School Board: Naming Top Performers "Unhealthy"

[Spare_change]

Apparently working your hardest to be the best you can be -- and being recognized for the effort -- is one lesson a North Carolina school board no longer believes is worth teaching.

Citing what it calls "unhealthy" competition among students, the Wake County school board is the latest in the country to make valedictorians and salutatorians a thing of the past, The News & Observer of Charlotte reports.

The school board unanimously gave initial approval last week to a policy that would prohibit high school principals from naming valedictorians and salutatorians – titles reserved for the two graduating seniors with the highest grade-point averages – after 2018, according to the newspaper.

“We have heard from many, many schools that the competition has become very unhealthy,” school board Chairman Tom Benton told the paper.

"Students were not collaborating with each other the way that we would like them to. Their choice of courses was being guided by their GPA and not their future education plans," Benton said.

Critics of the change claim it is too "politically correct" and creates an “everyone gets an award" mentality -- failing to fairly recognize those who achieve the highest grades.

But school officials say singling out two people for their grade point averages just encourages students to take easy classes and to not help their classmates study.

Click for more from The News & Observer

 

[SassyIrishLass]

The under achievers are butt hurt,eh?

 

[OldLady]

Apparently working your hardest to be the best you can be -- and being recognized for the effort -- is one lesson a North Carolina school board no longer believes is worth teaching.

Citing what it calls "unhealthy" competition among students, the Wake County school board is the latest in the country to make valedictorians and salutatorians a thing of the past, The News & Observer of Charlotte reports.

The school board unanimously gave initial approval last week to a policy that would prohibit high school principals from naming valedictorians and salutatorians – titles reserved for the two graduating seniors with the highest grade-point averages – after 2018, according to the newspaper.

“We have heard from many, many schools that the competition has become very unhealthy,” school board Chairman Tom Benton told the paper.

"Students were not collaborating with each other the way that we would like them to. Their choice of courses was being guided by their GPA and not their future education plans," Benton said.

Critics of the change claim it is too "politically correct" and creates an “everyone gets an award" mentality -- failing to fairly recognize those who achieve the highest grades.

But school officials say singling out two people for their grade point averages just encourages students to take easy classes and to not help their classmates study.

Click for more from The News & Observer

I don't think this is a 'healthy' move.

 

[bodecea]

Apparently working your hardest to be the best you can be -- and being recognized for the effort -- is one lesson a North Carolina school board no longer believes is worth teaching.

Citing what it calls "unhealthy" competition among students, the Wake County school board is the latest in the country to make valedictorians and salutatorians a thing of the past, The News & Observer of Charlotte reports.

The school board unanimously gave initial approval last week to a policy that would prohibit high school principals from naming valedictorians and salutatorians – titles reserved for the two graduating seniors with the highest grade-point averages – after 2018, according to the newspaper.

“We have heard from many, many schools that the competition has become very unhealthy,” school board Chairman Tom Benton told the paper.

"Students were not collaborating with each other the way that we would like them to. Their choice of courses was being guided by their GPA and not their future education plans," Benton said.

Critics of the change claim it is too "politically correct" and creates an “everyone gets an award" mentality -- failing to fairly recognize those who achieve the highest grades.

But school officials say singling out two people for their grade point averages just encourages students to take easy classes and to not help their classmates study.

Click for more from The News & Observer

Geesh...this is all about the "feelings" of the parents of the underachievers. If they can't deal with it, they should pull their kids out of public school and put them in a private school where parents, as long as the money is flowing, get coddled.

 

[ScienceRocks]

This school board is retarded. Their job should encourage hard work and success...

Our public school system spends way to much time encouraging bullshit and social crap. This is why America is failing. Believe me, I believe in funding our schools but the above needs to change.

 

[Pogo]

Actually in a sense it is unhealthy --- for the so-called "Achievers".

Everybody else gets to see what bullshit a Meritocracy is while said "Achievers" learn only how to bend over for the System. Thus are they deprived of a valuable life lesson.

Here endeth the lesson.

 

[jillian]

Apparently working your hardest to be the best you can be -- and being recognized for the effort -- is one lesson a North Carolina school board no longer believes is worth teaching.

Citing what it calls "unhealthy" competition among students, the Wake County school board is the latest in the country to make valedictorians and salutatorians a thing of the past, The News & Observer of Charlotte reports.

The school board unanimously gave initial approval last week to a policy that would prohibit high school principals from naming valedictorians and salutatorians – titles reserved for the two graduating seniors with the highest grade-point averages – after 2018, according to the newspaper.

“We have heard from many, many schools that the competition has become very unhealthy,” school board Chairman Tom Benton told the paper.

"Students were not collaborating with each other the way that we would like them to. Their choice of courses was being guided by their GPA and not their future education plans," Benton said.

Critics of the change claim it is too "politically correct" and creates an “everyone gets an award" mentality -- failing to fairly recognize those who achieve the highest grades.

But school officials say singling out two people for their grade point averages just encourages students to take easy classes and to not help their classmates study.

Click for more from The News & Observer

I hate that stuff.... people who excel should be noted.
I also don't believe that work should be "collaboration".

 

[The Irish Ram]

That is because excellence is no longer the goal. Indoctrination, and white shame is.
To those students in North Carolina, be the best you can be, strive and achieve. The reward for a job well done is to have done it. Not to seek approval of a school principle. The school may not acknowledge your effort, but the real world will.
And teach yourself how to write if they won't. You'll be amazed at the leg up it gives you...