2.3 Best in Class

According to the writer, Margaret Talbot, the concept of declaring a valedictorian is outdated and more harmful than it is helpful.

Primarily, the valedictorian designation system has created problems between competitors some of which are ending in lawsuits and unnecessary stresses on the students. The parents and the students themselves of these court cases are so driven by the insensitive to get valedictorian that they let high school slip by them. Furthermore, it ends up causing a great amount of stress towards a concept and title that eventually will fade away and mean nothing.

            The court cases resulting from poorly designated valedictorians normally represent both parties as greedy and power hungry when in reality that might not be how they truly are. The differences between the GPAs of students differ by less than a full point. However this is still enough to push you up and over or drag you under.

            The author suggests that a better, more efficient way of giving the title “valedictorian” is done through allowing the top fifteen percent of students in their class be dubbed the valedictorian. Supposedly this will dilute some of the intense competition between students. But this is where Talbot’s opinion and my own differ.

            The system put in place is put there to be an insensitive to work hard and get to the top. One of the students took a class that was considered too easy for him in order to be the competitor with the highest number of credits. This was greatly frowned upon however it should be considered fair. Not only did he show intelligence in being one of the top performers at his school, he showed his common sense and determination to be number one. He sought the council of his councilor first and therefore should be rewarded with his efforts to be first. Students like this would not exist if there was no incentive through high school other than to get by.

            One of the valedictorians talked about how in college nobody really cared that she was top of her class, in fact, it was never brought up! Students are given the impression that obtaining this title gives them much more than just a ride to college. Granted yes, a free ride to college is great incentive to study and work hard, however that really is the extent of things you receive from this title. In college so many people can be valedictorian that it would be very conceded to try and brag about it.

A suggestion was made saying that have a top percentage be the valedictorian as opposed to just one person. However this poses the issue of a lack of motivation. Even thought a student will not get even close to valedictorian, the motivation to get their grades up to a certain point ot be above the middle line, or to be above average, or even to be top of the class is due to the system we have in place. To take that away or to alter is dramatically would create a ripple into the patterns of students resulting in a lack of motivation.

In conclusion the system of valedictorians is a fair right, the rules should be laid out more plainly to keep honest people honest and to keep looser from trying to obtain what is not theirs.