Today I became aware of a concept called the 'effort honor roll' now being used in some of our schools. Because I do not want to embarrass any particular school or student, there will be no link attached to this article. If you want to read what some schools say about their 'effort honor roll', just google it. You will find out more than you want to know.
One school listed the qualifications for the 'effort honor roll.' They included consistency in the following areas: being on time, turning in complete work on time, turning in high quality work in content and appearance. Further areas of qualification included participation, group work, and citizenship. The final qualification was 'consistently works to the best of his ability.' At the risk of seeming incredibly naive, if a student meets all those requirements, wouldn't they automatically have the kind of success that would put them on the real honor roll? If they are doing everything right but not making the honor roll, what is the problem?
What are we teaching our children with the 'effort honor roll'? Are we telling them that they will be rewarded regardless of what they actually achieve? This seems to me to be a really bad idea. Are we afraid to teach our children that they may not always be successful in receiving an award, but if they work harder, they can achieve it?
What impact does rewarding effort rather than achievement have on these children when they grow up and have real jobs? What are the long-term unintended consequences of this policy? Anyway, I really think this is a really insane idea from someone who thinks we all need to be rewarded for something (which is a nice concept, but not real life!).
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