In college, we tend to forget how life was back in grade school. We’re-hopefully-so inundated with studies and grades and trying to be recognized for our academic achievement that we think that it was always like this. I am guilty of the same misconception. And then I heard about the honor roll being suspended in Nashville.
I thought it was a joke at first, or perhaps a silly lawsuit that will not amount to anything. I was horrified when I found that the news was dead serious.
In some places in Nashville school authorities and complaining parents are taking a 1970 privacy law to a ridiculous extreme. The honor roll will not be announced, and some schools have stopped their academic pep rallies.
Also, there has been talk about dropping the practice of displaying outstanding student work and holding spelling bees.
The main excuse for this bizarre measure is for student equality. The students who do not get on the honor roll feel bad and the students who get on the honor roll are shown to be superior to the others.
To quote a popular phrase: “Duh!” As anyone who went to school-i.e. everyone-knows, the only way to achieve the honor roll is through talent and hard work.
That is generally true for everything. But, with a few exceptions, most things can’t be achieved through just talent. Getting on the honor roll takes a lot of hard work, such as studying and doing homework and, novelty of all novelties, actually paying attention in class.
Some would argue that some students just don’t have the mental abilities to get on the honor roll. Some students actually do have a low intelligence level that makes regular classrooms impossible for them.
There are special classes and programs for them, each aimed at their level of intelligence and maturity. Ask any education major or teacher, and he or she will tell you the same.
But, of course, we are talking about regular classrooms, where each student should have the level of intelligence to pass each class. Teachers in grade schools tend to direct their lessons to the middle achievement level of the class, so more than half of the class has a fair chance of getting on the honor roll just by actually learning from the teacher.
Most students who do not get on the honor roll don’t feel bad about it. They know that if they had put some effort in their schoolwork and turned it in, they would achieve higher grades as well.
Instead, it’s the parents who feel bad. They feel their child should excel in anything, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They just need to work more on inspiring, or making, the child to work harder instead of making sure they don’t feel bad because Grandma couldn’t find their name in the paper.
One elementary school principal in Nashville stated that it looked bad when the same students kept getting on honor roll, as if the habitual achievement of good grades implies something insidious and shady. We must realize that the honor roll is not a lottery. It does not rely on chance.
There is no conspiracy to always give certain students good grades or perfect attendance. That is all up to the student.
The problem with the word equality, as is stated in gender and racial studies, is that we tend to think of being equal as being the same. That would be all right, but everyone is not the same, and that includes students.
Students can be treated equally on a certain level, but intelligence and hard work must be acknowledged, just as athletic achievement is regularly acknowledged and encouraged.
Thankfully, most parents think the loss of honor roll is as ridiculous as I think it is. School authorities have been inundated with calls. Most principals have settled on giving out permission slips for each student.
Most lawmakers can find no way that the honor roll is breaking any privacy laws. Also, the practice doesn’t seem to have caught on anywhere else besides Nashville. Hopefully, this radical student equality will stay isolated, and fizzle out all together.
But just in case, don’t forget to join in with the famous cheer: ‘Go A’s and B’s! Rah!”
Angela Adair is a junior English major. She can be reached at [email protected].