As hardworking students sit in their classrooms, sweating, bored, desperate for a spark of fun, counting down the days till they are released for summer break, a bus of “gifted” and random students are being chauffeured to the Kennywood amusement park for a day of sun and fun. Everyone else must endure the same stale school day no matter how well-behaved and intelligent they are.
What determines the gifted program you may ask? A test that was given to hand-picked students in second grade. This article will not be an attack on any teachers who help run the gifted program, they are just doing their job. It will be a critique on Corry High School and their lackluster ability to prioritize all students to be rewarded.
High school is seemingly alone in the matter of being left unrewarded. Middle school is often taken on trips like going to the arcade, snow tubing at the peak, bowling, and baseball games. These are multiple rewards that happen every single quarter. All these trips are great for students and most likely well-deserved. But where is this funding for the high school students? They are completely left in the dust. Well, not completely, because apparently a small group of students are more worthy than others for a rewarded trip to Kennywood.
The school should be focusing on making all the students in high school feel validated in the hard work they are putting in. Some kids are going home with pages of homework every single night that don’t get squat their entire four years of high school. Many students have 4.0 GPAs that don’t get a single reward trip. Some students who show up to school every single day and don’t get into fights aren’t rewarded.
It is truly unfair that we don’t get anything for behaving well and having good grades. Especially the senior class of 2024, who has had the highest grade point average in the entire high school for years. If it’s going to be a trip for “gifted” kids, then it should be strictly “gifted.” Random people being invited to go just feels like a punch in the gut to everyone else who have to sit in class. Everyone should be rewarded. What makes the “gifted” kids such an exclusive group when they are sitting in the same classes as people who aren’t “gifted?” They have been rewarded immensely with study halls, field trips, and opportunities for years putting them on an imaginary academic pedestal. We should feed the intelligent minds of our school, but that is not accomplished by treating other students like they are insignificant.
While the “gifted” and random ride on roller coasters today, the rest of high school will sit in a stoic silence. There’s scarce work to complete as the year comes to a close. My ultimate hope is that the general student body will finally be treated as fairly as “gifted” students. There are very hardworking students in our high school and hopefully they will be recognized for that one day by our administration. It is just a shame many students will be long gone when change does one day take place.
