My daughter is a senior at Warsaw Community High School and will be graduating in June. She's worked hard and has managed to keep a part-time job, play in the band, be active in our church seminary program and still excel in school and make the honor roll every term. Recently, we received a letter from the school letting us know an invitation to a reception to honor students with a B+ or better grade point average would be coming. Since she had been on the honor roll, she had earned an academic letter, patch and chevron to sew onto her letter jacket. Along with the letter was an order form to purchase the awards.
Our son, who graduated in 2000, was an athlete and had several patches, etc., on his jacket. We never had to pay for any of them. Our daughter's band patches were presented to her at no charge. To receive the academic awards, we have to BUY them? I decided to check with the school to make sure I understood this correctly. Yes, the letters and patches for academics must be bought and paid for by the students or their parents. Athletics have a fund to pay for their awards. The Band Boosters pay for the awards in that program. There is no fund and no one pays for the academic awards, so if the student wants it, they have to cough up the money.
Money is not the issue here. We can afford to pay for the patches. (What about those families who can't?) The total cost for a letter, number, chevron and patch is around $30. That's not cheap! The point is, what are the kids going to school for? To play sports? To play an instrument? To get an education? Isn't it ironic that the reason the students are in school is the only program that doesn't reward their efforts and pay for the cloth patches?
Our daughter is the last in our family to graduate from WCHS, so this issue doesn't directly concern me anymore, but I think we need to re-evaluate our priorities in the schools. Why are the kids there? Why aren't we recognizing and rewarding their efforts in academics? The school doesn't get government funding for athletics or band. They receive it for the students' academic accomplishments. Maybe we should remember that and support a program that would honor the kids who are doing what they're supposed to do in school - learning.
