Sunday, December 18, 2016

Motivation and Recognition

Evan King

With the recent induction of the National Honors Society members, more

students have visibly become mentally exhausted due to the amount of time and work

they put into their applications and volunteering, while continuing to work at school and

attend clubs. At the same time, the early action and early decision deadline for college

applications has just passed and quarter one is ending. Lack of communication between

teachers, club administrators, and students has caused a snowball effect of stress for

those trying to excel in all that they take on. Other students continue to exert minimal

effort, seemingly dissuaded from working by the stress of their peers

As I approached one student, Brendon Dong, to ask him about his level of effort,

I found an immediate answer. Brendon slept on the desk in front of him while the rest of

his class worked on the assignment he already finished. After rousing him from his

sleep, he informed me that he still needed to complete work for his AP Physics class

and showed me his loaded schedule. Brendon, among other students, aims high and

takes on much more than his classmates at the expense of his wellbeing.

Students like Brendon and his group of friends intentionally didn’t pursue the

National Honors Society in order to have time to do other things. That is not to say that

these students don’t put in enough effort, but that not enough programs exist to

acknowledge these high achievers without putting them through more paperwork and

community service among other things.

Though I am not on the same level as my classmates who work many times

harder than me, I feel that I receive recognition for my academics as frequently as they

do. Our school holds a breakfast for high scoring students each year, but students that

take on less and have more free time can receive the same acknowledgement as those

who work far harder than them while maintaining the same number grade. Other

schools across the country such as Lake Dallas High School have even less frequent

ceremonies, one student, Jared Alberts, stating “I can’t remember anytime they did

that.” With this lack of credit for their efforts, it shouldn’t be a surprise that some

students choose to fill their schedule with study halls and avoid clubs entirely.

The reason that Ryan Mullin works hard despite the lack of esteem, is that he

feels satisfaction in the community service that he does for boy scouts and in making

music for the various bands he is a member of. In order to help those that don’t feel the

same way, and allow themselves to work below their potential, there needs to be some

incentive whether in the form of ceremonies such as the one present at Colonie, or

something more tangible. This effort to show appreciation for those making a difference

in the school community through academics and extracurricular activities has some

prospect to encourage those not working at their maximum potential to do so, and to

reassure those who already are.

While I personally do not feel that people like myself that do just well enough to

succeed require motivation, I have witnessed others fail not because they couldn’t do

more, but because they could see no reason to try their hardest. This is the fault of the

school for not trying to provide more evidence proving that working hard will help these

students, and instead stating that students should work hard as if it were a belief.