Do this year’s freshmen deserve a ‘redo’ promotion/party??
Unfortunately, due to the Covid 19 virus, the class of 2024 (all of us as eighth-graders at the time) received no recognition for our promotion into high school. So knowing that as a community of staff writers for the school newspaper we decided that one of our final articles would be about whether or not freshmen deserve some sort of promotion/party. So, a survey was sent out just this past week to determine whether or not this will even be an arguable and available option. Provided for you below is some of the feedback and statistics we collected from different grade levels of students as well as some teachers too through that virtual survey. Enjoy!
Counter argument & Middlemen/women quotes:
“Everyone DESERVES to be celebrated and recognized for their accomplishments. Do the 9th graders NEED a promotion celebration a year after the fact? No. A LOT of people missed celebrating big milestones over the course of the pandemic,” high school Biology teacher Mrs. Camren said. “Looking beyond eighth grade promotion, this is not the biggest accomplishment the current 9th graders will be celebrated and recognized for. For most of the current ninth graders, promotion is a small blip on the timeline compared to what is coming down the road. Most other states don’t even have or celebrate eighth graders moving on to high school.”
“I feel like eighth grade promotion is not as significant as the senior graduation that last year’s students missed as well,” Health and Physical Education teacher Ms. Spaulding said. “However, it is still a great accomplishment and that is why I chose ‘maybe’.”
“I put ‘maybe.’ I think a party for them would be nice. It really all depends on Covid though,” freshman Emma Smith said. “If cases start to rise again then I don’t think any kind of event/party would be a good idea, but, I doubt that will happen again – I hope.”
Quotes from those in favor of some sort of event:
“Due to the Coronavirus and its current impact on Imagine Prep and our community, the Freshman of this current year were not able to have a proper eighth grade promotion,” freshman student Natalie Charney said. “I find this kind of depressing since the majority of eighth-graders worked tirelessly to stay on top of their work during the opening stages of the pandemic. We should be able to get some sort of value to celebrate what we have been through!”
“Having an event for this year’s freshman would be neat considering how unorthodox things have been,” freshman Gabriel Grosse said. “It could help them feel good about themselves and feel some familiarity from before COVID. Whether it would be possible is a different question, but I think that it would be well appreciated if it were to happen.”
“I said ‘yes’ because they will actually have something instead of nothing,” sixth-grader Colin Mecca said.
“I think ‘yes,’ we do deserve one. The seniors were able to have a graduation, even though it may not have been the same, they still got one,” freshman Veronica DeMar said. “We also were told we would get something in the mail and all the people I have talked to since then, have said they didn’t receive anything. Also, I think we deserve some sort of recognition for not only being dropped into high school and surviving the first year of it but also for surviving a global pandemic as teenagers.”
“Yes, I believe that freshmen deserve some sort of event to congratulate them on making it to high school. Going into high school is a really big event because high school is your last few years of schooling before college,” seventh grader Avelaka Higuera said. “Those going into high school (becoming a freshman) this past year – deserve to be recognized by how far they have come. High school is where you will hopefully get your first job or even learn to drive. This is a good thing to be excited about!”
“I think that ‘yes,’ the freshmen deserve even a little event because every other eighth grader got to do some sort of promotion in the past and we didn’t really get anything other than a video which I don’t think is fair,” freshman Michelle Gutierrez said. “I think that it doesn’t have to be anything extra, it can just be a small, fun event. Just so that we can hang out with all of our friends and count that as a promotion so we can at least have something to remember instead of us having to be disappointed that we never got.”
“I said ‘yes’ because they have been working so hard to get where they are and I think that because of all their hard work, that they should get some sort of event or even a small promotion would be nice for them,” sixth grader Jeniferlynn Johnson said.
“Honestly it is just an excuse to do something together. I don’t know everyone in ninth grade, especially the people online,” freshman Gibson Miller said. “I think it would be a great way to meet people, especially if the online people were invited.”
Clearly, we have some contradicting perspectives on whether or not this year’s freshmen deserve a re-do of their eighth grade promotion. We’ll see whether or not our fellow freshmen get what they think they deserve.
