Is naming a valedictorian still a good idea? Are high school academics becoming too competitive? In this essay the author argues that a valedictorian should not be chosen because the students are too competitive. Naming a valedictorian is important, though it may cause distress and anguish for other students you have to be able to deal with it. If someone is getting beat out and winning the spot by a thousandths of a point the highest scoring student should be recognized. Obviously they did something better, and should get credit for it. How would you feel if you were number one in your class and the top twenty students were rewarded with “the top spot”?
High school is here to help prepare you for the real world and if you can’t accept the fact that someone beat you for the top spot in your class you will not be able to deal with more important life traumas. If they rid of the valedictorian spot it is as if they are babying the kids that didn’t get the top spot like it’s okay for everyone to receive the same achievements. But it’s not. Grow up and accept the fact that you weren’t number one. Every point on every paper you did in high school is valuable, and you just have to learn from your mistakes. People should be humble enough to let the person with the highest grade be recognized.
High school is not the end of the world; it’s just the first step you take into becoming an adult. Just because you didn’t get the highest GPA in your class doesn’t mean that you won’t get into a good college or anything like that. When you grow up you will not be defined as a person by your GPA in high school. It’s sad that students are so insolent that they can’t even let someone do better than them. The fact of the matter is that they need to learn that they won’t always be the best at everything. When you go out into the real world there will be people that are better at you in many different aspects in life.
Another reason for having a valedictorian position is that it keeps students motivated. Of course students that care about their grades will always try their best but others may not. Some students need a motivation to push them through high school. If there is no top spot, competing to have a high GPA wouldn’t be necessary in most cases, so lots of high school students would slack because it doesn’t matter. If they are in to top five percent they know that they will all be recognized either way so there’s no point. Most students do as little as they can to skim by, and not having a valedictorian stop will increase the slacking of the students.
No matter what they do there will be competition between the students that care about their future. If you don’t get the top spot you just chillax, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just the start for a bright future. Don’t get hung up on being number one, just do your best. Keeping the valedictorian spot is important for schools to have. Like in the words of the Beetles just, “LET IT BE”.
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