A child with Autism wins “most annoying boy” in class award

How do you feel about awards in general for students? I’ve worked in public schools for almost two years now and this just amazed me. I never rolled my eyes so hard. It truly infuriated me.

I personally think giving out awards is fun for students is a nice thing to do in certain ways. I believe highlighting students and their successes are very much needed. I think giving out awards such as “best hair”, “best dressed” and anything else physical is ridiculous. I recently was at a end of the year celebration for special education students I was subbing for. They were celebrating the 6th graders as they entered middle school and gave out awards like “math superstar”, “ray of sunshine” and “most improved in reading”. They were all so happy and they all very much deserved those awards. I was so happy to celebrate them. Then seeing this article I though back to when I was comforting the child who had autism because there was too much going on. I couldn’t imagine any of those amazing kids getting an “award” like this. So how do you feel when it comes to awards? Where do you draw the line?