Honors Night Canceled for ‘Fairness’

21 March 2013

Coddling our youth is Principal David Fabrizio’s primary objective. Whether he realizes it or not, the principal of Ipswich Middle School in Massachusetts is teaching a very dangerous idea to all of his students. It is better to safeguard the feelings of those who did not come out on top than to recognize the achievements of the successful.

This, from the Jawa Report:

Middle School Principal Cancels ‘Honors Night’ Because It Might Upset Students Who Didn’t Make The Grades A Massachusetts principal has been criticized for canceling his school’s Honors Night, saying it could be ‘devastating’ to the students who worked hard, but fell short of the grades…. But, apparently, it’s okay to devastate the kids who worked hard and achieved academic honors…

The entire article, along with the principal’s contact information can be found here.

Principal Fabrizio’s response that the honors night was not canceled, but merely changed from a private ceremony to a more inclusive gathering of all students throughout the day may offer some comfort for those students and parents not included in the honors spotlight. However, this still diminishes the hard work and dedication those at the top must exhibit to attain such a station in relation to their peers. What Principal Fabrizio has done here is to effectively water down the achievements of those at the top to safeguard the rest of the students from the very real feelings that all of us must deal with on a daily basis.

Nobody wins every time, and the spirit of competition demands a solid line of delineation between winners and losers. Without this, competition becomes just another issue of fairness.

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