Posted on 10/07/2017 11:23:56 AM PDT by yoe
High schools are increasingly ditching giving the graduating senior with the top grades in his or her respective class the traditional valedictorian award, (Wall Street Journal)
“I think it’s pretty stupid, and I don’t think it’s fair” said Ryan Walters, a promising student who most likely could have been a top contender for the award before his high school decided against giving it out. “Wake County is instilling in us that we shouldn’t try to be the best,” added Walters, commenting on his school district in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
Heritage High School, Walters’ school, is not alone in getting rid of the award. At least half the United States high schools have stopped giving the award or they name multiple valedictorians for the graduating class.
Officials argue that the award can cause overly competitive students and unnecessary stress..................
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Good God, how are these kids going to handle reality when they graduate? “Wadda ya mean I can’t become CEO right away? That’s not FAAAAAAAIIIIIIIRR!!!!!!”
Look at this, this is where England is at now...Principal with a sex dungeon....
http://nypost.com/2017/10/07/principal-who-had-sex-dungeon-in-office-gets-prison/
What is “unhealthy”competition?
Surely all of these schools have eliminated all sports teams - after all would not they also cause too much stress using the same reasoning?
You know what else leads to unhealthy competition? Grades. So why not get rid of grades entirely, and just base a student’s rank on attendance?
Oh, wait. That wouldn’t work either. Because then attendance would lead to unhealthy competition. Okay, just give everyone an “A” in every subject that he/she signed up for. And that would make everyone a co-valedictorian!
Everyone happy, everyone healthy!
+1
Why are you discriminating against people who don’t sign up for things?
As a valedictorian, I say those people can go F themselves. I earned my grades.
A nephew recently graduated from High School. A very small school in The Heartland.
They had 5 Valedictorians - not to be ‘fair’ but because all FIVE of those kids worked their butts off and STILL all ended up with the same GPA! Half the class all have fully paid scholarships for college. Half the class got up during the ceremony when it was time for the Band to play or the Choir to sing, LOL!
Two of his graduating class of thirty are going into the military, nephew included. He’s in MS right now, in school to eventually be a decoder (or some such thing) for the Air Force. :) My other nephew just finished Marine Boot Camp and will be home in a few more weeks. :)
If we could only can get our kids OUT of The Big Cities and send them to Flyover Country to get their basic K-12 education, we’d already have Made America Great Again! ;)
I never felt stress. I KNEW I wasn’t anywhere near the top. I just breezed through and was happy to graduate.
Don’t worry kids, everyone gets a trophy so don’t bother trying to get better.
It comes before that. What do you mean I didn’t get the one job opening? That’s unfair, I want it, I don’t care that 50 others applied. You can’t tell me no.
give ‘em the Judge Smails treatment...
Let’s compromise - recognize the valedictorian, but also give a participation trophy to any snowflake who wants one. My kids reacted in a priceless manner to those trophies. Without any prompting, they consistently left their participation trophies from various sports either on the field or in restaurants, wherever they were handed out. I don’t have a single one in my home, and I am proud of my children for absorbing those values when they were young.
I’m in partial agreement that the valedictory award be given to the top student. However, the teachers and staff will sometimes put their fingers on the scale. I would prefer the gpa added onto the sat or act percentile or actual scores to put a neutral element in the evaluation.
As someone who had no athletic ability as a child, and still don’t, I hope they no longer let two students choose who will be on their sporting teams in the classroom setting. It was always humiliating to be chosen last.
But where I excelled, ie, actually learning, put me near the top academically. Now the 4,999 students who aren’t valedictorian feel dissed by the smart kid.
Bwahahahaha.
Suffer bitches, and I’ll be the boss doing your performance reviews in a few years.
School systems which have been “reforming” have been doing so in the liberal tradition. One mid-western state did so in the eighties, maybe it was the nineties. They tried to remove all competition, even spelling bees, math bowls, etc. There was a hue and cry from parents and they backed off that part, at least some of it. But even in the classrooms teachers lost authority,resulting in increased disciplinary problems. Teachers who could were taking early retirement or quitting and quality of education began a steady downward slide. The teacher I know, one worked another two years and then retired said that she was disciplined for touching a student while helping write an English assignment. She said she loved teaching before, but after the “reform” she couldn’t wait to get out. I lived in that state at the time and the rumor was the reformists had a long range plan to remove school sports because they hated the competition aspect. - Liberals.
No grades or all As?
Check out any studies, sociology, or other non academic department.
Which is why their degrees, along with their owners, are worthless.
In every measurable way.
Thirty kids in the graduating class?
Geez, I graduated in 1960 and their were 600+ in mine (Bergen County NJ)
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