OT: Participation trophies for all!!!

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I've got to disagree. Having recently been through the college admission process, twice - many colleges are doing away with emphasis on GPA and are eliminating the SAT/ACT requirements. Instead, the schools want the applicants to write an additional essay explaining their community service or interaction with the community (volunteerism, activities, church groups, etc). We were told the schools don't want just good students, they want well-rounded individuals.

My oldest son applied to MIT, with his 4.3 GPA and whatever ridiculous SAT scores he had. When he went to the school for a tour, the Admissions officer said "We already know you're smart. Now tell us how you're going to enrich the community at MIT". MIT doesn't have class standings. The school wants students to work cooperatively to solve problems, even assigning them to study groups so that students can help each other rather than just sit in a lecture hall, study alone in their room, take a test, and move on. MIT wants student to learn the material, not just memorize it long enough to pass a test. My boy ended up at Worcester Polytech, which has a very similar system to MIT. The philosophy is that the school doesn't want kids in their rooms cramming for tests all day; it wants them out in the college community, being hands on, engaging in extracurriculars, learning to work in teams, challenging them to think rather than recite by rote.

Forcing kids to concentrate on their GPA rather than the subject at hand is counter-productive. In a highly competitive environment where GPA becomes priority #1, the kids become stressed and poorly educated. As a mom of 2 college kids, I like the current system better.

Incidentally, colleges give honor cords, same as most high schools, that recognize excellence in certain subjects, with each cord a different color and representing a different subject. My oldest had 11 honor cords plus the Presidential medal of academic achievement hanging around his neck when he graduated from high school and I expect he'll have the same when he graduates from college next year (all A's except for one B after three years). Excellence is recognized.

Competition in sports is different. It's very discouraging to kids that go all out to excel in a sport to get the same recognition as someone who showed up just 'cause their parents made them go. Different topic altogether.

Have to say that, as a shy but brainy kid, I wasn't able to get into colleges (Yale among them) way back in 1974 because I wasn't "well-rounded". So it isn't new.

On a high school level, I have mixed opinions about recognition at graduation - I was #11 in my school of 700+, the 10 ahead of me all had perfect grades. But in those days, it would have been relatively tough to game the system, there were not that many options (since what were called "vo-tech" classes didn't count to GPA, nor did Phys Ed classes). I took 3 "AP" classes, others didn't necessarily, but they weren't taking courses to game the system either.

I like the changes in the better schools where it is not all about the grade you get. And that system will work for the level of student you have in an MIT, Worcester Polytech, Ivy League, etc. - but in plenty of colleges there is a portion of the student base that ultimately is about getting a degree, and not so much about how much they contribute to their college community.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

The most ridiculously gifted and talented kid I ever had a church was turned down by Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard and Georgetown and then attended Bucknell. He had 1400+ SATs, was co-Validictorian, played five musical instruments including piano, horn, and guitar. He was an Eagle Scout and past secretary and president of our synod wide youth organization, and worked summers at our church camp, and went to both the BSA Jamboree in Philmont and attended our national youth gathering. I have never known a more complete dossier than his. Example of his tenacity and will and his heart is when deciding to learn to play the guitar he chose Eric Clapton's "Signe" as his first song playing it flawlessly for me because he knew it was my grandmother's name.

He majored in Chinese and business at Bucknell and spent a year abroad in China working in English as a second language schools there. Upon graduating he went back to China helping to open additional schools there for the company worked for traveling throughout China and south to the Pekong Delta in the south. He was wait listed at the London School of Economics and later accepted but already committed to the UC-San Diego where completing and publishing his Masters thesis he was then invited to speak at Harvard, the irony. He returned to China again and in the last year has accepted a position at the Stinson Center in Washington, D.C. as the associate director for Southeast Asia.

He stick remains an amazing person with tremendous gifts with a personal dossier any of the schools who turned him down would love to have among their alumni. Work ethic, true gifts and commitment is vastly more important the name on the paper they give you at graduation. That can open doors and opportunities but doesn't compare to the individual will. We see that at UCONN every year.

BTW, I am leaving the congregation I have served for 27+ years on July 31st to become the spiritual counselor for a UPMC hospice care team throughout Central PA including the Penn State area. The adventure continues.

Great story. Good luck in your new ministry. Have known 2 pastors involved in the hospice care field (and the Pastor (of the church in NJ where Amy worked before she became ill) is married to a fellow pastor who is VP of Mission and Spiritual Care at Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn). All found it rewarding, although they both returned to parish ministry, as that is their calling. Additionally, Amy's very good friend graduated the 2 year Gettysburg program for Diaconal Minister (maybe I have the term wrong, but not an AiM) and has worked particularly with individuals with mental disabilities and has (of course) seen many of them die.

God's blessings to you.