Liberals never cease to amaze me.
Just more of the "Give Everyone A Trophy" mentality.
Perhaps in the near future, the NFL will be run by liberals, and they can award the Lombardi Trophy to around 6 or 7 Super Bowl Champions each season?
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/06/03/best-of-class-in-dublin-222-grads-tie.html
Quote: HowManyAn Ohio school named 222 valedictorians (20% of the graduating class).
Liberals never cease to amaze me.
Just more of the "Give Everyone A Trophy" mentality.
Perhaps in the near future, the NFL will be run by liberals, and they can award the Lombardi Trophy to around 6 or 7 Super Bowl Champions each season?
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/06/03/best-of-class-in-dublin-222-grads-tie.html
Conservatives never cease to amaze me.
Lets blame everything on liberals LOL.
I admit I am a social liberal that supports gay marraige.
I have never ever taken a govt handout, worked my whole life.
I certainly dont support a trophy for everyone
I certainly dont support 6 or 7 super bowl champions.
dont support 20% valedictorians.
Liberal vs conservative
its not one side wrong and one side right.
Its a different world view.
I am well off because I worked hard my whole life
My word view is I dont mind higher taxes to help those not as well off as me.
Granted, if 20% of the students reach the valedictorian bar, then maybe it's set a little low. Call it something else. Here's a thought: let the other graduates decide - every graduate not "on the list" lists one name, and they're ranked from most votes to least; take as few as possible, starting from the top, where the total number of votes they received > half of the total votes cast.
If you view every single thing in life through a liberal v. conservative frame, you may need a hobby...
Quote: terapinedConservatives never cease to amaze me.
Lets blame everything on liberals LOL.
I admit I am a social liberal that supports gay marraige.
I have never ever taken a govt handout, worked my whole life.
I certainly dont support a trophy for everyone
I certainly dont support 6 or 7 super bowl champions.
dont support 20% valedictorians.
Liberal vs conservative
its not one side wrong and one side right.
Its a different world view.
I am well off because I worked hard my whole life
My word view is I dont mind higher taxes to help those not as well off as me.
It's one thing to believe paying higher taxes helps those who are not as well off as you, it's another to actually believe that your tax dollars are being distributed in an efficient manner. Me, I would rather keep my taxes low and donate to to the organization or causes which I believe will help those that need them
Back to the OP and the Ohio school, I don't see how having an absolute threshold is the proper way to determine the valedictorian. That's supposed to be a superlative, not everyone who scores X or higher on some numeric scale. That'd be like saying each MLB team who wins 95 or more games in a season wins the World Series, so last year the Angels, O's and Nationals all won (which would be ironic because none of those are the teams that were actually in the World Series).
People, especially children, need to understand what it means to lose. Otherwise they can't understand what it means to win.
class and got a full ride scholarship all
the way thru graduate school. That was
the point of why she had perfect grades,
most schools do this. Does that mean
222 kids get scholarships? I don't think
so. The article says some are eligible, some
will get one and some will not. My daughters
was guaranteed.
Then the pompous bozos at the College Board and the Educational Testing Service should be fired for abject incompetence. It's bad enough when they screw up their questions and answers so often.Quote: ThatDonGuyIt's not so much "give everyone a trophy" so much as "we don't want to invent some arbitrary method of ranking the top students." If ten students score 2400 (actually, it's going back down to 1600 starting in a year or two) on their SATs, how do you rank them?
It is called something else. Mostly it's called the National Honor Society, although some places use other labels like Arista.Quote: ThatDonGuyGranted, if 20% of the students reach the valedictorian bar, then maybe it's set a little low. Call it something else.
Academic rankings are not popularity contests for homecoming queen or class president. They are used to determine major benefits like admissions, scholarships and hiring.Quote: ThatDonGuyHere's a thought: let the other graduates decide - every graduate not "on the list" lists one name, and they're ranked from most votes to least; take as few as possible, starting from the top, where the total number of votes they received > half of the total votes cast.
Quote: SanchoPanzaAcademic rankings are not popularity contests for homecoming queen or class president. They are used to determine major benefits like admissions, scholarships and hiring.
"Valedictorian" and "first in your class" aren't necessarily the same thing - especially if the former takes extracurriculars into account.
At my high school, the policy was, the student with the highest GPA was the valedictorian. The class before mine had only one 4.0 (this was in the days before you got "bonus points" for honors courses); mine had five, and all of them shared the honor.
