Gasbag's take on Valedictorians

In last week’s St. John’s Sun (9/27/08), editor Travis Hill delivered his opinion supporting the abolition of valedictory honors in our local high schools. I disagree.

The editorial began by employing a clever journalistic device – an old story about an old saying. “Oh, Martha”, apparently, is what Mr. Hill utters when he encounters something ridiculous or absurd and feels the urge to curse. Reading his editorial inspired more than a few “Oh, Marthas” on my part.

Mr. Hill made two basic arguments. One was that students work “too hard” to achieve the valedictory title, and thus lack “balance” in their lives. The second was that since class rankings will be maintained, college admissions officers will have information they need to distinguish students for their achievements that is “of equal weight” to the valedictorian distinction.

I’ll take the second one first. This is an impressive example of a self-nullifying argument. If one claims that eliminating the valedictory label won’t make any difference because class-rankings and valedictory designations accomplish the same thing, then one must concede that leaving it in won’t make any difference either.

I found Mr. Hill’s other argument to be condescending and belittling to those students who work exceedingly hard to achieve excellence in their academic work. The idea that these young men and women are working “too hard” is insulting. Oh, Martha! I wonder how Mr. Hill is qualified to determine when and whether someone is working “too hard”. “Too hard” for what? Mr. Hill seems to harbor contempt for these students, mocking them as avoiding “the light of day” in order to satisfy their unquenchable grade-lust, or to bestow upon their folks “inter-parental dinner party bragging rights”. Oh, Martha! Mr. Hill and our county’s principals seem to be promoting some vague notion of “balance”. First of all, “balance” shouldn’t be forced on anyone. Second, whose definition of “balance” shall we use, if we do? If “balance” means elevating mediocrity by penalizing excellence, then how about this for “balance”? Anyone with a GPA of 3.8 or higher gets an automatic place on the football team. This of course, will reduce the quality of the football team, but then again, those guys think too much about being a “good” football team anyway. I think they need more balance.

Mr. Hill exploited a very inaccurate and scornful stereotype when he implied that students who strive for the title of valedictorian are single-minded, competitive, cut-throat, sheltered and unbalanced. I have a suggestion for Mr. Hill. Dispatch one of your crack reporters to the county’s high schools and do a bit of research on recent valedictorians. If today’s valedictorians are anything like the valedictorians of my day, I suspect you will find students who are not only high-achievers in terms of grades, but athletes, musicians, student government officers, school newspaper reporters, yearbook designers, life guards and all-around balanced citizens. Taking away one of their prestigious incentives just seems petty.