The new school year is here, which is the ideal time to look ahead to how a school year is concluded and the choices made along the way. The traditional and deeply set celebration of year's end is a public ceremony that recognizes a select few students with medals, based on their academic performance. A public reward for “winners,” based on limited criteria, means that the majority of students are the “losers.” That can only impair students' motivation.
This reward method is a long-held practice but not an
equitable one. Most schools focus on rewarding academic achievement, which
misses the fact that not all students test well in conventional methods of
evaluation. Collective respect can not be maintained by singling out only a few
students, and these ceremonies do not support a democratic school system.
A better alternative would be to recognize an entire class’s
effort or to honor every single student for their particular strength, talent,
or skill. Learning is a reward itself!