So now they want to eliminate valedictorians?

When we are all too dumb to think.

If you aren't competitive in life you are just there.

I hate to say it but I heard it to.

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Yeah I don't believe you

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LINK

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By CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press

LANCASTER, N.Y. (AP) — At many American high schools, the graduation-day tradition of crowning a valedictorian is becoming a thing of the past.

The ranking of students from No. 1 on down, based on grade-point averages, has been fading steadily for about the past decade. In its place are honors that recognize everyone who scores at a certain threshold — using Latin honors, for example. This year, one school in Tennessee had 48 valedictorians.

About half of schools no longer report class rank, according to the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Administrators worry about the college prospects of students separated by large differences in class rank despite small differences in their GPAs, and view rankings as obsolete in an era of high expectations for every student, association spokesman Bob Farrace said. There are also concerns about intense, potentially unhealthy competition and students letting worries about rank drive their course selections.

Among those weighing a change is Lancaster High School in suburban Buffalo, where students are leading an exploration of replacing valedictorian-salutatorian recognitions with the college-style Latin honors of summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude.

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Graduating Lancaster senior Connor Carrow, 17, has pressed for the switch to Latin honors since his sophomore year, well before landing just out of the top 10, at No. 14, while serving as student union president and playing varsity lacrosse and hockey. He said it's a better fit with the school's collaborative and cooperative ideals.

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The view was somewhat different from the No. 1 spot occupied by Carrow's classmate Daniel Buscaglia, who also played saxophone in several performance ensembles and volunteered in his town's youth bureau. While he doesn't oppose the change, Buscaglia expects the competition in high school, although it was mostly friendly, will help him at Cornell University in the fall.

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The day rankings came out at Hammond High School in Columbia, Maryland, students were privately told their number — but things didn't stay private for long.

"That was the only thing everyone was talking about," said Mikey Peterson, 18, who shrugged off his bottom-third finish and will attend West Virginia University in the fall.

A spokesman for the Howard County, Maryland, district said schools recognize their top 5 percent so students can include it on college applications and hasn't considered changing.

"There was a big emphasis on where you landed," said Peterson's classmate Vicki Howard, 18. "It made everything 10 times more competitive."

Peterson's mother, Elizabeth Goshorn, said she can't walk into his school without hearing good things about her affable son, but worries about how rankings can affect a teenager's confidence.

"It has such an impact on them as to how they perceive themselves if you're putting rankings on them," she said.

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Who cares how they perceive themselves. Stop raising snowflakes you loser.

Yeah more participation trophies......everyone is a valedictorian......or a retard

ETA: Bad grades aren't cultural but laziness is

For fricks sakes......... This let's make everything fair and give everybody a trophy dreamland is past the point of being funny.

well yeah, how can i get a trophy if you're named the best?

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So now they want to eliminate valedictorians?

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I say we give them something to eliminate and start naming to students at the bottom end of the scale. Something like Vale-dumb-torian.

I don't think we will stop electing presidents, we will just have do overs.

I think the Latin honors designations are classier, but the top student should be recognized, above those honors.

This is all high school bullshite though. Once you're in college it goes out the window. Latin honors for undergrads, then none moving forward in grad school. That's the way it should be.

I think people need to keep in perspective that this is high school. If you're a valedictorian, congrats, but big fricking deal. It's high school. If you're not a valedictorian, so what? It's just high school. For those that it's a huge deal to graduate high school, you had no chance at being a valedictorian anyhow. So who cares if you're not valedictorian? You're already "included." You're graduating.