Class awards (I know, I know!)

[sparepantsandtoothbrush]

DD is y5, among the top achievers in the class, always well behaved etc. Her teacher gives out, at least, 4 awards a week. Homework hero, maths magician, spelling superstar and the general star of the week. DD hasn't had a single award all year! It's easy at the start of the year to dismiss it with comments about children needing a confidence boost or children who struggle at things making a huge effort to improve. However, with 5 weeks of term left (which means over 120 class awards have been given out between 28 children) DD is feeling massively deflated and frustrated.

DD has even mentioned it to the teacher herself and asked her what she can do to improve and the teacher laughed and said DD was already doing amazingly and to just keep up the good work.

Is it just a case of DD sucking it up (which she has done with good grace until last week!) or would it be worth mentioning it to the teacher?

This year's nearly over so I think she should suck it up but my kids and I have had the chats about how unfair the reward system is. Some of their teachers have tried to be fair but others have been blatant with their favouritism. In y5 dd got 4 certificates which was average for the year. Another girl got 13 🤔 The kids who get certificates are printed in the newsletter so I'm sure about the number and the wording of the reason why slightly differed each time. When they have had a down moment about it I mention something specific that I've noticed them try hard with. As their number one fans I think they appreciate it.

I will say, that it can also harm the best in class too, I once had someone on my team who was truly great, he described to me a breakdown he had during A-levels and how much he'd missed during secondary school, as he tried to keep getting the plaudits for being top of the class.

Of course, as the field got bigger, and he started to have to compete across lots of classes in different subjects, the only way he could do it was by working more and more, sacrificing other stuff. Particularly in areas where it wasn't actually necessary too (polishing the homework to make it brilliant rather than to just prove he understood it).

I do wonder how much of the need to be top he had came from internal competitiveness, and how much from praise and prizes for being top.

Wouldn't be better to REMOVE all these awards? What good do they do, anyway? They only exist in order to manipulate children's behaviour and make sure they confirm. No more, no less.

Oops... ConfOrm, not confirm :D

Sir, If you make yourself ill by trying to stay in the position, then something is wrong. But it's each individual's choice, especially when older. Some people sacrifice something to achieve something. Nothing wrong with that, as long as the person is happy. But if not, there must be something wrong.
There was a thread long ago about attendance awards, and I don't mind healthy children get rewarded for it. Mine will never get it, and some people asked me why I don't find it unfair. I don't. Being healthy and not having days off school is hard to achieve. Something to be celebrated, especially when you have a child with chronic illness. I do think it's the same with academic/sports/art/music/whatever the talent. So, I don't think there's anything wrong with children to be awarded for some natural talent.

Irvine, so you give out an award for being alive and being able to breathe. Where is the accomplishment in this? What are you teaching the child?
There are studies (Alfie Kohn docet) that show that praised/rewarded children end up doing less well as time goes by. And if you praise someone simply for being alive can you actually be surprised?

Irvine I didn't say there's anything wrong with being awarded for a talent - the problem is being awarded for being "top of the class", it's the same as an award for being "tallest" or something that is purely dependent on who else is there. It's not an award for your ability, it's an award based simply on who else is there or not there.

You might be 1 in a million brilliant, the best there could be, but if there's a 1 in a 2 million brilliant in your class, you may never win an award for being "top of the class", yet in the school down the road, the completely average kid wins it every week.

That's why praise and rewards based on preferably either individual targets (the pursuit of meaningful targets is good) or based on absolute targets - score 90% on this test, run an 8minute mile etc. - are better.

Individual choice is a difficult thing to say about kids who are heavily moulded by particular reward and punishment systems.

sir, I totally get what you are saying, tbh.

Arkadia, attendance award isn't just for being alive is it?

But then, Arkadia, my ds may have died when he was younger, gone through major operation, etc. still have 3 consultants, so maybe just being alive is something we should award him for.

Irvine i don't want to sound insensitive, but I don't see how an award would be suitable even your quite exceptional case.

And also attendance, what are you getting an award for? Not been ill? Big deal... Not skipping school? Ditto.
Ok my DD1 got 100% attendance in P1, but didn't subsequently, but not because she skipped school, but because she was unwell (and not "made up" unwell) and because grandad died, so what conclusion should she draw from not getting the blasted award aside that skipping school or not going to school on a whim is SO the norm that you have to give a prize to someone who doesn't do it?

Isn't awarding for winning a race the same as the academic best in class though as it is peer dependant too?
As for the 100% attendance awards I very much doubt that many in my DS' year got them this year as some parents were sending kids in that were blatantly ill with winter sickness.
Really was a case of stupidity as it then took out loads of other kids and led to one parent ending up in hospital due to side effects.

My 5 year old spotted it's all bulls hit and there just give them out on rotation. Once you accept this the stress has gone..

Lol my son did tell me recently that he would get more stickers if he was naughty. He's only five and spot on though.