National Junior Honor Society (vanity)

So, my kid gets the "you have not been selected for junior honor society" letter in the mail today. The reason given: not enough community organization or leadership activities!!!!!!

The thing is my kid has a 95 plus average, is a member of all-county chorus, all-county band, Soccer, Volleyball, Softball and Girl Scouts. She earned her black belt in Kenpo Karate at age 12 and helps teach younger students. Her group got first place at the regional National History day competition and goes on to the next level in a few weeks. She plays the oboe and played her solo at a level 5, level 6 being the highest level in the state (including high school) even though she's only in 7th grade.

I politely asked what she could have done more, because between homework, music lessons and sports practices their is really not much more time left in the day. I was told first of all, she could attempt to hold more leadership positions in the organizations she is in in school, such as being team captain or an officer in a club. I reminded them that her middle school does not have team captains and that the clubs don't have officers. The exception being Student Council, where she did run for Secretary but lost in a 5-way race. Then I asked about the Community Organization part, and I'm told that she should be spending all of her "extra" time (what extra time?) serving the community doing things like volunteering in soup kitchens, volunteering for "assorted groups" and just generally serving others. I told them that we do charity work as a family through our church and not always on a regular basis, it's not something you can quantify on an application. I got no reply. So I asked if she could give me some specific examples that other students had under community organization in case my daughter wished to peruse those community activities in order to reapply next year. No, I was told, that information can't be given out as it would violate other students privacy! What???? I asked if applications are verified, like do they check on what kids write down -- nope, taken as fact. No essay was required, so that wasn't a problem. Anybody have experience with this?

I'm with you. It should be about character and grades. We live in a small community and I know several of the kids who got in. I know most of them probably deserved to get in. Several of their parents have told me to pursue the matter because they don't understand why some of the other kids didn't get in, and they don't want to be part of a “shady” organization. There was no verification process and it is a given a couple of kids must have lied on the application because they don't do anything, plain and simple and I don't now how the school wouldn't want to verify what was written down. One parent told me her son got in and she didn't even know he had applied or what he could possibly have used as leadership or community service! His own parent told me this!

I called the adviser and was told decisions were final and that's it. I said that sounds real fair, if it were a disciplinary problem my daughter would have rights and due process. But being a smart, good kid-- no such rights. She out right lied to me and when I quoted from the NHS handbook, she then had nothing to say.

I know it's not the end of the world, but it's the principle of the thing to me.

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