Posted on 06/18/2018 12:05:41 PM PDT by bgill
A dad from North Carolina bought his son a billboard to recognize him as class valedictorian since the school refused to do so. East Wake High in Wendell, North Carolina recently got rid of naming valedictorians and salutatorians. Instead, they give all high-achieving students Latin honors for a “better way to recognize students who may have barely missed being named valedictorian or salutatorian by several decimal places," according to the News & Observer.
(Excerpt) Read more at kctv5.com ...
When I was in school, those with a 3.75 or higher GPA were classified as Summa Cum laude, 3.50 to 3.74 was Magna Cum Laude, and 3.25 to 3.49 was Cum Laude. So Valedictorian and Salutatorian weren’t the only high honors, and all those with high achievement were recognized in one of those honored categories. I don’t think those people felt cheated by the fact that there was only one Valedictorian.
This billboard stunt probably really embarrassed the kid.
Valedictorian is dumb anyway. Really, the minute you’re out of high school it means nothing. Now you gotta go be an adult, get a job, go to college, anybody old enough to drink that mentions anything they did in high school other than meeting their wife is a loser.
Except in a lot of schools, “honors” classes are actually easier because the teachers do a lot more tutoring rather than a more comprehensive or deeper study of the subject.
In my high school, calculus, physics, and advanced chemistry were not honors, but there were honors classes for English and biology.
As a result, you had to choose between actually learning something or going for the highest possible GPA. Usually the second tier of students actually got the highest GPAs, and the budding rocket scientists took second place.
AP classes are and have been worth up to 6.0 for ~30 years, honors/AG classes are 5.0 and regular classes 4.0.
The dad is showing his son how proud he is of him. He is not running off with the milk money to shoot smack with the babysitter. "out of control"? He is prideful at worst but, I would be too if my kid worked that hard. (my opinion).
How else do you reconcile a kid with a B in a college level course with a kid getting an A in the easy course? Even if the first got an A, if 4.0 was the max, there would be incentive to take the easier courses rather than the more difficult courses. This is one area that the schools actually did something correctly about 30 years ago.
A lot of schools have AP/IB at 6.0, honors classes at 5.0 and regular classes and special ed classes at 4.0
50 years ago, my HS had three students with four years of straight A’s and a 4.0 GPA. The girl was named valedictorian. And so we ended up with the first Home Ec track valedictorian in school history.
How long ago was that? My experience 20 years ago was the opposite. The honors kids were required to TUTOR the regular class kids and there were honors and AP math, science, history, etc classes of all types. We had a 9th grader taking AP Calculus BC (College Calc 2nd semester) and ace it, giving him a 6.0 GPA for the class. He also perfect score on the AP exam and a 1600 SAT score that year as well. Not bad for a Chinese immigrant.
A nearby even small town than ours had maybe a half dozen graduates. Because their valedictorian and salutatorian were both boys, they named the only girl in the class as High Ranking Girl per tradition. Some got upset because she was in special ed.
And somehow, you didn't go shoot up the whole school?! I retroactively re-award you your point and raise you one!
My son was Valedictorian in his high school at a time when the school and society recognized such things as an accomplishment.
He told me two things going into his senior year.
First, his goal was to become valedictorian.
Second, he said the only thing that proved was that he was a good student, not that he accomplished anything in life.
Here's what's weird.
The salutatorian was a close friend of his. The salutatorian and my son share the same birthday. The salutatorian and my son were born in the same hospital on the same day. In high school they were on the same high school bowl team. They won first place in their conference one of their years in high school.
P.S. My son is so conservative he makes me look like Joseph Stalin. He is in year 14 of a Navy career and has just been promoted to Commander. He isn't totally comfortable with military politics and may retire in 20 because of that.
If more Valedictorians were minority, no problems.
The idiot school administration and the school board that allows this idiocy should be embarrassed...and resign this afternoon.
That’s what I don’t like is that it’s become a game, oh I can skip gym and add a tenth of a point, I can claim a disability and take two hours longer on a test. Everyone gets an A now and you win by working the system
Our schools give an extra .5 to students who take and pass the AP exam. Clearly this kid had a lot of AP classes. AP are college level and should be given some extra credit vs the school class.
AND it saves mom and dad $ in the long run. My kid entered college as a 2nd year because of APs, and got all the basic classes out of the way in h.s. Makes college graduation a bit cheaper OR lets a student take on an extra major or two.
If my daughter's high school was any indication, I suspect a lot of valedictorians come from Asia these days.
Dash gets in trouble in school; on the car ride home, Dash says “Our powers make us special,” to which Helen (Mrs. Incredible) says, “Everyone is special, Dash”. Dash retorts back to her, “Which is another way of saying that no one is.”
The Incredibles ‘Everyone’s special’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gXCCBmTvBI
#54 ask the kids about their knowledge of video games and Marvel movies. They will astound you you! : )
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