as harsh as it may sound personally yes... some schools have higher standards and it isn't fair to everyoen else for a student with all a's in a school that isn't academically challenging to move into a school twice as academically challengign and take over the top spot.... you may say it isn't fair to the kid who moves in... but personally i'd put being fair to the otehr 600 or so kids as being the most important .. shoudn't be unfair to everyoen just over one kid
Isn't the point of having the award to give it to the most deserving person - ie, the smartest, hardest working, best grades, etc. If she is able to move ahead a year, and oust the current valedictorian, then that is pretty impressive imo and might mean she actaully deserves to get the award. Nobody gets to choose who they run against. It just sounds like bitterness to me. The valedictorian of my high school didnt even get a drivers liscence till a month or so after graduation.
Rocket Fan: What does a changing curriculum have to do with anything? I'm assuming that if she can graduate early, then she has taken the exact same classes that the "current" valedictorian has taken. Also, what if a student transfers to a school and his old school was more academically challenging? Does he deserve to be valedictorian then? This exact same thing happened in my senior year at Morehouse to the graduating class at Spelman, our sister school. I feel now the same way that I felt then. If I were supposed to be valedictorian, meaning I knew how hard it was to devote the time to make killer grades, then how could I hate on someone who made better grades than me, and accomplished it in LESS TIME? All valedictorian means is I completed the hours that I need to graduate, and my GPA was the highest while doing it. Sounds like the "junior" is a winner to me.
I have heard of schools that had co-valedictorians. In fact, my school had a year that included co-salutorians because their grades were exactly equal. Could this be a possible solution? 5th out of 255. Damn English classes got me. I hated composition and literature!
<B>Exactly !!!! What does it matter? </B> Depending on her individual situation, it could matter quite a bit. I got screwed out of being our valedictorian during graduation ceremonies but was at the end of the year (the other guy purposely didn't submit his correspondence course grades until after graduation -- those grades pushed him below me). There are some real benefits to being it "officially". For one, being valedictorian on your records automatically gives you a $1000 or so (at least it did when I graduated in '94) scholarship to any Texas school. It also helps when applying for specific programs and such. A bit silly, but there are real-world implications. Depending on her financial situation & where she's going to school, $1000 could make a huge difference.
You can't penalize someone because their parents moved (e.g., require them changing schools) or if they want to earn more credits quicker than others. Looking at the record is the fairest way to handle such situations. There is always some losers (the people perhaps bumped down due to a school/grade level mover) there are some winners (the people who now will be bumped up because the other top ranked person moved away from their schools/grade levels), that is just how it works in life. It usually works like this in anything else (college, business, life,--performance is usually more important than senority for hgih-level promotions and such, etc.) I don't see the HS Val/Sal issue being any different as much as it would suck to be the bumped person.
Hey guess what? Life is not fair, competition is there for everyone, if she has better grades and beats out the competition, then the person losing out should have studied harder. This is a great lesson in life, and how it works in the real world. I think it is fine. DaDakota
dadakota.. that would be true if the competition is on the SAME level and everything is equal... things change from year to year and she has not completed the same classes at the same time etc.. just like basketball is differnt from year to year and some years it is easier to win 50 games or whatever it is the same way in school at times... also there are lots of schools that are not known to be very academically challenging and pretty easy to make an A at wher e the person can be moving from.. competition is good in life.. but the competition has to be on the same level...
icehouse.. my point was that it changes from year to year... for instance in one of the classes i took last year a lot of people did not do well on a project that counted most of the first semester grade.. this year partly because of that i'm sure the students are having an extra month or so to complete the project. the transfer thing yes that may make a differnce.. i've just seen it as supposed to be a competition between the people who have been at the same level for 12 or so years. .. when you bring in people who should be graduating in a differnt year etc you have all kinds of things such as new classes being offered etc that complicate things and do not have the students competing equally at the same level
Rocketfan- I didnt even take the same classes as some of my same grade high school companions. There were some electives you could take that were easier and some that were harder. I essentially took five AP classes my senior year. Did that hurt my GPA. Yes, cause I could have taken the easier electives and done better. This IS how real life works. Sometimes you may not think it is fair event hough it may be.
maybe i didn't make it clear in my posts, but I'm not saying whether this is 'fair' or not.. But the school has rules in place that say the chick can't be valedictorian, and her parents are going to sue...did they sign the handbook, yes. it wasnt until a month into this year that the girls parents decided they wanted her to graduate early. i feel sorry for the girl, as she is gonna catch hell from a lot of kids. i can only imagine her getting up at graduation as valedictorian if she gets it through a lawsuit.
If the school decided to waive the stated rules for her, wouldn't the school be open to a lawsuit from the other side for failing to abide by their own published policy? That would also leave all <i>Student Handbook</i> rules open to challenge by lawsuit. Mango
scf, i understand the plight, like i know a buddy of mine in high school who graduated with us last yr as a junior, no he didnt win valevictorian. Im just saying its her decision to graduate early, i dont know the reasoning behind it as that background information hasnt been presented other than grades and age. Personally, i think the handbook is one of those things parents read and sign on habit not necessarily remembering every rule in the book Anyways, i think a lawsuit is going too far as individual awards like that, albeit nice, dont control my life nor do i think theyre that important to most people, but the parents have a valid case if she has done the same courseload as the students in the senior class. The only thing i wonder is the comparison between correspondence courses to those taken in the HS.
jay.. trust me i know what you are saying.. no matter what things are never fair... for instance my schools gives an extra grade point for all advanced classes to help make sure people aren't being punished for making a B in an ap class and ending up with a lower GPA than people in on level classes making an A. that works pretty well because it doesn't discourage people from taking the AP classes who are worried about class rank.. but thing sstill aren't perfect.. i'm taking 5 ap classes and band which is onlvel so i dont get the extra point.. so i'm paying dearly every semester for the fact that they give extra pts for ap classes and i'm missing out on the one from band while otehr people have the 6 honors classes.... my school stopped even naming a valedictorian althouh we all know who it is.... maybei'm a little touchy on this issue right now because i'm filling out so many college applications and wishing i was a few places higher by the way if it was up to me only the core curriculum would count for GPA not the electives..... for instance because of the way our school does it we have someone ranked number 3 who would probably be the valedictorian but is basically being punished for playing baseball....
When I was in high school I was a magnet student the magnet courses were a bit harder than the norm. Not to mention we took more advanced classes I could have gradded early if i were not a magnet student and only took pre-algebra, algebra and Geometry [3 maths] Physical Science, Biology and chemistry All HONORS maybe even too the honors course [which gave you an extra GPA pt] . . . while my other no honors classes [because no honors were available] we significantly easier than magnet school versions Rocket River
rotflmfao I thought the same thing! I graduated as number whatever in my class out of a possible who gives a ****. I worked really diligently for however many years and was thoroughly livid when 21 juniors graduated with us. Naturally, all of the ones that graduated early were smart as hell. So some of the stupid sh!ts in my class were confused about the 'smot' kids with the funny ribbons up on the stage that they had never seen previous to the ceremony. Those of us priviledged few that shared classes with these braniacs called them 'graduating juniors'. Some of them were dorks. Some of them were cool. Actually, most of them were dorks. We looked at them like lepers during the graduation ceremony. They were tallied in with our class rankings but our valedictorian was not affected by the sudden influx of smot kids because he was 'super-smot' Anyways, that's all I have. Literally, lol.
What is unusual about this?? I thought most Valedictorians were arrogant smarty folks who caught hell in high school and were maybe even booed at their graduation
