#806 Zenith of Intellect

Odd news from the world of education. A high school in Fairfax County, Virginia has taken the unusual step of totally abolishing the award of class Valedictorian.
I think they are trying to be too fair in Fairfax.
In eliminating the Valedictorian designation, they expressed the concern that ranking students makes some of them feel inferior. The one student who had a 4.0 will be called an “honor graduate” instead.
As you might expect, I have a problem with this. If you don’t reward someone for a job well done, what’s the incentive to do well? I would much rather drive on a bridge that someone who knew something built well than on a bridge where a lot of people who knew nothing about bridges tried their best.
Trying you best is a noble achievement, but actually achieving the best is more practical for a better functioning society.
It’s like my kid’s daycare. In order to protect their self-esteem when they played musical chairs, every kid always got a seat. If every one gets a seat in musical chairs, you’re just going around in circles.
But notice something else. The Fairfax school didn’t really achieve their stated purpose of taking away ranking. They still gave the kid a special designation—Honor Graduate. And he still got a 4.0 Grade Point Average. Which is like, you know, mathematical ranking. 4.0 is, um, indisputably 2 higher than 2.0.
2 being half as much as a 4 might make some feel inferior too. So why mince words with Valedictorian?
I also worry that this is another sign of anti-intellectualism in our society. Did Fairfax have a single quarterback on their football team? Or did they let everyone take a turn? Did they have a Prom Queen and Homecoming Princesses?
Let’s go ahead and award people highest honors for throwing a football or looking pretty, but gosh, let’s don’t reward someone for being smart. Everyone else may have his or her feelings hurt.
Then their parents will go out and buy “my detention kid beat up your honor student” bumper stickers.
America, ya gotta love it.