Posted on 04/28/2008 3:00:51 PM PDT by upchuck
Durango High School will allow its highest-performing students to wear white robes at graduation, reversing an earlier decision to require all students to wear red robes.
Principal Diane Lashinsky said she had learned "a great deal" from the controversy over graduation robes.
Lashinsky decided several months ago that all students would wear red robes at the May 24 graduation ceremony, ending a tradition where students with grade-point averages of 4.0 or greater wear honorary white robes.
Lashinsky said she felt the white gowns "diminish the accomplishment and hard work of other graduates by relative comparison."
Her decision caused an uproar among parents and students when it was publicized in a school newsletter this month and then April 16 in The Durango Herald .
Lashinsky has met with parents and students the last two weeks, and Durango School District 9-R announced Thursday that she had reversed her decision and would allow the tradition to stand.
This year, about 23 members of the Class of 2008 are eligible to wear the white robes. To be eligible, graduates must have an overall GPA of at least 4.0. Some students can exceed a 4.0 GPA by taking Advanced Placement courses.
The principal said it was clear from her conversations that it was "really important for several of the honors graduates to wear white."
"The issue was never about not recognizing our top students nor about praising mediocrity, as my original decision has been characterized," Lashinsky said in a statement. "Rather, we had planned to honor students more individually and personally during the ceremonies without so visibly comparing one group of students with another. Many students who won't be wearing white worked very hard to get to graduation and deserve to be honored for their accomplishments, too."
Students and parents did not return messages requesting comment Friday.
Durango High has also planned other ways to recognize the 4.0 GPA students. They will lead the graduating class in a march to their chairs on the football field, they will be the first to receive their diplomas, and they will be recognized in the graduation program, said Robert Logan, this year's graduation adviser.
"Students will be honored as they have been in the past," he said in a 9-R news release. "No more, no less."
National Honor Society members also will continue to be recognized with the gold NHS tassel on their mortarboards, he said.
Lashinsky said she was initially told the white-robe tradition was only three years old, not seven as she later learned. Durango High adopted white graduation robes seven years ago when the school stopped naming a valedictorian and salutatorian for each graduating class.
"That makes it a much bigger issue," Lashinsky said. "Had I known, I would have dug deeper into the history, and my initial decision may have turned out differently."
Durango High will not name a valedictorian or salutatorian this year.
Lashinsky said she will revisit next fall how to best honor academic achievement.
"We'll engage in a more global examination of how we recognize achievement and success, not just at graduation, but in a multifaceted manner that addresses all the ways we honor students," she said.
Greetings from down the road.
Thanks for referring us to the link. Geneva looked into class ranking, course weighting, valedictorians, etc. some years ago. Those who were against class ranking didn’t want the kids who didn’t rise to the top to feel badly. The kids insisted on it, and so it still exists. College admissions offices told us they are aware of all the different systems in the high schools, and that none cause disadvantages to the students.
Geneva still has a valedictorians and salutatorian. If nothing else, they give more interesting speeches than the school officials. I’ve never seen anyone at graduation being upset and full of self-doubt because someone else got to give the speech.
Geneva gives point value for the letter grades. There is no weighting, so a student with mostly AP courses might score the same average as a non-college bound student, a handicapped student, or a vocational education student. Whatever you may think of it, the colleges can tell the difference.
But if they've traditionally had the right to expect this special acknowledgement and she proposes to take it away, isn't she "diminishing the accomplishment and hard work" of THESE grads? So, what is she saying? That it's okay to diminish people's accomplishments, as long as those people are the ones who've accomplished the most? Do we want this twit teaching the next generation to think?
At my high school, a few classes like Latin which were viewed as exceptionally hard, that the GPA-conscious might avoid, got an extra point per letter grade. So, a "B" earned you four GP's, and an "A" earned you five.
So what do they do at athletic contests with other schools? Cover up the scoreboards with duct tape so there are no winners or losers, and everyone’s self esteem is intact?
The same people who tried to dump the valedictorian system are extremely proud of their young soccer/lacrosse/football players. Nothing like a double standard.
