by Kaylie Blais
Not many of us realize just how little we know about the academic accomplishments in our school. For example how many of us knew that senior Andrew Hatch had his own poem and essay published in a journal called The Prompt. Probably not a lot of you. In fact if you asked someone in the hall he most likely wouldn’t know what you were talking about. Now if someone asked that same person how the varsity football team’s season was going, they would likely have a better answer. Why is that?
In a recent survey of 150 students, 54% felt that there isn’t enough academic recognition at our school. Students come to school every day with the whole purpose being to learn. That being said why is it that sports get pep rallies, Field Day, congratulations and game day announcements over the speaker, while academic recognition gets nothing. Honor roll gets nothing; no post on the website, no announcement in school or in the newspaper. Only a mark that can be seen on iParent. When some of our teachers attended Hudson High School, honor roll was a big achievement and list of student names on honor roll was printed in the newspaper. They also had academic night honoring every grade not just seniors and their scholarships. Everybody knew who was on honor roll. Our school should encourage kids to have pride in their work.
Now I’m aware that there are ways that academics are recognized in school today. We have a scholarship night, and we have student of the month (one student for every subject). This is a good step in the right direction, but it’s not known schoolwide. Why aren’t the names announced?
Recognition is important to have both schoolwide and also in classrooms. We deserve to be recognized for the work we are doing now. It’s important to let students know that hard work is rewarded, and we should recognize and applaud the effort they put into their work when they exceed expectations. In the survey, some students felt that “giving students more motivation to succeed would do well especially if it was through teachers and not just pictures on the wall.” “It might even bring down cheating,” said history teacher Pam Porter, “because it would inspire pride in your work and if you have pride in it you wouldn’t want others to simply copy it and get credit for what you did.” The more motivation the better the work quality could become.
Students might become discouraged if they got straight A’s and received no recognition for it. When students have managed to keep an A in all classes for a term and they don’t receive even the smallest recognition, it’s like the school is saying that’s still not good enough. At other schools like Marlborough and Clinton High School, honor roll is posted on the school website for every term. When we were in middle school at JFK, students received a certificate for every term they made honor roll or Horace Mann. Here at Hudson High School they could announce honor roll over the speakers the same way they give congratulations to sports teams. Teachers want us to work hard, so we can get awards and recognition that look good for college applications and yet the school only acknowledges when we get scholarships for one night at the end of the year.
Lastly when a student doesn’t have faith in what they have accomplished throughout their high school career, they stop trying. Scholarships are an excellent motivation, but students need to feel that it’s possible to earn a scholarship. If you receive no recognition for any of the work you do, why would you think you are going to earn a scholarship? More importantly who would want to try? “I’ve gotten straight A’s every year and now in my senior year I still haven’t received any recognition for it. There doesn’t seem to be any recognition shown,” one student said in the survey. Motivation and competition is the key to all school work accomplishments.
Progress has been made in this school; student of the month has come back and a separate awards night has been created to honor other academic achievements besides scholarships. But even more needs to be done.
