Valedictorain_Essay

A valedictorian is the person ranking highest in their class based on their academic achievements, and a salutatorian is the student ranking second highest in their graduating class. Both positions are supreme accomplishments in a students’ high school life. I disagree with the consensus that both valedictorians and salutatorians should be eliminated in all schools. My belief is that if an individual and or group of individuals compete to be the best in either their class or school, then they should be rewarded. I am not stating that they all should be deemed valedictorian; however they should in some way be acknowledged. Valedictorian should be reserved for the cream of the crop and salutatorian for the second best. This is why the valedictorian is both a healthy competition and a needed tradition. Why would someone propose to eliminate valedictorians and salutatorians' Aside from trying to keep from hurting someone’s feelings or bruising their ego, as in Talbot’s article when Kylies’ feelings’ were hurt “She’s in a pressure cooker here and she’s about to burst”. Choosing to eliminate valedictorians will not help anyone. The competition for valedictorian provides students with balanced competition. It teaches schools to raise their students’ standards to accomplish. If schools prolong making the decision of who is qualified to be either valedictorian or salutatorian, until the end of the first semester and about six weeks before the second semester is completed to announce the top five candidates for both positions it can solve some of the problems that are faced. Students would automatically be eliminated. However the announcement would not read the names in order, it would just state that they are candidates. That way the five candidates could each take whatever courses to obtain whatever credits or grades they need “I want to be valedictorian… I need to do this and that. Can you help me'”(Talbot). In doing this the rules would be clear to everyone, so that each candidate has ample opportunity to win one of the two positions. Using this strategy one could eliminate the stress from administrators, students, and especially parents. While the debate for eliminating valedictorian and salutatorian and or having an entire group deemed valedictorian is preposterous as in Talbots’ article when someone spoke of making everyone on the football team a quarterback, another equally challenging dilemma is to be faced. That dilemma would be the elimination of a statewide tradition. Valedictorians have been acknowledged beginning of time. I am sure that even then they encountered a variety of complications with the system used to select an individual that was qualified for one of those honorable positions. No schools’ policy or process for selecting valedictorian is perfect. Everything has glitches in the system, even the legal system where juries who determine someones fate whether they (the jurors) are unbiased or not, as well as someone being prosecuted using falsified evidence. Causing grief to so many students who have exceeded above and beyond expectation in everything they have done, striving to be the best they can be in everything they do, and giving up their lives for this prestigious position to be theirs, taking this achievement away is rather disrespectful The thought of causing that much grief is hardly worth breaking a valued American tradition. I believe that in everything a person or group of people do there should always a justified reason. There is absolutely no possible way sparing ones feelings from having failed, can justify crushing an entire group of gifted and intelligent students from being given the opportunity to try, even if they do fail. Administration has no justified reason aside from not wanting to deal with the problems and complaints that come with those selected to represent their class as either valedictorian or salutatorian. Why is it I ask if administration is “trained” and “qualified”, not to mention paid to deal with problems that occur within the school system, whether it merely be a fight or something as the heartaches and lashing outs from whomever is not chosen valedictorian or salutatorian of their class, why do they (administration) choose to just eliminate the position. I believe that, that shows a lack of effort and laziness to even try and solve the issues that they are being faced with. Maybe instead of quitting when the going gets tough they should try and stick it out. Valedictorian and salutatorian should in no way shape or form be eliminated, because it is a tradition.