Wakefield High School 2011-2023

I will answer from personal experience. I am in the top 10% of my class and excel in most subjects. I could be a member of most of the honor societies, but I decided not to. In a way, I do feel weird being the only student in the top 10% who isn’t in a single honor society and won’t be receiving any cords.But I’m actually glad I didn’t. As I’ve said in other posts, high school is just a system. No one actually joins them because they want to (which is a real shame). They only do it to fill their resumes. And as much as I actually did want to join them, I knew how honor societies worked. A certain group of friends dominate the leadership positions in the honor societies (they really know how to work the system, so I’m a little jealous because of how unfair it is, but mad props to them for really pulling strings and getting ahead of the game), and they’re really the only ones getting any of the credit.Luckily, I had other clubs and activities to completely fill my applications. Honor societies would have done nothing for me. Especially when I hear about National Honor Society in particular. In many schools, the teachers in charge of it require all events, so they don’t allow students to choose their own activities for community service hours, and they also don’t really get to know the students, so they’re useless for recommendation letters.Just take a look at your own situation. If you really, really need an activity to fill up the spot, then take a shot at it. Especially if you think you have a shot at a leadership position. But otherwise, I would advise against it, especially if you’re applying to selective schools. They already know you take pride in your academics, and they don’t need to see “National Honor Society” on your resume to know it. It’s really up to you, though.

I Google my answer and here is what I came up with.Being a member of the National Honor Society means more than just wearing an extra tassel on graduation day. The nationally recognized, volunteer-based club emphasizes leadership, academics and character in its criteria for student membership. But tassels aside, students are beginning to question the worth of the program before signing up.Many teens view having NHS on their resume as a prerequisite for getting into a good university. But then again, some students worry that colleges aren’t paying much attention to NHS enrollment these days.Hinsdale Central junior Divya Gulati recently applied for NHS membership but has since started second-guessing her decision.“I applied, but I regret it after realizing how common (being in NHS) is,” Gulati said. “It seems like everybody’s doing it, so you’re not at an advantage if you do it. The amount of hours is stressful. I feel cheap for volunteering just for NHS hours, not because I actually want to.”Other students argue that everyone can learn something from their involvement in the club.“There are people who start out looking at NHS as just a resume builder, but find out they really do like it and care for it,” said senior Shuya Gong, Whitney Young’s NHS president.Still, Gong said it all comes down to motivation. Coming into NHS with a positive attitude can change what you get out of it.“Motivation often doesn’t just tell you why you want to do something, but it really dictates how you do it a lot of the time,” Gong said.Kevin Koehler has been a guidance counselor at Hinsdale Central for 23 years, and he views NHS not as a resume add-on, but as a representation of the work that’s put into the membership.“It is not NHS that matters from my opinion—it is what the student does with the membership,” Koehler explained. “Tutoring other students says something about the applicant that just being in NHS never says.”College admissions officers see beyond NHS membership alone, Koehler added.“It is what you do in what you are involved with that makes the statement about the candidate,” he said. “The actual membership is a non-factor in terms of ‘weight’ over other potential activities.”In other words, NHS doesn’t necessarily trump fencing club or weekend poetry slams. Colleges care about your dedication to the activities you’re involved with—not about how many clubs you can pile on your resume before graduation.Overall, while it may be hard to stand out in a nationwide organization like NHS, the benefits can be worth it for students who are willing to invest their time and effort.https://ccs.infospace.com/ClickH...

Departments of education and school districts always have to make decisions about what to include in their curriculum.  There are a lot of life skills that people need that aren't taught in school.  The question is should those skills be taught in schools?I teach high school, so I'll talk about that.  The typical high school curriculum is supposed to give students a broad-based education that prepares them to be citizens in a democracy and to be able to think critically.  For a democracy to work, we need educated, discerning citizens with the ability to make good decisions based on evidence and objective thought.  In theory, people who are well informed about history, culture, science, mathematics, etc., and are capable of critical, unbiased thinking, will have the tools to participate in a democracy and make good decisions for themselves and for society at large.  In addition to that, they should be learning how to be learners, how to do effective, basic research, and collaborate with other people.  If that happens, figuring out how to do procedural tasks in real life should not provide much of a challenge.  We can't possibly teach every necessary life skill people need, but we can help students become better at knowing how to acquire the skills they need.  Should we teach them how to change a tire when they can easily consult a book or search the internet to find step by step instructions for that?  Should we teach them how to balance a check book or teach them how to think mathematically and make sense of problems so that the simple task of balancing a check book (which requires simple arithmetic and the ability to enter numbers and words in columns and rows in obvious ways) is easy for them to figure out.  If we teach them to be good at critical thinking and have some problem solving skills they will be able to apply those overarching skills to all sorts of every day tasks that shouldn't be difficult for someone with decent cognitive ability  to figure out.  It's analogous to asking why a culinary school didn't teach its students the steps and ingredients to a specific recipe.  The school taught them about more general food preparation and food science skills so that they can figure out how to make a lot of specific recipes without much trouble.  They're also able to create their own recipes.So, do we want citizens with very specific skill sets that they need to get through day to day life or do we want citizens with critical thinking, problem solving, and other overarching cognitive skills that will allow them to easily acquire ANY simple, procedural skill they may come to need at any point in their lives?

This is however unusual as a fresman will not have had enough time to establish a reputation of the five standards for membership: scholarship, leadership, character, citizenship, and service.Edit: I read this question without the How. Sorry.New credential: Dean of Academic Honors. Sponsor of three Honor Society Chapters.

This may sound demeaning, but I would spend the time you’re planning to spend on speechwriting to bake cookies. Seriously.Wrap them up along with a note with why they should vote for you. If you give a speech, just reiterate the points you made on the cookie note.As far as a platform, find some cool community service opportunities at your school and elsewhere to show you have good ideas. Come up with a lucrative fundraiser. Show them that you’ll be the best person for the job.

No, not necessarily.But if you don’t have anything on your application other than academic achievement and SAT scores, they will probably turn you down.They want well-rounded students, not brainiacs.Join the Glee Club, play in the Band, do some athletics, get on the debate team, show some social service (helping out with the junior soccer club, helping people in a nursing home). Do anything that shows you’re a well-rounded person.Students who play a musical instrument (or, better, two), have a much higher chance of being accepted at an Ivy League school.