Are School Award Ceremonies Negatively Impacting Early School-Age Minority Children

 

Hi HairyKats,

I'm off on vacation and decided to show my blog some love. If you you've checked out the HairyKat Chronicles, you'll know that this blog has progressed from solely focusing on topics of hair to entertainment and everything in between.

I wanted to blog about a topic that I've discussed previously with a friend and is something that I think about often raising an African-American male as a single mother. I heavily rely on my village to assist in his upbringing which includes family, friends, and his educators, yes his educators.

The topic as noted in the title "Are School Award Ceremonies Negatively Impacting Early School Age Minority Children" came about for me, when towards the end of last school year (May/June 2014) I saw lots of my friends posting photos of their children and their achievements during the school year, from awards for academics, behavior, and attendance.  I was genuinely proud of their children but started to reminisce and think about my own life and my own child. I remember these award  growing up in school, sometimes I got them and sometimes I didn't. For myself I didn't think of it as a big deal but having a 5 year old child that is quite impressionable and motivated by emotional connections, I started to think about how an award system would impact him and other children like him, mainly speaking of minority children.

I am making the distinction about minority children because as statistics show time and time again, its African-American and Latino males, that end up in Prison and in graves as they become products of their environment. I feel like their environment is 80% school from the age of 4-5 and 20% home. In no one am I saying school is responsible for raising our children, but with our kids spending the majority of their day at school, I think its safe to say that a great deal of their experiences that influence who they become as a person, occur at school.

My son's current school does not have award ceremonies for Elementary school students. Only for the graduating 8th graders which I find to be appropriate for that age.  At the end of the school year I started to think about what my friends were posting on facebook and their kids being awarded and how I felt about not partaking in anything of this sort with my own child. But I couldn't just think about my child. I started to think about the young children that don't get rewarded for success at the end of the school year, and how they must feel seeing their peers being rewarded. I started to presumptuously think about how young African-American and Latino/Latina children develop this complex of not feeling good enough in the world as teenagers and adults, and while I cannot produce any sort of facts and statistics and can only rely on my opinion within this blog, I honestly feel like awards and singling out students for their success negatively impacts their peers that are not rewarded for their own individual successes.

Its tricky right? I wouldn't want to NOT recognize a child for being successful at school, but I feel like kids don't understand these sort of rewards in the way that adults do. They just know it feels great to be celebrated and it doesn't feel great when they aren't. Some might say that seeing your peers rewarded for something could be motivating to other children, but I think it creates a psychological complex for young children in particular.

Children begin to spend the majority of their day at school beginning at the ages of 4-5. In the context of the topic of this blog, to me, this means if they are not performing academically, or displaying outstanding behavior, they're going to school everyday for the next 12-13 years feeling not good enough based on their experiences within their first years of school.

Again, in no way am I placing the responsibility solely on educators. As a parent I have to do my part to make sure my child is performing. But then again, I also feel like my child has more years to be an adult than he does being a child. I want him to enjoy his childhood. Education is highly important in my household, however I would never want to place those sort of pressures on my child to help him win an award. I want him to like going to school and develop a love for learning, rather than feeling pressured to do something because it comes with a prize. This is generally speaking though, every child is different, some children are self-motivated. Some children want these awards for themselves and do what it takes to get them. But what  happens to them emotionally when they don't get it?

Just thinking about my own child. If he saw his classmate receive an award for something and he didn't get one, he would be devastated. I'm sure he would cry. On one hand its a life lesson that you can't win at everything, and you can't be great at everything, but on the other hand is that something he needs to learn at 5? I would deem it a suitable lesson for a child that was old enough to understand but in the early years, I just don't feel like kids understand. I can't and will not coddle my child from experiencing real emotions as he will need to learn how to cope to survive life. But, again, he has his entire teenage years and adult life to learn these things.

My point or thought on the matter is that , if you have a child that is being brought up in an institution (school) where the only rewards are given to children who are considered the best in whatever given category, how is this not creating a complex of diminishing self-worth, and putting minority children that are not rewarded on the pre-school to prison pipeline? In my opinion they are becoming institutionalized when they are systems in place that teach them that they are different in a way that is not worthy of recognition or reward. Think about those actual ceremonies. If you the entire school sitting in an auditorium or community meeting space. In a school that has an enrollment of 100-450 students maybe, 2-3 students from each classroom is called up to the stage to receive an award. Parents are cheering in the background. While the other students watch on like spectators, wanting their turn to shine, to be celebrated, amongst their families, like their peers.

Award ceremonies are miniscule here, but they are common occurrences in many schools.  This is also done by labeling children at home and at school. For example,  If you call a child bad, long enough, they will start to think they are and act accordingly. If you tell a child they are not smart, they will believe you. If you reward one child for an achievement and not another I believe the children that are not rewarded will believe they are not good enough.

Do I have a solution? (shrug) I'm not an educator. However, if I were, I would try and  figure out how to reward children, every child, within the classroom based on their own individual academic success. I would do away with the system of isolating who's the best. Every child should be celebrated for inkling of success. I firmly believe that's how young children stay motivated. That's how young minority children start to develop a sense of self, a sense of feeling smart, and feeling good enough to learn and continue to learn. This is how they make better choices for their lives as they grow into adults.

Thoughts?