Valedictorian literally means farewell speaker and that was its only meaning until school institutions added their own two cents to it and it made it a competition title for students. Now, valedictorian supposedly means the student with the highest GPA or rank, and most of the time these students are not interested in speaking in the farewell ceremony they are only interested for the title. So, why destroy the purpose of selecting a valedictorian by setting these pointless standards for the position. If the school system plans or continues to maintain the current system of education then they should forget about selecting a valedictorian, because this will lead to lawsuits against the school, intense hostility within the school community, and loss of school staff to run the school.
Believe it or not, this competition is subject to lawsuits and many schools in this country have already experienced lawsuits regarding the valedictorian issue. For example, Brian Delekta sued the school district to give him an A-Plus instead of an A for a class he took in his mother's law firm which made him narrowly miss the highest GPA, hence missed the valedictorian title narrowly. Likewise, Stephanie Klotz's family sued her school district, the superintendent, and the principal of valley view for GPA issues that held the title back from her. These lawsuits mentioned before are simple cases compared to Blair Hornstine's bizarre lawsuit where besides the demand for the sole title, she also demanded monetary compensation and punitive fines (Talbot,116-119). Now, we might wonder how can this "healthy competition" face lawsuits, for lawsuits are for unhealthy things. And, that assumption of "healthy competition" is exactly where we are wrong because the competition is actually not healthy as it may seem on the students report cards. For, no competition that causes hate between people is healthy.
Has there ever been a time in your life that you just wanted to relive over again because it was so breathtaking? A time that impacted your life so greatly that you just couldn't forget about it. Think back in your life and imagine that moment happening. What was it about it that made it so memorabl...
The teacher said "he is the slow one, you always have one of them in each class. ... Reading this as a class assignment in the fifth grade became an enlightening experience. ... Valedictorian for the Class of 2002, Angela Salazar daughter of Ivan Salazar, wanted to have her speech delivered in both English and Spanish. The district officials felt that such a delivery was in violation of school tradition. One does have to question what tradition is in violation when 65% of the students that attend that school are Latinos and their parents were indeed going to be in the audience that night (...
He graduated from high school at age 16, the valedictorian and only black in his graduating class of 12. ... At Fisk he encountered sons and daughters of former slaves who had born the mark of oppression but had nourished a rich cultural and spiritual tradition that Du Bois recognized as his own. ...
- ---Welton's Four Pillars "Now in my class you will learn to think for yourselves again. ... He is the youngest of his family and has many expectations laid upon him due to the success of his brother, who also went to Welton and was Valedictorian and a National Merit Scholar. ... He couldn't speak to anyone of authority including answering questions in class without sounding insecure. ... For example, after the first day of class, Todd writes "Carpe Diem" on his paper, dreaming of what it would be like if he, too, could contribute a verse and be great like those in the picture. ...
