Well, I didn’t graduate “cum laude” and it has not caused me one minutes loss of sleep, or self esteem.
Just because I didn’t study as hard as the valedictorian does mean I didn’t shake his hand and congratulate him.
I’ve always had good, well-paying jobs, and at no time has any prospective employer turned me down because I wasn’t the valdictorium.
The only person damaged by NC’s ruling is the kids that try harder to get the title.
Life is like the old westerns, there’s always going to be a “faster gun”. Life after school is over is dog eat dog, riddled with “unfairness” and “competition”.
Schools/colleges are supposed to preparing students to survive in the real world. No one is going to pamper them out there. There are no “safe spaces”.
North Carolina educational folks are well off the mark with this foolish ruling. If the kid works hard for it, and succeeds, he/she should be well rewarded. Other than “competition”, it gives incentive to the other students to try harder...if they want to.
“Life is like the old westerns, there’s always going to be a ‘faster gun’.”
Princess riverdawg learned this in high school when she was salutatorian rather than valedictorian. It taught her a then-much-needed lesson in humility and self-awareness that served her well in college. She knew she was not likely to be the smartest student in the class, but she wasn’t going to let anyone out-work her.