At my son’s last school, the kids who got Class Rep, other leadership positions, or the prizes at the end of the year awards ceremony – they were from the families who donated the most money to the school.
So it was a surprise to me when this year, at a new school, the kids were asked to work for these things – especially the leadership stuff. I loved it, because as a parent, you want kids to know that things aren’t just handed to you. And that privilege can’t buy your way to reward.
When they announced that the elections for the 2019 leadership positions would be held soon, I really wanted my 11-year-old to be part of the process. Candidates had to do a full campaign, with posters, a personal slogan, and two speeches. I thought it was such a valuable thing to do, so I made my kid a deal.
“If you, at the very least run, you’ll learn so much,” I promised. “I don’t care if you win. In fact, winning is nice, but that’s not important. I will think you’re a success if you just run.”
And then, I pulled out the mother of all parenting bribes.
“If you don’t win, you’ll get a new Macbook for Christmas.”
I wasn’t worried that he’d ‘chuck’ the campaign just to get the laptop. I knew he wanted to do it to win. But I wanted to emphasise that the trying part of it was the real winning.
Unsurprisingly, we had a deal.
The next few weeks made me so proud of my kid. He blew me away with his heartfelt and eloquent speeches which he worked so hard on. He drafted them, then wrote them on to cards, and practised them repeatedly. We workshopped his campaign slogan – he came up with “Make Primary School Great Again”, his little mockery of Trump’s campaign slogan.
Top Comments
Running for school leadership positions can be fraught with problems. If the students gets to vote, it can be a popularity contest. If the teachers decide, they can be biased by which student leaders will make their lives easier or whose parents they are friendly with or help the most at the school. If the school is backward in updating their knowledge about how best to nurture introvert kids, then only the loud or sporty kids will get a gig.
We'd like to think that judgement about leadership positions in schools is actually a fair and transparent process but if we want our kids to really learn about life by participating, they need to realise the hard way that politics is a dirty game and that fairness and consensus are not a given. What would really help is if teachers could give the unsuccessful kids feedback on why they didn't get a position, so that the kids have something to take away from it and work on, rather than be left to speculate on themselves with just their parents' pitying faces to form the picture. It would also ensure teacher's decisions are more transparent and accountable.