Student of the Month? Really? I'm Honored

Last week I got a note in Emily's folder that said she had been selected to be THE STUDENT OF THE MONTH.  "Wow!"  I thought, "Well, obviously she'd be chosen as the student of the month.  She's definitely the smartest in the class.  And the cutest, no doubt.  And she's probably the nicest and sweetest and everything a teacher dreams of in a child.  And it's only October.  Of course they'd be honoring her this early in the year."  The note indicated that there would be an AWARDS CEREMONY and that we the parents were invited.  I nonchalantly marked it on my calendar, no big deal, but inside I was swelling with pride.

So, this morning I got James and Caroline and myself all ready and trudged on over to the school.  I sat in the front row at the cafeteria, anticipating what kind of speech would be given to honor the STUDENT OF THE MONTH…. what kind of accolades would be showered upon her?  As I sat pondering this I noticed more and more people filing into the cafeteria.  Like a lot of parents and students.  Soon I spotted another parent of a child from Emily's class.  My face fell. Why would she be here?  Surely her child isn't student of the month as well?  There can only be one, right?  Then another child from her class and another until I saw that Emily was one of five students from her class at the awards ceremony, and there's only like 15 in her class.  Oh man.  Then and there I knew Em wasn't considered as special as I originally thought.

So, the nice lady got up to conduct the ceremony and she said that the students of the month were selected based on October's character trait: TRUSTWORTHINESS. These students could be relied upon to get their work done and do what's right.  Then she read a huge long list of names as student after student went up on the stage to get the little paper award and a picture taken with the principal.  Em was towards the end since they were reading the kids in alphabetical order.  Not a word was said about her… just a polite applause from the audience as she marched across the stage. And it turned out one other student from her class was also selected to be the student of the month.  I don't mean to get too technical, but shouldn't they be A student of the month and not THE student of the month?….which I'm calculating in my head… 9 months of school, 15 kids, I'm sure EVERYONE in the class will be student of the month at some point during the year.

Then they had awards for other kids where they read off name after name.  The other three kids in Emily's class got an award for "participating in class."  Ok, that's even worse than getting a trustworthiness award. What the h is it even supposed to mean?  Like what kindergartener doesn't participate in class?   I would be kind of ticked if I were a parent who got work off (I saw several dads in uniform) to come see my child get an award for participating in class.

 So what say ye?  Do I need a major attitude adjustment?  Does giving an award to multiple children  diminish the accomplishments of another or not at all?   Should I just be happy for Emily and let the rest be?  I promise I'm not majorly annoyed, just slightly.  And I guarantee that I was not the only disappointed parent in that cafeteria as we all looked around at each other and realized that our child was just one in a sea of many receiving the same awards.

Homeschooling makes more and more sense to me every day.