Awards Time

It's that time of year again.  Awards time.  The time of year when we run back and forth between the boys' school and our work, in hopes of a) securing a good parking spot and b) making it in time to get a good seat.  It's the time of year when we try to act surprised by the awards the boys have been telling us about all year.  But sadly, with all the technology we have now (yes, I realize I sound like my grandmother), it's hard to be surprised by much of it anymore.  

Harper worked very hard to earn his AR medallion for meeting the second grade, 60 point goal.  So, we easily checked his record online to see he had met that goal!  He also worked hard to earn straight A's all year.  And yup, we quickly hopped online to check his grades and saw he met that goal as well!  And sure enough, as we sat through Harper's awards, we watched him proudly wear his new AR medallion around his neck as he walked up to receive his trophy for maintaining straight A's all year.  While we were equally proud of his SMAD, Skip Counting and Attendance Awards....his personal goals were for AR and straight As.  So you can only imagine we celebrated with him!

But nothing could've prepared us for Warren's awards assembly, his last awards program of elementary school.  Like Harper, we checked his AR and were already aware that he would not receive his AR medallion.  We checked his grades and knew he would not receive his trophy for straight A.  As motivation has been a struggle for Warren this year, we were prepared for those things.  And because they were participation awards, we were prepared, but proud to hear his name called for a PE award, as a Hollen Helper and as the only Lincoln representative in All County Orff Choir.  And while we weren't expecting an Attendance Award...or an award for an overall straight A average, we certainly could've hopped online to check those as well.

After all of the participation and "prepared" awards, came the one surprise award we were completely unaware of and totally not expecting.  Warren's name was called, along with only 6-8 other names, as being a "Student Leader".  Consequently, we weren't even "camera ready" since we never expected to hear his name.

Teachers and school staff are in a hard spot with awards, for sure.  Does every kid get an award?  While I don't support that idea, I have seen the repercussions from the other side.  You have hard working parents, who take time off of their jobs to be at their child's awards assembly, only to see him/her not earn one darn thing.  So, while I understand trying to celebrate things with every child, it definitely seems to make those awards "less special."  So, if we were to have picked only one award for Warren to win, it would've been the Student Leader Award, because that speaks to his character...to the kind of young man we are trying to raise and to the kind of person God has called him to be.

I'm pretty sure you are never really ready to send your child to middle school, but this little "boost" reassures us of Philippians 1:6:  "Be confident of this: He who has begun a good work in you, will complete it."