Posted on 07/01/2010 9:36:19 AM PDT by Erin Brown
You’ve heard the stories: Pee-wee football and t-ball leagues doling out trophies to every single kid on every single team, even those chubby non-athletes that probably sucked and rode the pine pony most of the season. But coddling high school seniors? Give me a break.
Yes, some high schools (in fact, way more than you probably realize) are giving multiple “Valedictorian” titles to graduating high school seniors who have merely achieved over a certain grade point average. And not just to two or three students… try 30 or even, 94! A New York Times story by Winnie Hu highlights the pros and cons of this phenomenon:
(Excerpt) Read more at threefingersofpolitics.com ...
Female “logic”.
I’ve been wondering how schools have multiple valevictorians.
However, I thought it was because they were doing the grades on a 4.0 scale where an A is anywhere from 90-100.
When I was in high school, our GPA was on a 0-100 scale, and the valevictorian had something like a 99.9.
By this new method, I would have been a valevictorian because I had straight A’s through high school, but my GPA was a 92.
Let me tell you, there was a huge difference between the girl that actually was valevictorian and myself. She deserved it.
I was considered an honor graduate. Anyone with a 90 or above GPA was an honor graduate.
And spelling would have been one of the areas I did not excell in, sorry. It should have been valedictorian.
When I graduated HS in the 90s, the top 25 people with the highest GPAs received a medallion of some kind (I was one of them, but I don’t remember the name). But they still recognized the valedictorian and salutatorian.
Up to 90+ valedictorians?! I hope they didn’t all give a speech at commencement!
Our daughter shared the valedictory slot with another girl the year she graduated from high school. Both girls have gone on to achieve at a high level, the friend being in medical school and our daughter having just graduated magna cum laude with a degree in structural/architectural engineering from one of the top schools in the country.
I suppose with an inflated grading system where everyone gets an A for effort you end up with everyone achieving a perfect score. My argument would not be for fewer valedictory slots at the schools with multiples but rather for tougher grading standards so that C’s really do stand for “average.”
All by design....the dumbing down of America!
Man, it really sucks for the true validictorian that they are making it an “all honor students” thing. Makes validtorian meaningless.
It would be unjust to deny them the opportunity.
Of course, we are still awaiting a further stage in the development of our enlightenment: the graduating class where everyone is a valedictorian.
What motivation does a kid have to be valedictorian?
The schools we’ve had experience with grade on a 4.0 GPA system but with the decimal plus, e.g., 3.999. Both our daughter and her co-valedictorian had taken advanced placement classes as well, which were graded on a 5.000 scale, so both girls actually achieved about a 4.600 GPA and were ultimately separated by only something like 0.001 point.
Same here, but I graduated from HS in the 1970’s. The top 10 received a gold tassel for their mortarboard. But only a valedictorian and salutatorian where recognized.
No motivation to be the top I think other than satisfaction. I was an honor student but no way did I deserve to be validictorian. I barely worked other than cramming at the last minute. The valadictorian and salutorian duked it out for top spot for years.
It can be a resume enhancement for getting into a tougher college.
Yah, true that. I think if I were admissions and saw one of these “more than one valadictorian” students with a B+ average saying they were valedictorian I’d think they were lying.
I looked up the latin. Valedictorian in latin means “to say farewell” — so it’s the person, by tradition here with the highest GPA, who says farewell to the class at graduation. Is truly meaningless if they make it several students.
My son’s school grades the way your daughter’s school grades.
However, he’ll get a 4.0 with barely a 90% in the class, and there are kids with almost a 100% in the class who also get a 4.0. That’s what I don’t like.
I know they’ve had multiple valedictorians at his school with GPAs around a 4.6 or higher also.
I was in one class with our Salutatorian and none with our Valedictorian during the entire four years....lol. Guess you can tell I was nowhere near the top of the class. I actually graduated 68 out of 209. Not great but at the time I thought it wasn’t bad....wow. Now after living a bit I think it is horrible. lol.
I’m grinning. Same here; I thought I did great in my courses. Looking back I watched a lot of TV, hung out with friends, and did a lot of sports!
It really depends on how the valedictorian is calculated.
In my high school, they had at least three different ways of calculating it.
1. Your marke before the final plus some community work for the school and public speaking. A honour student who was acclaimed by the teachers and students was considered to be valedictorian.
2. Your marks before the finals, taking all courses into account. This want to a student who didn’t take any advanced placement courses.
3. Your marks after the finals, taking all the finals into account. This went to a classmate of mine, who had the highest GPA after all was said and done.
4. Marks after the final, top 5 exams only. I had 7 finals written, so my lower 2 didn’t count. The only difference between me and my classmate was the French mark. I didn’t do that well on that final, but my top 5 were better than her top 5.
English, English Lit, History, Chemistry, Math, Physics, French.
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