine and my wife's, lol!).

I strongly feel kids like this, that work hard and do right, should be recognized and rewarded for their efforts. Nothing quite motivates a young person like peer and societal recognition. This should be what we do as a society, as well as condemn (and punish) those that do wrong.


But also, the article title is a bit misleading and sensationalist, in that all references to awards and participation banned from the commencement - not just National Honor Society.

This all seems misguided ...

Graduation is one of the few places good students get recognized by the community. They get all kinds of accolades for sports but the smart kids get pretty much nadda till graduation. This kind of crap really irks me. WTH is wrong with the adults who changed this policy?
 
Graduation is one of the few places good students get recognized by the community. They get all kinds of accolades for sports but the smart kids get pretty much nadda till graduation. This kind of crap really irks me. WTH is wrong with the adults who changed this policy?

They are the type who wants to institute equality of outcome. Apparently the ideal to some that everyone be mediocre instead of some excellent most mediocre and some fail. it smells of failure.
 
Graduation is one of the few places good students get recognized by the community. They get all kinds of accolades for sports but the smart kids get pretty much nadda till graduation. This kind of crap really irks me. WTH is wrong with the adults who changed this policy?
I'm fortunate in that my kids all started in Catholic Grammar Schools, and then of their own volition chose to continue on to Catholic Prep High Schools (which of course made me happy). I like the Catholic Preps for a lot of reasons, but one of them is they very strongly push and celebrate academics.

In my high school back in the day, the debate & forensics team was the premier team in the entire school, and pushed strongly by the academicians and administrators as a source of pride! It held the top status, was taken the most serious, and reflected the most pride along with being known as difficult for a member to be picked to represent the school in competition (even though all could join and participate in the research & prep-work).

We also had very good football & wrestling teams, but the Catholic Brothers and Priests really pushed academics and instilled a culture desiring academic excellence. For my extracurricular activities I played sports as an offset to my academics, but we were constantly reminded by the coaches that we were "student-athletes", and that the 'student' part of that compound word precedes the 'athlete' part, so being a good 'student' always comes firstly.

Back then to be sports eligible you had to be running a cumulative 'B' average with no more than two 'C's and no grade lower than 'C', and your coursework for each subject each week had to be at that same standard. If your weekly coursework slipped below those standards, the instructor for that course sent a form that circulated to all your coaches. You then were expected to bring your grade up within a week. If you didn't, you and your coaches were given notice of another week to correct the deficiency. After two weeks of deficiency you were ineligible for sports.

The thing with this is: The coaches and the teammates put huge pressure on kids with poor academics. Especially on the big teams like football. No one wants to expend a ton of teamwork & effort, only to find-out a key player is ineligible due to poor academics! The slacking guys were seriously ostracized!

This is the type of environment I wanted for my son, and I was happy as hell he not just chose, but embraced the same. Obviously his academic success is his own, but I feel very strongly that his peer environment contributed strongly to his academic successes.
 
I'm fortunate in that my kids all started in Catholic Grammar Schools, and then of their own volition chose to continue on to Catholic Prep High Schools (which of course made me happy). I like the Catholic Preps for a lot of reasons, but one of them is they very strongly push and celebrate academics.

In my high school back in the day, the debate & forensics team was the premier team in the entire school, and pushed strongly by the academicians and administrators as a source of pride! It held the top status, was taken the most serious, and reflected the most pride along with being known as difficult for a member to be picked to represent the school in competition (even though all could join and participate in the research & prep-work).

We also had very good football & wrestling teams, but the Catholic Brothers and Priests really pushed academics and instilled a culture desiring academic excellence. For my extracurricular activities I played sports as an offset to my academics, but we were constantly reminded by the coaches that we were "student-athletes", and that the 'student' part of that compound word precedes the 'athlete' part, so being a good 'student' always comes firstly.

Back then to be sports eligible you had to be running a cumulative 'B' average with no more than two 'C's and no grade lower than 'C', and your coursework for each subject each week had to be at that same standard. If your weekly coursework slipped below those standards, the instructor for that course sent a form that circulated to all your coaches. You then were expected to bring your grade up within a week. If you didn't, you and your coaches were given notice of another week to correct the deficiency. After two weeks of deficiency you were ineligible for sports.

The thing with this is: The coaches and the teammates put huge pressure on kids with poor academics. Especially on the big teams like football. No one wants to expend a ton of teamwork & effort, only to find-out a key player is ineligible due to poor academics! The slacking guys were seriously ostracized!

This is the type of environment I wanted for my son, and I was happy as hell he not just chose, but embraced the same. Obviously his academic success is his own, but I feel very strongly that his peer environment contributed strongly to his academic successes.

Sounds like a great environment. No choice in schools where I live and where my kids attended but it was still a good school system. Way heavy into the sports and athletes, but what rural town isn't. That being said they did have a good debate and forensics team and my older two kids loved it. They also do graduation right any honors be they academic, athletic, band, music or otherwise are noted and by god if you were in honor society you get your special cords. They also list every scholarship won. I just don't get not celebrating the kids who succeed.
 
Is it bad that I can see our society actually going that direction?

Yes, but only because you're nuts to think the NFL is going to give up that kind of cash.
 
Yes, but only because you're nuts to think the NFL is going to give up that kind of cash.

Just think of the possibilities. Instead hosting the Super Bowl they can have the Meh Bowl. All the teams names could go into a hat and they could draw 2 names. Those teams would play but players would be handicapped based on their abilities. And no scores would be kept and at the end, everyone gets a trophy and gets invited to the White House.
 
Just think of the possibilities. Instead hosting the Super Bowl they can have the Meh Bowl. All the teams names could go into a hat and they could draw 2 names. Those teams would play but players would be handicapped based on their abilities. And no scores would be kept and at the end, everyone gets a trophy and gets invited to the White House.
It's the "Big Secret" that most of the games themselves are already the "Meh Bowl". ;)
 
Just think of the possibilities. Instead hosting the Super Bowl they can have the Meh Bowl. All the teams names could go into a hat and they could draw 2 names. Those teams would play but players would be handicapped based on their abilities. And no scores would be kept and at the end, everyone gets a trophy and gets invited to the White House.

Well, it'll probably be more successful than Trump's football league...
 
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