It's a Hard Job, But I've Got to Do It: Students have mixed feelings about school competitions

Fingers aching, vision blurring, sweat pouring down your face, you look at the finished project. Weeks have been spent collecting the necessary information and then arranging it just the way you want and they specified. You feel proud as you look upon the finished work and think, “It’s over”. But is it really?

With the economy the way it is, money is hard to find. Adults are puling extra hours and cutting back on extravagances. Government officials are scrambling to find relief and students are doing whatever it takes to get college money. The most obvious option is getting a job or applying for scholarships. When that doesn’t work, there’s always the option of competing in competitions.

In our school, that last option isn’t optional. For NHD (National History Day), every student has mandatory participation, and teachers usually find several others as well. With all the rewards they offer (money, fame, valuable skills, etc.), one would think students would be jumping at the chance to compete. But that’s not always the case.
Students such as Ian McShea, sophomore, and David Tillman, junior, feel the competitions are a good thing. They teach students valuable skills through fun and interesting projects. David was introduced to the world of filmmaking and has become a mini-celebrity in Constitution high School for his talent.

However, there’s another side to this coin. A vast majority of students feel these mandatory competitions are too hard and boring. Most feel that though so much time is put into creating these projects, it’s never enough to finish anything. Alexandria Haynes, sophomore, said “We work on them too long. I can see if we devoted some time, but not all our time”. It has also been noticed that some categories get more attention than others, such as documentary over paper.

Teachers and students agree that these competitions take away from the rest of the school experience. Days are divided between class and project workshops. Often, these crazy schedules cause students so much stress the rest of their work suffers due to the focus on their projects. “In ‘American History’ we don’t even learn ‘history’. We learn ‘NHD’. What?!” said Ian. With the growth of the school, the amount of available supplies and teacher attention has drastically fallen. Complaints have been heard about the students who are selected to compete at the city level. Samantha Silberstein, sophomore and two year city participant, commented, “Masterman [High School] doesn’t limit their number of entrants. Why should we?”

Quite a few ideas have been floating around about how to improve this obviously flawed system. Students say they should have the right to compete in the competitions of their choice. Mrs. Deborah Klose, Art teacher, suggested, “Have an elective class devoted to NHD for students to get credit. They can devote a whole marking period to their project. If willing, students do a far better job.” More supplies, research and preparation time, as well as more advisors, would give students the aid they need to create superior, award-winning projects.

Well, it certainly seems Constitution High School has its work cut out for it.