We all believe our children are special and we want them to do well. Watching our children win honors is an incredible feeling. But things may have gone too far when one Oregon had not one, not two, but 21 valedictorians for this year’s graduating class. And according to NBC, having nearly two dozen tops of the class is becoming the norm. One school in Ohio had nine valedictorians and one salutatorian for a graduating class of 84, and an Alabama high school had a whopping 34.
I’m all for praising students of a job well done, but this seems excessive. Valedictorians and salutatorians have, traditionally, been numbers one and two at the top of their graduating class. Simply put, those are supposed to be the students who worked the hardest and have done everything they can to distinguish themselves from their classmates. But rewarding dozens of students with that one coveted honor makes the ones who really killed themselves look a little less good; their accomplishments become diffused. (And let’s not forget that when commencement day arrives, going to a ceremony where three of the 21 valedictorians speak even before the commencement speech is really long and hard on the guests).
Even colleges—because for a lot of this has to do with schools helping their students get into good colleges which in turn makes the school look better—are on to the game. Admissions officers told NBC that they’ve started to become more suspicious when applicants say they’re the top of their class because these days, it seems everyone’s at the top. Said Colorado State University’s executive director of admissions Jim Rawlins, “The question is: Where do you cross the line? If a school has those extremely high-end numbers (of valedictorians), then I would quickly assume that grading isn’t very rigorous at all at that school.” On the part of the schools, it makes sense to reward so many students. As more and more students graduate from high school each year and scramble to get in the college of their choice, students need every edge they can get. It’s really tough out there. So helping students pad college applications and getting them into good schools gives high schools an additional boost to their own rankings which can mean more funding or just plain prestige.
But after studying for SATs and APs it seems students are missing an important lesson: failure happens. And not only does it happen but it doesn’t mean you world is over. And as much as all the articles about entitled, spoiled and lazy Millenials are overblown, schools like South Medford, with its 21 valedictorians, lend credence to the hand-wringing. These students got what they wanted; they weren’t told no. And if they can’t handle “no” in high school, if they really do think they have to get honors at every turn, then maybe they don’t know as much as they thought.