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Thursday 3 December 2009

Prizes

It was a big night at school last night – the yearly ‘Presentation Night’ when hard work is rewarded, the next year’s captains are named and the Year Sevens and Year Tens graduate. Since I started work in the library, these nights have held no surprises. The library assistants (all two of us) are in charge of putting book plates into all the prizes, sorting them into the right order and making sure everything runs without a hitch. It’s exhausting and terrifying...but nothing went wrong, I'm glad to say.

For the Year Ones, it’s the first time they've had to attend. It’s a long night for 6-7 year-olds, but they are all given a book prize for their great efforts, so they at least have something to come away with. Last night Sausage came away with two books – she also won the prize for ‘Christian Fellowship’. She got a Children’s Bible and she loves it.

Dynamo, unfortunately, missed out, though he tells me that he should have won the Christian Fellowship prize for his class because when one of his classmates complained that he would never get a prize because he was the dumbest kid in the class, Dynamo had replied, “No you’re not. I am.” At least he has a sense of humour about it (though he definitely isn’t dumb).

I really feel sorry for the kids who miss out. They might be really clever, but not quite the top. They might be really good at sport, but not always win. They might be really kind and friendly to their classmates, but not get noticed. Then they don’t win anything. I hope their parents don’t let them feel they’re not good enough. They’ve all got something special and I wish we could have given them all a prize.

At the same time, I have to say, I did enjoy the look on Sausage’s face when her name was called. Is that hypocritical?

2 comments:

Lily Cate said...

I remember our year-end awards. I always ended up with something from Art, or Orchestra.
My son is still a year away from elementary school, so we have that to look forward to.
The one prize award that really bothers me is the "Perfect Attendance" ones. A few years ago, some of the schools in our district were giving away bikes to the kids with perfect attendance. I get that those schools had problems with attendance, but they were also basically punishing kids for getting the flu, or having a family emergency. I don't remember ever getting through a school year without getting sick once.
Totally not fair.

(Also, congrats to Sausage!)

Kate said...

We don't give 'Perfect Attendance' awards, thank goodness, though my parents do have some rather cute photos of Dad as a boy with 'Perfect Attendance 1 Year', 'Perfect Attendance 2 Years', 'Perfect Attendance 3 Years' underneath them. He must have been healthy!