Hero of the Month

On Thursday evening, I drive my son to soccer.  It’s becoming my favorite day of the week because of the conversations we have.  For example this week’s topic was First Friday.  He discussed all of the ins and outs what happens.  Then the conversation drifted to who would be the Hero of the Month.  He discussed that the hero got to eat pancakes, have their photo taken and have the whole school  hear about how good they are.  My son in a sad voice said, “I hope I am the Hero.”   I replied, “I hope you are too, bud.”  After that I asked how do you get to be the Hero.  My son just said you have to be really good.  I also prompted him to ask his teacher what could he do to be the Hero.    He replied,  “I wouldn’t want to do that it might take away from a friend who was working hard too.”

I bring this up because I became nervous about my role in these moments in the car of other parents.  Did they have the same reaction I did or did they blow it off?  Consider these questions:

• Are your teachers using the same standard for selecting the students?
• Can your students articulate how they can achieve this award?
• Do students who do not achieve this award given feedback?

I would have never considered how the award impacts the other students.  It is important to highlight outstanding students, but we need to be sure that the answer is Yes to the questions above.

So Friday has come and gone.  My Little Man was not the Hero of the Month, but he is the Hero of our House.