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Let’s Celebrate Mediocrity!
Ipswich Middle School Cancels Honors Night In Exchange For All-Inclusive Night
The principal at Ipswich Middle School in Ipswich, MA, has a new, radical plan for improving his student body: stop celebrating those who do well and instead focus on celebrating –I’m not sure what-breathing, possibly. Yea, gone are the days of encouraging students to do their best and to give them rewards for going above and beyond the expectations set forth by the academic curriculum. Instead, we’re just glad you’re here. Let’s hug. Oh, yeah. And later, we’ll yell and scream about how the kids have no motivation and are entitled, how they feel everything should be handed to them and that whatever they produce, it’s wonderful.
Congratulations, Principal of Ipswich Middle School, and all of you other well-meaning bureaucrats who shovel this drivel to our children. You are destroying the work ethic of our country. You are dooming us to mediocre students and an emerging workforce that will frequently call out, duck responsibility, and sue anyone who makes them feel “bad.” Great job. Just the kind of work that makes you proud to be an American. Hey! I bet this is why all of our jobs are going overseas.
Also, what exactly is the message we are giving the kids who have worked hard for their grades and to attain honors status? The school is letting them know that it is more important to give attention to those who are already uninvested. They are also according an element of shame to the honor students’ progress by not allowing them a celebration. The children in the honors program have not only met the requirements set forth by the school, they have exceeded them. The school is telling them, essentially, that they refuse to celebrate how hard you have worked and instead will allow everyone to receive a reward designated for you. This is demotivating to students who are, for all intents and purposes, already doing well. So, the new course of education at Ipswich is clear: demotivate the motivated, celebrate the uninvolved. This should be highly effective in reducing the overall capacity of the school and lower the all-important MCAS. Oh, wait—that’s money, right? Poor MCAS means less funding. Is that the Principal’s master plan, to get the school closed down? Don’t laugh, it could and has happened.
This type of foolishness really makes me upset. So much of what we try to do to encourage our children is based on a system of rewards, some of which the local school systems generate. We are supposed to help our children to become good citizens and then to be able to serve our society in meaningful ways. Also, it is our job as adults and citizens of this country to ensure that our children have a right to an educational experience that will prepare them for the future and enable our country to continue to prosper. I implore anyone reading this to evaluate your own involvement in your community, your school system, and your neighborhood. Don’t allow others to dictate what is expected of your children or what our community produces.
It saddens me when the educational system fails our children, and Ipswich’s failings are a harbinger of the societal failing of misguided educators more interested in inclusion than performance. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go eat some generic cookies, watch reality television, and dance around a 1987 Toyota Camry. If mediocrity is what makes our nation great, Ipswich Middle School is on course to be great, indeed.
Check out the story here:
http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/21724149/2013/03/19/principal-cancels-honors-night-in-ipswich
http://www.salemnews.com/local/x168870211/Honors-night-nixed-at-Ipswich-Middle-School
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