GREETINGS Rick Drewer.
You may or may not remember me from the Tanunda Golf Club.
Waiting at the optometrist, I was browsing through The Bunyip and came across your article about the attitude of “everyone is equal”, no winners, certificates for everyone and so on.
You have my full agreement on your comments (‘What do we achieve by celebrating participation?’ June 14).
When I went to school, both at primary and secondary level, there was general awareness regarding who was good at what.
During my teaching career, that same type of awareness existed.
This awareness might not have been totally accurate but it was generally very close to the mark.
The idea that everybody had a “right” to receive a certificate was taking hold late in my career.
My room was one place where it did not get universal application. The range of reasons for giving an acknowledgement of achievement or effort was widened somewhat over the years, but recognition still had to be earned in terms of reaching acceptable levels.
Another aspect of thinking that, to me, underlies much of today’s problems (and not only in schools but through much of society as well) is the application of the term “ rights” to mean a person can do almost whatever they like without consideration of how the action might affect other people.
Again, the term “rights” was something that gained little traction in my classroom where the keyword was “responsibility”.
The idea that virtually all would receive rights if everyone behaved responsibly was presented and referred to as regularly as necessary throughout the year.
Thank you for an entertaining and thought-provoking article.
Bob Wallace
