Parent Sparks PTA Conflict By Demanding Recognition For High-Achieving Students Over Rewarding Struggling Kids For Mere Effort

“Consistent straight A students don’t get the recognition they deserve.”

Jesse

• Published in Interesting
• April 2, 2024

Receiving awards is a bit like catching sunshine in a jar - it lights up our hearts and paints smiles across our faces. Because, let’s face it, who doesn’t appreciate a little recognition for their hard work?

However, in one certain private school, their awards criteria was a little…different. At this prestigious institution, every award translated into a chance to win a cash prize. The catch? Awards were solely for improvement—not being the highest performing. 

Say a student with a rocky academic past turns 5 D’s and 2 C's into 6 C’s and an F. They’d earn five awards for each D upgraded to a C, which equaled five entries into the draw to win a coveted cash prize.

So how about the resilient hard workers with pristine records of straight As? Surely, they’re bound to be rewarded for their consistent stellar performance? Well, sadly that wasn’t the case. 

Our narrator’s (Original Poster’s) daughter was one of such high achievers. Her previous report card danced with 6 A's and a B, so when she got straight As the following term, all she got was one measly reward. Was that fair? OP didn’t think so.

In a sea of parents celebrating improvement, OP raised their hand and proposed a radical idea. Shouldn't those who consistently excelled be rewarded accordingly? It was a question that stirred up controversy in the parent community.

Many argued that rewarding improvement was crucial to encouraging struggling students. But to OP, it just seemed like A students were being penalized for their hard work from day one.

Consequently, parents with heavily awarded kids were furious with OP. Was OP wrong to advocate for a fairer awards system?

The story in detail

A bit of background

The criteria for getting awards is something that OP finds distasteful

OP argued that consistently high achievers should be given more awards. However, this wasn’t well received by other parents who argued that such a criteria would take away from kids who worked hard to improve their grades

We gathered some reactions from the Reddit community:

“NTB. All the attention and effort usually goes towards the kids that are struggling.”

“NTB. Improvement should be encouraged, but when the kid consistently keeps their scores up and works hard, that should also be acknowledged.“

“If school wants to pay kids for doing well, that's called bribery, and not the good kind of motivation.”

“NTB. It's a bad system and should be abolished.“

“NTB. Going from an D to an A is amazing and deserving of praise. But a D to a C? Pathetic.”

“It seems like the simple thing would be to give an award for each improved grade and each A.”

“All this shows the kids that do really good is that their effort doesn’t matter.”

In this battle for equitable distribution of awards, Redditors stood firmly by OP’s side. Some even suggested each maintained ‘A’ be rewarded with an entry into the draw.

One Redditor reflected on their personal struggles as a high-achieving student who felt duly overlooked. Sure, struggling students need encouragement, but high-achievers work hard as well; they deserve to be put on a pedestal for other to emulate.

Do you agree with this verdict? Let us know in the comments.

Jesse