by Michael Natelli ’14

Two weeks ago, Honor Roll students were rewarded for their strong academic performance. They had the opportunity to watch seven songs from the Rock N’ Roll Revival performance during 2^nd period and part of 3^rd period. This is a rather generous and unnecessary award for doing the work students are supposed to. 

Does the Sherwood administration really think that it will motivate slackers to try harder just because they will miss one period for one day? Or, do they believe that incentivizing good grades will make students on the Honor Roll continue putting in their hard efforts?

The reality is that letting students see one one-hour performance will not push them to do better. Unless there was some highly extravagant reward, like taking a field trip to the moon, students will not try harder. Academic effort is a 24/7 job, and being rewarded with a one-hour show is not a very strong motivator.  If I was a slacker and I wanted an easy way to get out of class, that’s what skipping school is for.

Natelli is currently a student in the Journalism class. The Warrior Online will begin to feature stories from Sherwood High School’s Journalism class as a reward for hard work and to foster a stronger connection to the world of journalism amongst younger writers.