Think of it as real world training. My experience in both the military and civilian job market has shown me that the hardest and best performing worker seldom gets the promotion.
I have a feeling she won't have to worry about attending college in Texas, anyway.
Of course, “valedictorian” literally designates the “farewell speaker”, who on the face of it, might be chosen by any means, subjective or objective. I suppose that the association with the highest academic standing is long established. ( Wikipedia says little more than this. )
The bitterness that seems to attend the competition for this award makes me sympathize with the anti-competition view of things, which I usually shun. At least, it seems to me, the honor should consist in the actual privilege of giving the farewell address. It is the inflated prestige and advantage that this title confers that makes it such a bone of contention.
Some public schools are be run by the stupidest people in America.
Is Anjali Datta a U.S. citizen? Non citizens should not be getting scholarships paid for by the government. If she is a citizen, there may be a bit of racism in play here.
It’s all about the money.
I understand the honor of being called the Valedictorian, but I don’t understand why she’s worried about getting the scholarship from the State of Texas. With that GPA, and having completed high school in three years, there are likely several private colleges that would be willing to offer her a nice scholarship.
Same thing happens when NCAA players enter the draft a year early and give up their amateur status.
This politically-correct, 'feel-good' pap needs to go into the garbage dump of history. . . WHERE are the voices of Reason?
You don’t understand the socialistic premise of the public school that decries competition.
Many high schools have a board of teachers and administrators who select graduation speakers from among written speeches that are submitted by students. So, while the highest grade point average may get the title, the kid doesn’t give the valedictory speech.
This family should stop their whining and just take the high road. With a 5.9+ whatever GPA, I find it hard to believe she can’t get a full ride scholarship to the school of her choice. Yeah, she probably should’ve been awarded the valedictorian, but they need to get over it already...it’s not the end of the world.
My Senior year, I went 1/2 day to college, 1/2 day to high school. I ran track, and I commuted via bicycle. I also had a part time job at McDonalds.
My second semester I made the mistake of taking 10 hours (or 10 credits in college). These were World Civilization, Computer Science (COBOL, I think), and Calculus I.
I ran Cross Country, and won trophies at all meets that awarded trophies.
I had a problem with track, as I funked one semester of English (I had to read a novel, and with my academic load, I focused on college first, high school second).
I basically crashed and burn that semester -- lost my girlfriend -- was ineligible for track (my coach wanted to just run the mile, the half mile, and two mile runs -- all at the same meet.
Alot of this was my fault -- I was an overachiever. I guess I should have backed off...
Finally, my summer vacation was to work as a galleyhand on an offshore oil platform -- I commuted by helicopter to work...
It means the school wants her in school for four years so they can collect money for each year of her attendance. The school is obviously not concerned with how quickly she get through the required curriculum.
Certainly some business or individual in that community could spring for a scholarship for this girl. She deserves it.
This just plain sucks!
Actually, I was in a very similar situation when I was in high school. Out of a class of 88 (in rural Southwest Virginia), I was our school's valedictorian. From the start in 8th Grade, I had planned on working my butt off the first three years in high school and then coast during my Senior year, so that I could pretty much have a good time, a la Ferris Bueller. All of my competing classmates did the exact opposite, goofing off early and then crunching their Senior year.
As it happened, by the time my Senior year rolled around in 1989, I had a 4.00 GPA, but only needed Senior English, U.S. Government (joke of a class), and an elective course (Marching Band) to meet my 22 required "bare-minimum" hours for graduation. By lunctime, I was finished and out of there, much to the consternation of most of my competing classmates, who were just then busting their butts trying to catch up with me by taking tough AP classes (which weren't weighted in those days).
When graduation time came, I was still the top dog in my class by virtue of the numbers, with my closest competitor a few hundredths of a percent behind me, coming in as Salutatorian. A LOT was at stake, with a full scholarship to the local college for the Valedictorian and a number of perks.
Consequently, a delegation of my competitors' parents went to the school board to try and have me disqualified for not having worked hard enough my Senior year and for being a "part time" student. Fortunately for me, our school superintendent had some big cajones, looked at the numbers, and sent them packing. I gave my valedictory speech, which I wrote in about 20 minutes, and then went on to an illustrious academic career, earning two Associate of Applied Science degrees, a Bachelor of Science degree and a Bachelor of Arts degree, and a Master of Arts degree, with one year of Ph.D work before getting amrried and finally joining the real world.
There were a lot of hard feelings in my case, and the following year, the rules were changed to prevent anyone else from doing what I did.
In this particular story, I'm very sympathetic to this hard working girl, and I hope her parents get a lawyer and get immediate releif. If the school really wanted to do the right thing, then it would have given her a schoarship as well to reward her drive and effort.
Par for public screwl.
Yet more stupid liberal rules. Some college should immediately snap this youngster up and give her a free ride. Her brain is worth more than a bunch of gangster basketball players and a bunch of football players who barely make the grade. Yea, yea, I know all the players are not border line, but a WHOLE bunch are.