Posted by Championship_Vinyl at 199.234.88.30 on June 20, 2002 at 10:41:29:
In Reply to: that's actually very hypocritical of them posted by DRD #37 on June 20, 2002 at 10:23:18:
I graduated a year behind a guy who got straight As the entire way through high school. He was in every academic club. He was even on a couple of the sports teams. Then, to top it all off, he scored 1600 on his SATs! Now THAT is damn impressive. Needless to say, he was our Valedictorian, and deservedly so. He was one of those people who are so smart that it almost intimidates you to even speak to him.
The only thing is, I haven't heard anything about him since. I figured he'd excel at any college he chose to attend, then move on to achieve some impressive accomplishment, and he'd be all over the newspaper and national media someday. However, my guess is that he's become just another cog in the machine, like almost everyone else.
My point is this -- "awards" do not greatness make. Incredible accomplishments are not resricted to those who win all the awards and get all the As, and therefore, are not as vital to a student's future as some schoolteachers may lead you to believe.
I think that if the school was doing away with the Valedictorian award and wanted to use some lame excuse as to why, a BETTER lame excuse would be that awards like it probably help create an under-achieving egomaniac, not because it hurts the self-esteem of the less intelligent kids.