Student of the Month: February 2011

Michelle Skonnard

When the monthly call for nominations goes out, I usually run down my rolls looking for the A’s and H’s, the academic standouts that merit special recognition for their good work. But sometimes by this point in the year, the obvious choices have been snatched up by other teachers or departments, and I even start to assume that certain really great kids won’t be available to be my student of the month because certainly someone else has already selected them. That’s what happened this month. I was watching Michelle mingle and cheer with some of her fellow student officers at a basketball game, and I asked Miss Allred (who organizes this shindig every month and who had just sent an e-mail reminding those of us who had not selected someone that we needed to do so), which teacher had selected Michelle. She told me Michelle had still not been chosen, and I immediately said, “She’s mine!”

Now I could go on to tell you that the reason I was so quick to call dibs on her was because of Michelle’s excellent grades and perfect citizenship, her magnificent writing, her unfailing politeness, or the challenging reading assignments she has undertaken for Honors English…and it all would have been true. Michelle impresses me on so many levels and in so many ways that I would be hard pressed to list them all, so I am just going to share one thing that illustrates the quality of her character.

At the end of last term, when all the points were tallied and all the extra credit was in, Michelle had an A- in my class. Now I think an A- is a great grade, especially considering that she is doing the extra work for Honors English credit, but I could tell by the look on her face that Michelle is one of those students for whom there is no substitute for a straight A. She walked away from our conference stunned. Now, since I am a heartless old beast, I didn’t think too much about it at the time, but later I peeked at her report card and discovered that all the rest of her grades were, in fact, straight A’s. So, why, then, if her “lowest” grade is in my class is Michelle my first and only choice for student of the month? Because she accepted this difficult news with a grace and poise and politeness that I have never seen in a ninth grader. She did not come in after school to beg for mercy. She did not send her parents in to badger me. She did not resort to deceptions and trickery and false promises. She didn’t try to make deals. And she showed up smiling the following day. In other words, Michelle treated it as a lesson more important than a letter on a report card, which illustrates to me that she already understands something a lot of people never figure out: School is not about just grades; it’s about learning. This understanding and her quiet grace are certainly the only reasons that no other teachers have honored her yet: She doesn’t make noise and get in our faces. She’s so smart and wonderful and sweet and polite that we assume others will have recognized this in her already. But I’m glad I got to be the one!