Dear Dr. O’Toole and Grammar School Teachers,

Following the Awards ceremonies (held May 21 and May 22, 2015), many parents with children in lower school have voiced concerns about the impact of these practices on their children. These concerns have come from parents whose children did not receive awards as well as from parents whose children received awards.

Questions center around the merits and the demerits of giving academic and character awards to grammar school students, and the way the ceremonies were conducted. We would like you to consider more carefully how awards affect student learning motivation: whether awards at lower school (K-6) increases or decreases the desire to excel, in the short-term and in the long-term. In the same grain, parents also share in the opinion that constructive teacher feedback and encouragement throughout the school year is more effective and powerful in spurring our children to great heights, more than an award at the end of the year can do.

We as parents are disturbed by what we observed in our children immediately after the awards ceremonies: students who did not receive an award were discouraged and disenchanted that their diligence went unnoticed, while those students who received awards were elated and prideful that the award was somehow the triumph and proof of the year's efforts. We are afraid that the giving of awards will shortchange the intrinsic satisfaction of learning, reducing our children's endeavor to the lesser goal of hoping to earning an award at the end of the year. We would like FCA Leander to be a space where our children can participate in collaboration and mutual edification rather than a place of peer competition and comparison. We do not wish awards to send the wrong message to our children that education is the means to status and an inflated self-identity.

We as parents would like to see our children continue to be curious learners, taking risks in learning, and experiencing the joy that come from acquiring knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Our goal for our children’s growth goes beyond academic achievement. We would like our children to inculcate healthy values, good habits, and grow to be mature, compassionate, considerate, and responsible members of their communities, regardless of a prize for their undertaking.

We would like to request Dr. O’Toole and lower school teachers to reconsider the necessity of this practice and open up this discussion with us parents. We hope you would listen to our concerns as you have reminded us time and again that parents are partners with the school in this task of education.

Below are articles from educational research to caution the practice of extrinsic rewards. Please take a read.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Sincerely,

Engaged Parents of FCA Leander

These are some articles that informed us about the children's learning motivation as related to awards and rewards.

http://courses.umass.edu/psyc360/lepper%20greene%20nisbett.pdf

http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/10/how-rewards-can-b...

http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/risks-rewards/

http://www.nasponline.org/resources/home_school/ea...

http://blogtopractice.weebly.com/extrinsic-motivat...

http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/1079

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.omo/young_child_mot...

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-trust/2...