High school education has taken a blow over the past decade with school shootings, teacher shortages, increased budget cuts and dumbed-down standardized tests. But a new danger looms in the near future: the elimination of the high school valedictorian honor. Removing the valedictorian program will not only deny high-achieving students the hard-earned recognition they deserve, but also handicap students for their eventual entrance into the competitive adult world after graduation.
Recently, Hemet, California School Board members and Hemet High Principal Bill Black have proposed eradicating the valedictorian honor because it makes for an "unhealthy educational environment" ("School Board Considers Banning Valedictorian Award," Fox News February 24, 2003). They are not the first school district to consider the move. Schools across the nation, including in Poquoson, Virginia, have already cut the valedictorian award. Black supported the move by saying, "If they [students] are not number one, it could get their feelings hurt if they are self-motivating and high-achieving students."
He doesn't want kids to get their feelings hurt? As touching as Principal Black's sentiments are, they are nothing but unrealistic and detrimental to the future well-being of his current students. High schoolers, regardless of any protective bubble built around them, are going to face competition and inevitable disappointment in high school and for the rest of their lives.
If Black and the members of the Hemet School Board want to protect hurt feelings, they would have to get rid of all forms of competition in high school. Sports teams would be all inclusive, with no team cuts and every game ending in a tie. Not only would uniforms cut down on fashion competition, but students would be required to wear the same hair cut and drive the same car, and dance dates would be assigned. Authority figures can't just eliminate competition in one aspect of a student's life and ignore all other facets of the microcosm that is high school.
This type of protection is just going to hurt kids in the long-run, though. Competition in high school helps prepare students for the competition they are going to face every day for the rest of their lives, whether it be for a raise and promotion or just the perfect parking spot. Eliminating the valedictorian to spare feelings teaches impressionable teens that for the rest of their lives, if they just work hard and try their best, they don't have to actually achieve anything -- there will be no actual distinction between who produced results and who just gave it their all. What a shock the business world is going to be for these students.
Bosses from Wall Street to Main Street aren't just going to accept that every one of their employees is really trying their best during a recession and not lay off anyone for fear of hurt feelings. Pink slips will be handed out, and only those workers that are competitive and productive will make the cut. High school students must be prepared for this and taught healthy competition in high school in order to have any chance at being successful later in life.
Of course, high school students are not going to excel at everything they try. They will be cut from teams, lose elections, fail tests -- but it is this failure that breeds greatness. Defeat in its best form causes people to reexamine what caused failure and then serves as a learning experience. Former Forbes Magazine senior editor Jerry Flint said it best, "Competition can be painful, but it produces great results."
Some would argue, though -- including Black -- that the valedictorian award is not a healthy form of competition. In some schools students who take elective classes they are interested in, such as chorus or art, are penalized. Even though they may receive the highest score possible in the class, it is not weighted like Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes, therefore lowering even the highest GPAs. Well, tough. Students make decisions every day about their schedules, their study habits and their extracurricular activities. If students chose to take marching band over AP Physics they will have to deal with the consequences of the impact on their GPA, just as a student who chooses AP Physics over band will have to deal with the extra course work and missing out on a favorite activity.
We can't always get what we want, and the sooner youths are taught this along with the idea of making the best of what they get, the better off they will be. Years down the road, most of these high school alumni aren't going to be able to simply pick and chose their schedule at a high-paced company to work around their current interests of golf and junior league. The high schoolers that were taught to pick what is most important to them will be able to chose the right path while those who were given every luxury will be unable to cope with decisions and sacrifices.
Black and his chums on the School Board can still stop all this foolishness. The honor of valedictorian must stay intact to help install in children the values and drive of good old-fashioned American competition. Without it, we risk a generation of students lacking drive and unable to keep up with the rest of the competitive world.
(Maggie Bowden is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at mbowden@cavalierdaily.com.)
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