My Child Beat up Your Honor Student. (degrees, pay, reputation)
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I just keep picturing a happy little honor student looking over at that bumper sticker and getting a tummy ache.
What about the somewhat dull kid who reads the honor student one and feels bad about his lack of academic accomplishment? Who will think of the dumb kids' feelings?
Anyway, the "my child beat up your honor student" isn't making fun of the honor student; it's making fun of the parents who put the bumper sticker on.
I don't think people are anti-intellectual, I think they are anti-smugness. They don't like the attitude of the parent using their kid to brag themselves up. It is kind of like being a bad winner, which is worse than a sore loser.
I know the parents that put the "My child is an honor student." sticker on their car do not see it that way, but smug people rarely see how they come off to other people... I think the "My child beat up your honor student" or "My cat is smarter than your honor student" are just ways of saying "I see your smugness, and I am not impressed." So what if your kid is smart, being on the honor roll is one accomplishment... if my parents put a sticker on their car for every time had a legitimate accomplishment as a kid, there would be no bare paint on the car... and other drivers would think they were smug a-holes. If every parent put a sticker on their car for every legitimate accomplishment their kid achieved, we would run out of sticker material, ha ha.
I really think that those stickers (My kid beat up your honor student), are a playful way of combating behavior like this:
It isn't smug to laud the intellectual accomplishments of our children. And if some chose to do that, than more power to them. And to be very honest, it is more important to show your child you take pride in their accomplishments, than be worried to be perceived as smug.
Our schools don't make those stickers, but I have my kids university and grad school stickers an the back window of my car. If that's smug so be it. Maybe those parents who encounter those other stickers can use it as a teachable moment to teach that some need to tear others down to make themselves feel better about their lack of accomplishments and jealousy.
Eh, I see stickers for high-level soccer/gymnastics/etc teams (basically saying "hey, my kid is good enough to be on this team!), prestigious private schools, X University Alumni, those 26.2 stickers, vacation spot stickers, etc. I think it's just another way for people to be proud. Not a big deal.
I used to beat the valedictorian and salutatorian at chess.
But having to deal with other kids not doing well in school can still be a real problem for kids. But another part of the problem is schools making a big deal about grades. I did not try to get A's in history but the valedictorian did. I confess to being suspicious of honor students. Getting A's in history doesn't take any brains. It does take doing whatever idiotic busywork you are told.
It isn't smug to laud the intellectual accomplishments of our children. And if some chose to do that, than more power to them. And to be very honest, it is more important to show your child you take pride in their accomplishments, than be worried to be perceived as smug.
Our schools don't make those stickers, but I have my kids university and grad school stickers an the back window of my car. If that's smug so be it. Maybe those parents who encounter those other stickers can use it as a teachable moment to teach that some need to tear others down to make themselves feel better about their lack of accomplishments and jealousy.
Funny how tons of people manage to accomplish great feats and still manage not to put a self-righteous bumper sticker on their car... somehow they manage to feel good about themselves without flaunting it to everybody else. (This must be true, unless being an honor student is the greatest accomplishment possible.)
(Oh, and I was a honor student, as well as a competitor in exclusive math leagues that took very few students from each school and had them compete on tests... and I was able to enjoy the pride in my accomplishments (both my own pride and my parents) without them putting a dumb sticker on their car.)
Edit to add: I am not against anyone having a sticker lauding their child's accomplishments on their car, I just think that it gets completely stupid once those people start complaining about other people's bumper stickers)
Last edited by toobusytoday; 01-26-2014 at 02:52 PM..
Reason: removed snide remarks
First of all, bumper stickers are designed to send a message. Period.
People do not put enough thought into what they put on their cars, because, if they did, they would not put half of the stickers they do on that car.
Would you meet someone new and say, "Hi, I think that (insert name of politician here) is the worst choice a person could make"? Probably not, but that is what your derogatory politician sticker says.
Your honor student bumper sticker says that you are a proud parent who has no life beyond your kids. The my kid beat up your honor student sticker tells the world, "My kid is as dumb as a pile of rocks, but he has a strong back." If I were the kid in this family, I would be insulted, but maybe the kids don't get the meaning. This is probably why they aren't honor students.
The youth soccer/football/gymnastics/cheerleader stickers actually can be dangerous -- especially the ones with the kid's name and jersey number. It could give a child predator a sense of familiarity that can lead a kid to let down his/her guard. "Hey, you're Ricky, right? You're number 12 on the Raptors, aren't you. I saw you play last week and you were awesome."
If you don't your first impression to be a saying from a bumper sticker, don't put them on your car.
I don't like violence, but I don't like parents who live through their kids' accomplishments either. I'd say it's a stupid sticker and not really funny, I like the cat one better.
Anyone remember this bumper sticker? I saw one the other day and instead of chuckling, it set me to thinking. I'm a little tired of the anti-education, anti-intellectual attitude that so many people in this country seem to have.
When it really comes down to it this bumper sticker is not funny. It suggests that not having an honor student is something for a parent to be proud of.
Blue collar jobs are disappearing in this country. Whether we like it or not, young people are going to require advanced education to succeed in all the high technology fields that will have job openings. That's a message we need to send to young people.
If you think that bumper sticker is funny, its really not.
Personally, I find the 'My kid in an honor student' ones the most annoying....as the parents that tend to have them are most annoying sorts. I am the parent of an honor student but I didn't have to plaster it on the back of my car for attention. It's not anti-education at all...it's anti-bragging.
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