In general, the kids are quite competitive, and will be no matter what the adults do. BTW, they HATE participation ribbons.
Athletic contests? Athletic contesths are tho brutish, so weenie-centric, so linear-thought oriented, why would we even have those? After warming up with yoga, we sit in a circle and consider how the white man has raped womyn, Blycks, non-Europyans, the envyronment, and mother Gaia.
Unfortunately many “educators” are hypocrites, preaching day after day about the value of hard work and knocking it all down in a single sudden motion on graduation day by elevating the lazy, drug-addled and ignorant to the same level as the achievers.
No wonder the “safety net” is groaning under the weight of the many passengers in this world.
Translation (from PC Commie speak):
You won the battle this time, but I'm going to win the war...
That seems reasonable, because given that different classes have different scales (for instance, AP might allow a grade of 5.0, while internships only allow a 4.0) now the highest GPA is often somewhat arbitrary, and it can lead students to make poor choices simply to maximize their GPAs. Honoring everyone over 4.0 seems like a reasonable alternative.
The title of teacher smacks of elitism; after all, how about all the people who work just as hard, but don't have the title of teacher ? Best to just use COMRADE .
What a trucking itch. ( yes it rymes...)
Are these the same morons who promote athletic awards (most yards rushed, etc.) and allow the stupidity of Homecoming (students more popular than others)?
They have no problem recognizing achievements in other areas (and I use that term loosely re: Homecoming). It's that they don't like achievements related to intelligences.
"Yeah," Lashitsky continued, "Jorge and Javon worked just as hard to get their 1.4 GPA as them's who got a 4.0 GPA. Therefore, they should have the same right to wear the white robes, because they worked hard. Besides, white is a racist color, so nobody should be wearing that. We don't want nobody to feeeeeeel like they be inferior, or nothing. Everyone should be able to feeeeeel that they done did what they could. Besides, even if they didn't, and they were lazy, no good crackheads, they deserve the same as those whitey smart asses who think they be so smart.
Lashinsky said she was initially told the white-robe tradition was only three years old, not seven as she later learned. Durango High adopted white graduation robes seven years ago when the school stopped naming a valedictorian and salutatorian for each graduating class.
"That makes it a much bigger issue," Lashinsky said. "Had I known, I would have dug deeper into the history, and my initial decision may have turned out differently."
Lashitsky prattled on, "So if I'd just known enough to pull my head out of my ass and actually learn about the school that I am in charge of, I wouldn't have done this quite the way I did. Next year, things am gonna change, believe me, history or no history. I'm in charge here and nobody's gonna diss me by not doin' what I say."
It would hurt their fragile self esteem (rme).
There are regular classes which uses the 4 point grading system and then there are advanced placement (AP) classes which use a 5 point system. The AP classes are taught on a college level with harder workloads, summer projects, and the students are expected to take a college entrance test that will give them college credit for that subject. There are also dual credit classes which use the 5 point system which are actual college courses and the students pay college tuition for these. So yes, they should be given extra points for these classes.
Something I think is wrong is that our school does NOT include in the GPA such classes as athletics, band, and choir even though the kids can spend hours upon hours of extra time in these subjects. Our band students must attend summer band practices before the school year begins (much like football two a days) where they have chair tests the first day so the kids must already know their music (they get next years' marching music this week so they can learn it over the summer), they have practice two nights a week until 9 pm throughout the school year, there's the football games where they may not get home until 2 AM on Fridays, then there's private lessons which we have travel 2 hours one way into the city for on weekends, don't forget all the contests they attend and aren't home until late, and of course individual practice at home, and if the kid is an officer in band they have to pay for band camp during the summer.
Carolyn
{”We’ll engage in a more global examination of how we recognize achievement and success, not just at graduation, but in a multifaceted manner that addresses all the ways we honor students,” she said.
Translation (from PC Commie speak):
You won the battle this time, but I’m going to win the war... }
She doesn’t want kids to grow up feeling bitter, worshiping God and holding onto their guns....;}
“TEACHER DIANE”
You mean “Diane”. She is not a teacher and does not deserve even that title; she does not teach. Just call her by her first name.
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