School Prize-givings

The Problem With Prize Givings

At Wellington High we are all about inclusivity right? We don’t separate people into labeled groups, do we? What if I told you that at the end of every year an event happens that divides our school: prize-giving. It’s been the traditional way to celebrate those academically driven students, calling their names to the stage, and giving out those big shiny trophies that lie around at home all year. Prizewinners and their families get sent an invitation email, whilst the non-prize winners are left in the dark. This highly competitive behaviour has been embedded in us as fve year olds starting school when the torments of prize giving frst begins.

I spoke to a student who has not received prizes at prize giving before. Alex* is not particularly bothered nor motivated by prize giving. They think that because they have never been to prize giving before, it has never been a motivator for them: “only prize winners are motivated to win prizes, so the same people are getting motivated: if you don’t win prizes you aren’t motivated by them in the future.” Right from the beginning, we are setting certain students up for success and giving the rest of them the short end of the stick. Those who get the feeling of the shiny, metal cup in their hands will want that feeling again and again, whereas those who never experience it will never have the drive.

Every year we hear speech after speech about the WERO values our school apparently holds. The frst being ‘W’ for ‘Whānau’ - but how much like a ‘family’ is competing against our peers for a trophy and sometimes even cash? We need prizes that celebrate ropu’s, groups or classes that have succeeded or worked well together, not just individual ‘Excellence’. Out of the 23 Students who responded to a google survey sent across six year 11-13 media studies classes, 19 had a negative depiction of prize giving. They described it as making them feel dejected, inadequate, shit, bored, guilty, stressed, uncomfortable, awful and anxious. It doesn’t sound like prize giving is a positive experience for many people, so why do we still have it? Nor are we looking after our students’ mental health or ‘Ora’ by running this event. Being a teenager is hard and a generally strange stressful time without the added pressure prizes put on students. Last year Frankie* received prizes in all but one of their subjects. When they got home their parents asked them why they didn’t receive a prize in Maths. The expectation set by not only their parents but also themselves, they tell me, has always been high. They describe prize giving as a motivator but not a positive one, “it has trained me that I need prizes for validation and that it is just the base-line for success.” They acknowledged that they come from a privileged position, where the school system suits their learning style and that they are lucky to get rewarded for their efort.

Prize giving in the perfect world would be able to accurately celebrate the eforts of everyone who had put in extra efort, not just the lucky students like Frankie. Teachers will no doubt try to ‘choose’ those who they think are most deserving, but we do not live in a perfect world, teachers will never be able to perfectly choose students who deserve prizes and prize giving will never be truly representative. Students who deserve the acknowledgement will always be left out, there will always be disappointment, and it will always undermine peoples’ achievements. Sounds like life, right? Sure life can be unfair at points, but why should we inprint another unfair experience onto our children? Instead of setting our children up to believe that life will be competitive and unjust, we should encourage them to foster collaborative behaviour: how learning can be done together, not just individually. Yes we need to acknowledge students who put in extra efort, but let’s do so without creating division. Personal emails from teachers thanking the students who put the extra mile in or the special awards being handed out during class time would take away the parading and shameful atmosphere prize giving creates. Why do we need to see those top prize winners walking across the stage and feel shitty about our own achievements?

Lets celebrate more than just academic success, lets celebrate everyone and lets do so with a new event: celebration evening. This would be an evening that all students and families would be invited to, dedicated to showcasing what the school had achieved that year - Kapa Haka, excerpts from drama classes, music items, science challenges (Epro8), vegetables that horticulture classes had grown, short flms, all the awesome things that our school creates together. Academia is the main focus during the school year, so let’s take a moment to acknowledge everything that happens outside of exam results and written essays. Our future is collaborative not competitive and the beginning of our future starts by canceling prize giving.