Today we celebrated excellence. 84 Benton Heights Tigers were recognized for academic excellence in the first nine weeks of the 2009-2010 school year. With these 84 students came, parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and even a few friends of the family. Altogether we were blessed to have over 200 folks in our cafeteria this morning. So much so that I didn't even get a biscuit, I guess that was God taking care of my prayer to overcome gluttony today.
I recently heard someone say that today's excellence doesn't equal excellence from 10 years ago, or 20 years ago. That for one to be truly excellent there must be some authenticity to the honor to which they are receiving. He went on to say that sometimes we are quick to reward for merit or achievement and it becomes a norm and we are not truly recognizing excellence. I related this to making sure every child gets a chance to be the line leader or the terrific kid. This is not a slam on any of these things. I do have a part of me that says everyone should get a chance to be those things. However, I agee with the statement of authenticity. Bottom line, some rewards are not for everyone. I will never be the MVP of the NBA, I'll never make the cut on the PGA tour. Just because people like me and that I'm a good person doesn't mean I should get these awards. I don't think honor roll should be given out like trick or treat candy, and I'm not saying it was. Our students should have to get A's the old fashion way, "earn them". (Remember that commercial?)
Let's get to the point. How do you recognize authentic excellence in your classroom? Did you recognize your students that were on the honor roll in some special way today in your classroom? Did you tell them how proud you were of them? Did you build them up in front of their peers? Excellence begets excellence, translation - this special attention will spread fast throughout our building. When students see us recognizing these positive things in an authentic way they will work harder to achieve these great things. Not every student is an honor roll student; however each student has the opportunity to be authentically excellent. Maybe it's Johnny's first day that he turned in his homework today. Have you recognized Johnny for this? Did you tell him how proud you were? This is authentically excellent for Johnny, he should get a reward for this, but there should be some type of recognition.
I had a conversation with a good friend of mine the other day. She told me that she thought she was going to get a promotion in her job. She felt like she had worked hard to do all things her boss had asked her to do. She didn't get the promotion. Why? doing the things you are supposed to do isn't authentically excellent and should not be rewarded. Doing something out of the ordinary that goes above and beyond is what should be rewarded.
I want to personally congratulate those of you that go above and beyond and are authentically excellent. I also personally want to congratulate all of our students for their authentic academic excellence for the first nine weeks. One last thing, as a coach I would always say that big plays are contagious. Translation ... if one of our players, made a great steal and went in for a dunk, and that was followed by a great stop on defense then surely another great offensive play would happen, because excellence begets excellence. More times than not this did happen, a great possession, taking time of the clock and scoring, a big three point shot, or getting fouled and going to the line after making the shot (and one). This is true in your classrooms as well. Keep pushing your students, have high standards and celebrate the opportunities when authentic excellence is witnessed.
Authentically,
Mike
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