American schools stopped crowning valedictorians so other students don't feel bad

[Vorkreist]

" At many American high schools, the graduation-day tradition of crowning a valedictorian is becoming a thing of the past.
The ranking of students from No. 1 on down, based on grade-point averages, has been fading steadily for about the past decade. In its place are honors that recognize everyone who scores at a certain threshold — using Latin honors, for example. This year, one school in Tennessee had 48 valedictorians.
About half of schools no longer report class rank, according to the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Administrators worry about the college prospects of students separated by large differences in class rank despite small differences in their GPAs, and view rankings as obsolete in an era of high expectations for every student, association spokesman Bob Farrace said. There are also concerns about intense, potentially unhealthy competition and students letting worries about rank drive their course selections.
Among those weighing a change is Lancaster High School in suburban Buffalo, where students are leading an exploration of replacing valedictorian-salutatorian recognitions with the college-style Latin honors of summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude.
The principal, Cesar Marchioli, said he's neutral on the issue, though he feels for the 11th-ranked student who falls just short of the recognition awarded to the top 10 seniors honored at the annual banquet.
Graduating Lancaster senior Connor Carrow, 17, has pressed for the switch to Latin honors since his sophomore year, well before landing just out of the top 10, at No. 14, while serving as student union president and playing varsity lacrosse and hockey. He said it's a better fit with the school's collaborative and cooperative ideals.
"You're striving for that (honor) personally, but you're not hoping that you're better than these other 400 people next to you," Carrow said.
The view was somewhat different from the No. 1 spot occupied by Carrow's classmate Daniel Buscaglia, who also played saxophone in several performance ensembles and volunteered in his town's youth bureau. While he doesn't oppose the change, Buscaglia expects the competition in high school, although it was mostly friendly, will help him at Cornell University in the fall.
Elsewhere, commenters have peppered news websites with disparaging comparisons to giving "participation trophies" to avoid hurt feelings"

http://www.businessinsider.com/schoo...torians-2017-6

[s_bushido]

Do the people mocking this sort of thing as "participation awards" have similarly disparaging views of the Latin honors systems used by colleges?

[Zeek Daniels]

Here is my opinion on award ceremonies from when I was a kid.

This is a waste of time and i dont care period about other peoples accomplishments. I hated having to sit for like 2 hours for those end of year awards. Just dumb. I hate graduations for the same reason. I dont care. Waste of time.

Not once did i feel bad because i didnt get to go on stage. I hated the time where i did have to go onstage for having perfect attendance.

[Myrryr]

Huh. I didn't realize other high schools only looked at the top 1 person. Mine did the Cum Laude ranks instead. Makes more sense anyway. Should care who reached the threshold of a 3+, not just the one person at the top. You can't fill a college with 1 person a year.

[Netherspark]

What the hell even is a valedictorian?

American schools are so weird to outsiders...

[Dome Fossil]

Ah, good; then we're one step closer to Harrison Bergeron being a reality. If I act fast, I could put a good resume together to become the first Handicapper General.

[Deleted]

What the hell even is a valedictorian?

American schools are so weird to outsiders...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+is+a+valedictorian%3F

This should help ;p

[Kaleredar]

From the article:

"Elsewhere, commenters have peppered news websites with disparaging comparisons to giving "participation trophies" to avoid hurt feelings"

Guess where you land, OP?

[Machismo]

My high school had three kids with the top GPA, so the school made the worst decision possible, they picked the kid whose parents knew the principal to be the valedictorian. There was also the issue of who was even allowed to take honors and AP classes, since it was mostly political as to who got in. Honestly, it makes more sense to go by the same system used in colleges.

[primalmatter]

I'm torn. On one hand I always found the rewards a waste of time for all involved. I would of rather gotten something quickly in a envelope and be done with it. It is worth noting that rewards like this herald back from a day when high school wasn't a joke in of itself.

It is the reasoning for the change that irks me. If they said they just want to stop wasting everyone's time it would honestly feel a lot better to me if that makes any sense.

[Deleted]

Participation trophies for everyone!

Now no one will feel hurt.... That is, until are done with school and enter the workforce. Then reality will hit them so hard they will never recover.

[Sakki]

Participation trophies for everyone!

Now no one will feel hurt.... That is, until are done with school and enter the workforce. Then reality will hit them so hard they will never recover.

Just wondering, who do you think ll be hit harder by reality? Guys who think that grades somehow matter and somebody cares about what they learned at high school or the other guys?

[zorkuus]

Participation trophies for everyone!

Now no one will feel hurt.... That is, until are done with school and enter the workforce. Then reality will hit them so hard they will never recover.

Don't give trophies to anyone. Problem solved.

[Spectral]

I think the problem with valedictorian at many schools is just how arbitrary is seems. It's not like the score is based on an apples-to-apples, this kid outperformed this kid basis, this comes down to arcane calculations based on AP classes, 3-1-3 programs, and various ways of gaming the system to have the highest possible GPA from bonuses.

Using the Latin system is great - it still rewards excellence without it creating the pressure to do odd things to inflate scores.

I can't see a single coherent point against the change in this thread. Everyone arguing against it just says, "hurrrr participation trophies" as though that's actually an argument.

- - - Updated - - -

Just wondering, who do you think ll be hit harder by reality? Guys who think that grades somehow matter and somebody cares about what they learned at high school or the other guys?

Grades certainly do matter. Where are you getting the idea that they don't?

[Mistame]

I mean, getting rid of something that's stupid because it's stupid is one thing. Doing it because "feels" is itself stupid.

[GodlyBob]

Participation trophies for everyone!

Now no one will feel hurt.... That is, until are done with school and enter the workforce. Then reality will hit them so hard they will never recover.

Yeah, I remember at my first job all those times we were all rounded up together at the end of the month and the guy who mopped floors the best got a special rope from the manager while the rest of us watched and clapped politely.

....wait

[Deleted]

Yeah, I remember at my first job all those times we were all rounded up together at the end of the month and the guy who mopped floors the best got a special rope from the manager while the rest of us watched and clapped politely.

....wait

You don't need trophies nor do you need education to mop up the floor. Isn't that also what immigrants do in CA? Here in Holland at least we have our immigrants doing that work.

[elaina]

Who cares. They're a bunch of try-hards anyway. And like hell do i wanna listen to one give a speech.

[Heladys]

Who the fuck wants to listen to a pretentious speech by some douchefuck who happened to score higher grades anyhow? What, are they gonna share some important insights into how to best suck on the teachers' and administrations' ballsacks for better recognition than their peers?

[GodlyBob]

You don't need trophies nor do you need education to mop up the floor. Isn't that also what immigrants do in CA? Here in Holland at least we have our immigrants doing that work.

That's kind of my point. The whole "real life is going to hurt these people" argument is asinine in that the stuff you do for trophies CURRENTLY doesn't carry over into the workforce. Being the best in small pond and getting a trophy leads to some unrealistic expectations when you get dumped from your tank and into the ocean. Participation trophies at least let everybody know that you get something for your effort, which will usually be true, instead of causing you to expect that when you were the best kid on the highschool football team you deserve special snowflake status in the office.