Then again, at my high school, there was a time when, in order to be homecoming queen, first you had to be one of the "homecoming princesses" selected solely by that year's varsity football team.
Of the last five Homecoming Queens:
3 were retarded,
1 was 400+ pounds, and
1 was a gay male
Quote: Gabes22It's one thing to believe paying higher taxes helps those who are not as well off as you, it's another to actually believe that your tax dollars are being distributed in an efficient manner. Me, I would rather keep my taxes low and donate to to the organization or causes which I believe will help those that need them
Below headline from Fark "-)
"Red Cross raises half a billion for Haiti...and builds six houses with it. In other news, Red Cross names Sepp Blatter as new CEO"
Maybe the govt can do better, maybe worse
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-raised-half-a-billion-dollars-for-haiti-and-built-6-homes
Quote: ThatDonGuy
At my high school, the policy was, the student with the highest GPA was the valedictorian.
Ever see Alex on Modern Family? That's
how my daughter was, always striving
to get the best possible grade in every
class. She never got less than 100% in
any class, on any test or project. She was a
learning machine. Not that she teaches
college math, she's the least popular
professor because she expects out of her
students what she was as a student.
Good luck with that..
He went on to graduate with honors at our state university. He later became a pharmacist, and was busted twice for stealing Oxycodone.
He ain't no pharmacist no more. Pretty decent golfer though, and an all-around nice guy.
It is a given that most educators are liberals. And conservatives tend to oppose rather fervently any moves to equalize rankings, earnings or assets.Quote: ams288How the heck does this have anything to do with liberals?
Quote: HowManyWhere my kids went to school, there's ZERO chance of becoming Homecoming Queen if you are a normal, pretty, popular girl.
Of the last five Homecoming Queens:
3 were retarded,
1 was 400+ pounds, and
1 was a gay male
Where did they go - McKinley (soon to be McKinley School of Performing Arts) in Lima, Ohio?
Quote: HowManyWhere my kids went to school, there's ZERO chance of becoming Homecoming Queen if you are a normal, pretty, popular girl.
Of the last five Homecoming Queens:
3 were retarded,
1 was 400+ pounds, and
1 was a gay male
I blame modern family the TV show
Quote: djatcI blame modern family the TV show
Modern Family???? You're joking right?!
This is clearly Obama's doing!
Quote: OzzyOsbourneModern Family???? You're joking right?!
This is clearly Obama's doing!
Ok modern family 50%
Obama 50%
Quote: ThatDonGuy
At my high school, the policy was, the student with the highest GPA was the valedictorian. The class before mine had only one 4.0 (this was in the days before you got "bonus points" for honors courses); mine had five, and all of them shared the honor.
This is basically impossible to do now given some competitive high schools. I mean high school I went to was fed by a magnet middle school and there were a significant number of students on the order of at least a few dozen who had a 4.32 GPA which was our max. This was As in all your classes and at least 4 AP classes. A significant number of those took basically every AP class they could and still score straight As in all of those. We had all 4.32 GPAs have summa cum lauda honors since it is impossible to differentiate them especially given how many extra curriculars and things these students did. I mean plenty of these were IVY league bound or at least bound for schools on the order of UC Berkeley.
Quote: SanchoPanzaIt is a given that most educators are liberals. And conservatives tend to oppose rather fervently any moves to equalize rankings, earnings or assets.Quote: ams288How the heck does this have anything to do with liberals?
That must mean anytime a school doesn't have 222 Valedictorians it is an example of liberals being better than conservatives
Quote: CrystalMathAt my high school, there was a single valedictorian, which is how it should be. Actually, in the top 15% of the class (50 students) there was only one tie in GPA which was for the bottom two spots. One of those two students was a girl who took all regular classes and got all A's. Everyone else in the top 50 took honors, gifted, and AP classes. It was a funny grade point scale, but it makes sense to add points to harder classes. Additionally, there was an A+, A, and A- to help differentiate the GPAs.
I was one of 3 Valedictorians. No +/- system, but bonus points for "college-prep" classes. We all made As and we took all the college-prep classes. If you want to be technical, I had the highest GPA because I took the fewest amount of classes to graduate (I took a "release hour" my 2nd semester senior year while taking Calc 2 at a community college). But correctly, our school considered us tied. I'm cool with that, because I wasn't pushed to give a speech...lol Ironically, I caught up with one of them briefly on my Feb. 2014 Vegas trip at the Mirage Sports Bar as he was in town at the same time. He's doing way better than I am; he's an ER doctor in Colorado now. That same trip two days later, I bumped into a student I taught in grad school at Flamingo with no warning. Completely shocked on that one.
