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What is wrong with wanting to be number one?
What is wrong with wanting to be number one?Whether we acknowledge it or not, life is a competition, and whether we like it or not, we are in a competition of survival each and every day. Even further, the majority of us want to be the best at whatever we choose to do.
It doesn’t mean we will all be at the top of our endeavors, but we are all putting forth our best efforts whatever level that may be.
There is competition among countries, states, counties, localities, businesses.
And in education.
The U.S. Department of Education ranks the accomplishments of each state’s educational system against all other states. Each individual state ranks each school district against all other school districts. And each school district must reflect the accomplishments of each level of education — elementary, middle and high school — against all other schools at that level within their district.
Within each school, each student is measured against all other students. If not, why do we have numerical and letter grades? I believe this reflects competition.
The Fauquier County School Board voted unanimously to support the superintendent’s recommendation to change the current method of recognizing seniors at graduation by discontinuing the practice of selecting valedictorians and salutatorians. Bbeginning in school year 2009-10 graduates will be recognized as graduates with honors, high honors, and highest honors (the Latin cum laude system).
The rationale provided by the school board and the superintendent focused around the perceived need to relieve some of the intense pressure on students to score higher than the person sitting next to them.
What exactly is school and getting an education all about ? Doing the absolute best you can.
As Dr. Karen D. Arnold, an associate professor of higher education at Boston College who spent 15 years studying valedictorians after graduation from high school said, “There aren’t many academic honors, and it is one of those labels that follows you through life, like the Heisman Trophy or Rhodes scholar. To get rid of the one meaningful designation for what school is really all about seems like something we should do only with great caution.”
Are our school board and superintendent asking our students not to be as competitive as they can be? Do we ask our athletes to compete, but not do the best they can? Do we ask our band to play well, but not too well?
Valedictorian and salutatorian are academic titles typically conferred upon the highest- and second-highest ranked students among those graduating from an educational institution.
The school administration’s proposed use of honors (cum laude), high honors (magna cum laude), and highest honors (summa cum laude) doesn’t necessarily relieve that perceived pressure, as the Cum Laude Society defines the presence of these designations at a secondary school as an indication that superior scholastic achievement is honored.
So what is the difference? Just the number of people being recognized?
Exactly why is this proposed change being implemented? Could it have something to do with the recent litigation involving one student from the Mountain Vista Governor’s School and how the application of weighted grades and the use of differing grading scales are applied by our superintendent and school board?
Do we need competition? Do we want competition?
In 2005, 15 prominent business groups warned that a lack of expert workers and teachers posed a threat to U.S. competitiveness, and said that the country would need 400,000 new college graduates in the so-called STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields by 2015.
For a while, those numbers looked achievable, but the number of degrees has flattened out at around 225,000 per year.
In order to help boost those numbers, the America Competes Act, which promotes math and science education, was passed last year.
Our country and our businesses are crying out for those competitive students, but it seems our local educators are saying this is too much pressure.
According to Arnold’s studies, “To be a valedictorian, after all, you must excel in classes that don’t interest you or are poorly taught. The valedictorians had to use their strong work ethic to pursue multiple academic and extracurricular interests. None are necessarily obsessed with a single talent area to which he or she subordinated school and social involvement.”
Arnold further notes that “over the past 10 years, a lot of school districts have been abolishing the valedictorian, and I’m against that. On the day we allow anybody who’s always wanted to be a quarterback to play on the high school football team, then we can get rid of valedictorians. If we rank anything, we ought to rank what we say is most central to school, which is to say, academic learning.”
By far the vast majority of colleges and universities still ask for class rank, grade point average, class size, Advanced Placement courses taken, honors or other accelerated courses and the school’s grading system.
Since we have to accumulate and convey this information, why shouldn’t we at least recognize publicly these academic educational achievements?
Ask your school board member when was the last time he or she officially recognized the academic achievement (valedictorian or salutatorian) of one of our students at one of their meetings.
The world in which we live is built around the concept of competition and there being a number one in all facets of our lives — one president, one CEO, one orchestra leader, one starting quarterback, one starting pitcher, one sheriff, one chairman of the board and one superintendent of a school division. A great deal of work, competition and perseverance is required to achieve these honored and recognized positions. Why shouldn’t we motivate our high school students to be number one and recognize them for their achievement?
Griffin is a retired U.S. Navy cryptologist and a community activist.
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