Nixing the White Robes

[foxxtastic]

So, I know this is a little late for any topics about school. 'Specially since it's summer. And it's a little early for me to be seriously caring about this, but it's an issue that recently hit my school this last graduation and it got a lot of people talking. So, I wanted to know what you guys thought about it.

So, in my high school, we have a system of "Honor Roll." Though it isn't really like an honor roll so much as a list with the names of people who get certain GPAs sorted into different colors. Quite simple, yes? Well, for the people who get on honor roll - especially those who get GPAs of 4.0 or higher (yes, that is possible) - used to be rewarded at the end of their highschool career. They were able to wear white robes at the graduation ceremony instead of the uniform red ones.

This set them apart from the rest of the students. Gave the smart kids an identity and something to be proud of. They all worked their entire high school career to be able to wear those robes. And they deserve it.

However, my school recently got a new principle this last year. Things are changing dramatically and the most drastic one that is upsetting so many of the students is the elimination of the white robes for the people that have excelled in school.

Why the change from our new principle? She said that "it makes the kids that don't get to wear the white robes and be different from everyone feel bad about themselves because they haven't done as well as those students." Alright. Isn't it their own fault that they didn't do good in school? Isn't it there fault that they didn't work to wear those white robes for their graduation?

So now, the white robes are no more. And, to be quite frank, many of the students were pissed off about this. One student told a local newspaper reporter that "we've worked so hard our entire highschool career for those grades so that we could wear those white robes and be set apart from everyone else. It isn't fair." Sure, life isn't fair. Not in the least. But if you work hard and actually strive for something that sets you apart as an individual in a crowd of hundreds of highschoolers by fighting for your grades to remain perfect, shouldn't you be rewarded?

Personally, I think that She shouldn't have gotten rid of the white robes. I've been working hard for my grades in order to keep a good GPA. Not just for college purposes, but the extra added bonus of being able to be different from everyone else for once in my life. I was looking forward to wearing a white robe in two years. But now, I'm not going to be able to do that.

So. The questions I have for you at this point are the following -
• Do you agree with the principal's reasoning behind getting rid of the white robes for students who have excelled in school? Why or why not?
• Do you think the student was right to say what she said about it "not being fair"? Why or why not?
• Do you agree with the idea of having different colored robes for students who have done well in school? Why or why not?

-- Please note that the statements from both student and principal are not word for word. That is the basic gist of what both parties said.

 

[LavenderMintRose]

I'm living with false hope

And my eyes just want to see a ray of light

I'm gonna find it in my fairy tale...


I strongly disagree. Grades are the only thing that matters to most people when they decide the value of a student, but they shouldn't be.

So many people think that grades measure intelligence accurately, but so much luck and other stuff go into it, it really doesn't. I know there's one school where I live that's kind of a rival to my school. High school athletes have to keep their average above a certain point to stay on their teams, so in this school, they intentionally give the best athletes easier teachers who will give them A's. My mother's co-worker's son goes to that school and plays basketball, and my mother was told by this kid's mother that his essays wouldn't have passed in middle school, but they get A's in this school that's supposedly one of the top 20 in the country.

It's not always deliberate injustice like that, it could be just luck. Every school has hard teachers who rarely give A's, and easy teachers who give them all the time. I, for one, have had what most people would consider bad luck with teachers, meaning I've had mostly teachers who give low grades, so my average isn't too high. However, these teachers have led great discussions and in their classes, I've been expected to think in deeper ways than I would have been in an "easy" teacher's class. Sometimes it's a trade off, and I don't think it's very smart to be okay with sacrificing true intelligence for a number that says you're intelligent.

 

[Verderbnis]

My grades only indicated my amounts of cheats I used during my school career, also I would like to know if you're (@ OP) learning and working for school just to wear a white robe someday, it's quite unlogical to me. Anyways, grades do not measure the value of a student, they exist to procreate "idiots". By giving only a small amount of good grades to some, a class-elite is created, then comes the broad middle and then the losers who already submitted to their bad grades and do not show any will of learning anymore.  

[azrael the reaper_95210]

technically, im officially a certified genius.
guess what my class rank was at the end of high school. out of about 200 graduating students, I was a little below 100th....
the reason why I wasnt top of the class?
there are many learning styles out there. i was one type, the teachers generally teach in another few types.
those top class kids are top because they happen to learn the way the school system teaches.
also, when we graduated, all the scholarships went to one girl. the only other ppl who got any were because they were multiple person scholarships.....she being the first recipient....

oddly enough, she didnt even end up being validictorian......  

[Verderbnis]

The school systems do not raise the talents of a single student, so there's still a way to reject geniuses. In Germany an elementary school teacher got in trouble, not because of having a bad class, she just educated them too good. The average grade of her class was 1.08 (1 is an A in Germany) having 25 students. She actually solved psychological and medical trainings, just to make kids more open for education, instead the school principle wanted her to slow down and other classes parents also complained about the progressive class...  

[Sullen Couch]

Verderbnis

The school systems do not raise the talents of a single student, so there's still a way to reject geniuses. In Germany an elementary school teacher got in trouble, not because of having a bad class, she just educated them too good. The average grade of her class was 1.08 (1 is an A in Germany) having 25 students. She actually solved psychological and medical trainings, just to make kids more open for education, instead the school principle wanted her to slow down and other classes parents also complained about the progressive class...

What the hell kind of logic is that?
I believe that this whole thing is idiotic.
Those guys worked, hard in fact, to get to wear those white robes!
Of course, I'll never be that fortunate. sweatdrop  

[Verderbnis]

Ok, the white robes are yet just a symbol, but in my opinion a symbol which becomes necessary takes an overrated place. If it's really necessary then every christ should wear a cross after that logic.

I have always been the best in languages, for example in my english classes I conjugated irregular verbs which were unknown to me and most of the times I was right. If my schools offered french lessons I'd probably picked those. My lingual sense is sensitive enough, that I simply look at a writing to understand it roughly and I can tell where it comes from.

Unfortunately it was not possible for me to avoid maths and other "rational" classes, I had to repeat two times the same schoolyear, without learning anything in addtion.

But I don't care, next year I will improve my school degree twice and maybe I'll study something. Maybe I should become a teacher ^^  

[Sullen Couch]

Verderbnis

Ok, the white robes are yet just a symbol, but in my opinion a symbol which becomes necessary takes an overrated place. If it's really necessary then every christ should wear a cross after that logic.

I have always been the best in languages, for example in my english classes I conjugated irregular verbs which were unknown to me and most of the times I was right. If my schools offered french lessons I'd probably picked those. My lingual sense is sensitive enough, that I simply look at a writing to understand it roughly and I can tell where it comes from.

Unfortunately it was not possible for me to avoid maths and other "rational" classes, I had to repeat two times the same schoolyear, without learning anything in addtion.

But I don't care, next year I will improve my school degree twice and maybe I'll study something. Maybe I should become a teacher ^^

My response is off topic, but you speak English well, for a native German speaker.  

[Verderbnis]

I have a special sense for languages, I am able to understand simple informations of latin based languages and I know a language by its sound. And I was one of the least who was able to conjugate irregular verbs without the help of a book or teachers...

...if you really "study" a language for about the half of your life with a serious interest it really becomes something like a native language.

In germany we do not have those white robes or equal traditions. You just graduate. Maybe it's just my modestry, but I don't need to show off my skills with an outfit.

Maybe I was an ignorant dumbass to my teachers, but I know times where teachers learned a few lessons about their anachronistic matter. I cornered them more than once with my arguments.