North Carolina School Board Stops Naming Valedictorians, Which Might Not Actually Be A Bad Thing
WJ Cope9 years ago

Yet another celebrated honor has been claimed by these ultra-sensitive times… sort of.

Citing what it calls “unhealthy” competition among students, the Wake County school board is the latest in the country to make valedictorians and salutatorians a thing of the past, The News & Observer of Charlotte reports.

The school board unanimously gave initial approval last week to a policy that would prohibit high school principals from naming valedictorians and salutatorians – titles reserved for the two graduating seniors with the highest grade-point averages – after 2018, according to the newspaper.

“We have heard from many, many schools that the competition has become very unhealthy,” school board Chairman Tom Benton told the paper.

“Students were not collaborating with each other the way that we would like them to. Their choice of courses was being guided by their GPA and not their future education plans,” Benton said.

At first glance, this seems to be one of those “pussification of America” situations, where awards and recognitions are being sacrificed in order to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings. However, I believe this to be more of a false alarm. When I examine the reasoning for taking away the distinctions of valedictorian and salutatorian, I don’t see a school board bent on sheltering these kids right up until the end of high school. What I do see is a response to an increasingly ultra-competitive and cutthroat culture within the school system that doesn’t really benefit anyone. It’s less a case of “everyone gets an award” and more a case of “no one gets an award.” Hopefully the school board finds an appropriate way to bring back those distinctions.

I highly recommend checking out the comments section of the linked article, it actually gives some of the TFM commenters a run for their money..

[via Fox News]

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