There is nothing wrong with some ties, imo, but 222 Valedictorians means the grading scale needs to be changed.
Quote: RonCJust some folks trying to game the system by conferring a title on a whole bunch of people that don't deserve it. They may get some more scholarships but, if this idea spreads, it could be that being a valedictorian will mean less to colleges and lead to less automatic scholarships.
Oh I forgot to add, I got zero automatic scholarships just for being a Valedictorian back in 1998 for the schools I applied to. I did have close to a "full-ride" to Mizzou, but it wasn't because I was a Valedictorian. Did all of these 222 people get automatic scholarships somewhere for being considered the Valedictorian?
Quote: tringlomaneDid all of these 222 people get automatic scholarships somewhere for being considered the Valedictorian?
No. It said they could 'apply' for them,
as of course anybody can.
+1Quote: tringlomaneThere is nothing wrong with some ties, imo, but 222 Valedictorians means the grading scale needs to be changed.
I think it's the aversion to competition, to having winners & losers that I have a problem with. This is along the lines of giving out participation trophies or not keeping score in games. For many, competition drives us; makes us become better. If results don't matter, there is no reason to improve.
Exactly. When I played baseball growing up, I remember being on teams that would beat the best team in the league, but also lose to the worst team, and finish about .500. It taught us much about winning and losing.Quote: MathExtremistPeople, especially children, need to understand what it means to lose. Otherwise they can't understand what it means to win.
It also taught the other teams as well. The winless team that beat us got to feel the joy of victory, while the undefeated team that lost to us got to feel the sting of defeat. I remember one game in particular where members of the formerly unbeaten team cried. I thought it was ridiculous to cry about losing a baseball game. What babies! Then, I thought about how I cried the very first time I struck out in a game. I learned from it, got over it, and it never happened again (at least the crying part). Those kids probably learned the same lesson that day.
The bottom line is, if 20% of your class are "valedictorians," most of those would have benefited from being challenged more. You have short changed them with their education.
I had a full ride to 3 colleges.
Scholarships don't care about class rank. It's more about GPA + ACT/SAT score.
I got a 33 on my ACT which was basically an automatic full ride generator at every college I applied to.
At the very least, it wasn't "just make EVERYBODY a valedictorian"; it was "just make EVERYBODY who does X which is hard a valedictorian."
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=valedictorian
Did they have 222 farewell addresses?
Quote: ams288I was 16th in my class of 260-ish students with a 4.3 GPA.
I had a full ride to 3 colleges.
Scholarships don't care about class rank. It's more about GPA + ACT/SAT score.
I got a 33 on my ACT which was basically an automatic full ride generator at every college I applied to.
They do matter in some places:
"The Highest Ranking Graduate program provides a tuition waiver for the student graduating at the top of their high school class for their freshman year of college. The program is described in Texas Education Code § 54.301"
http://tea.texas.gov/HRG/
It does note that they allow ties for up to two students, which is reasonable.
Some things (33 ACT) will automatically get you top scholarships and other scores will get you something, but competitive scholarships do look at everything on the application. Class ranking is asked for, so it is used at least some of the time.
My cousin just graduated last week, and he was valedictorian. But he lives in a small rural town and his class had less than 30 students. So is that really that impressive?
Quote: odiousgambitI have this concept that a valedictorian is someone who gives the farewell address. Anybody with a tiny bit of Latin in that high school?
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=valedictorian
Did they have 222 farewell addresses?
Back in the dark ages when I finished high school, we had 100 in the graduating class, with a total of four designated as honor graduates, including one valedictorian and one salutatorian. They did not present one welcoming address and one farewell address. Instead, all four honor graduates spoke sequentially during the ceremonies, but I do not remember the order.
Financial aid in all its formats does depend on class rank, if the caliber of the secondary school is known to the admissions office and/or the financial aid office. The SAT's have become such a farce because of the pressure to dumb down that colleges find that they can no long depend on them to provide a reliable gauge of the rigor of a high school.Quote: ams288Scholarships don't care about class rank. It's more about GPA + ACT/SAT score.