<p>I definitely like the idea of the speech being done by audition and chosen by committee. However that doesn’t stop one from having a valedictorian. I went to a pretty small prep school and we had no ranking at all. At our school it was for the best I think. In a large public school I feel like it’s different, but maybe it isn’t.</p>
<p>JHS, I understand what you are saying. It’s like campaign finance laws, every “improvement” just creates to ways to get around the rules.</p>
<p>My son’s school has three student speeches of 4-5 minutes apiece: Class president, valedictorian (this year, and about every other year, the same person: the school has a near-single-factor prestige system), and a third speaker selected by student vote from among those who audition for it. There may be some kind of faculty/administration screen for content; I’m not sure.</p>
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<p>I still see difficulties, but they may be unique to our school system. For example, in our system, the first two years of a foreign language do not have honors versions and therefore are unweighted. Thus, a student who begins a second foreign language in high school – which is an entirely suitable choice for some students – is penalized in terms of weighted GPA.</p>
<p>“I’m not saying you were bad, but honestly how many people come up after commencement and tell a teenager they were bad or boring? What were people supposed to say to you?”</p>
<p>They could say nothing. Seriously, I didn’t ask for them to come tell me I did a good job. The fact my two best friends came and lifted me off the floor they were so happy was reward enough, the smiles on my family’s faces were enough. When I wrote my speech I wrote it for the people I love, if everyone else like sit then great; but I didn’t need them to come up and tell me. I didn’t go up and tell the sal that I thought his speech was sub-par I just let him go enjoy the night. My point is, no one HAS to say anything. But, I know everytime I’ve heard an amazing speaker I’ve taken the time to go tell them that it was moving and inspirational, the bad ones just get lost and become vague memories. </p>
<p>Graduation was about 2 hours. We had around 465 graduates I think, I neevr got the final number. We had 3 val speechs (one was about 2 min, mine was 4-5, and the other was 3-4), one sal speech (over 5 minutes), student council president (3ish, his speech was really good), and the senior class president (5ish minutes). But, the speeches weren’t back to back, there were activities between them. We also had the chorus (internationally recognized) sing a song and then the senior bel canto girls sing a goodbye song to the senior class (very sweet). Our principal talked for about a minute or so. I think overall it was well-done and no one in my family or friends thought it lasted to long, but was about right without it feeling rushed. Definitely, the most boring part is listening to 465 names being read, but cheering for your friends is fun =).</p>
<p>The seating was good. We were in a basketball arena, so there was plenty of room and the temperature was very comfortable as well (not too hot, not too cold).</p>
<p>I guess I’ll just explain how I’m seeing this from your posts( I’m sorry Bambi’s mother) what I’m kind of picking around at is the I, I, I, me, me, me of your post. It’s great to have self confidence, but consderation for others is a great quality as well.</p>
<p>You described your speech as 2mins (opps 5) about yourself, talking about “me”. Not “Us”, the Us being you AND your fellow classmates. Do you feel the 465 students and families needed to hear about “you” and your accomplishments? Rather would the momment be better served relating about the group and the last four years together and where tomorrow takes you? </p>
<p>I know I am being awful here having not read your speech. I am just going off how you’ve described it here. Maybe you should send me a link if you want.</p>
<p>Remember, it’s just my opinion and that won’t buy squat. However, be aware the gang of 4 is waiting to pounce and befriend you and rile at how terrible I am. </p>
<p>Remember this life lesson and you’ll go far… “all that befriend you AREN"T your friends and all that disagree with you AREN’T your ememies”…</p>
<p>In my defense I must say that my speech did not ONCE mention an accomplishment (quite on the contrary to the other speeches). And the speech wasn’t about me, but rather about the people who have influenced my life and encouraging my classmates to change others and leave their own legacy, whatever that may be. I’ll send you the speech in a PM so you can read it for yourself and maybe that will help =).</p>
<p>It’s an excellent speech dearheart, I do apologize. thanks for the pm link. </p>
<p>It is very good, it’s about “US” or “WE” the class. It is a fine representation of a grad speech with the consideration of everybody in the room.</p>
<p>I would have liked it too. One brief sentence about you and paragraphs about others… very good job. </p>
<p>Forgive me Bambi?</p>
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Marian, not unique to your system. We have the same thing. For kids who really care things like this can be a problem. To make matters worse for some bizarre reason, Latin in our school doesn’t have honors until the fourth year while all the other languages have it starting third year. Who knows, maybe my son loss a couple places in ranking because of that? He also couldn’t take honors physics because of a scheduling conflict. Life isn’t always fair.</p>
<p>Of course. I’m sorry if I came across as self-centered, I do beleive that is the curse of discussing things online and not face-to-face. I hope you got to see a better representation of who I am and how I relate to others throught that speech. Thank you for challenging me and my values, though. Debate is in my blood which is perhaps why I didn’t let the discussion die =P. I love CC for that reason though, the members here challenge each other and their preconceived notions and I think in the end everyone walks away learning something. =).</p>
<p>There will always be what if scenarios for those who come close but don’t make it. What if I took AP Psych instead of Greek? What if I took that one AP class that I got a a-minus in the second semester during my senior year instead of junior year, so it wouldn’t have counted? And on and on and on.</p>
<p>Then you have the phrase we hear over and over by high school and college counselors alike…“Colleges are looking for kids who have challenged themselves with the highest level courses they can handle…”</p>
<p>OK, so does that statement suggest a super duper high GPA, with A-pluses in everything, can actually hurt you if you haven’t taken all the AP classes your school offers??? Hmmm, seems like a double edged sword.</p>
<p>Since our high school offered more APs than one could possibly take, I ascribed to the principle…“if yer makin’ A-pluses, it’s not hard enuf.” </p>
<p>Maybe a better system would be the cum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude approach? Even that has it’s headaches- at my son’s university, the GPAs required for each differ by major. As an engineering major, you only need a 3.2 for Deans List; as a liberal arts/science major, you need 3.75.</p>
<p>There’s no good answers as to fairness. The best you can do is decide, do you want to run in this race- if so, find out the rules and go for it. If not, do the best you can to prepare yourself for success in your chosen field.</p>
<p>Our school uses a pretty standard formula for our state: The valedictorian is the student with the highest overall GPA. Normal classes are on the 100 point scale. Pre-AP classes are 110 (10 points added to final average). AP classes are 115. Classes with an athletics component don’t count; this includes sports, marching band, color guard, dance team, and cheerleading. Credits obtained via correspondence courses don’t count.</p>
<p>Our valedictorian this year has a 110 GPA; # 10 in the class has a 102. The top 21 students (out of @ 300) had GPA’s over 100.</p>
<p>The only “gaming” that occurs is: 1) students obtaining credit by correspondence for courses that would be on the 100 scale if taken at the high school (health, communications, etc); and 2) students not taking non-core classes that are not pre-AP or AP. Unfortunately, many of these are fine arts course, such as choir and jazz band. Obviously, the purpose of both these tactics is to avoid lowering a 100+ GPA.</p>
<p>My school is really stupid. We only have unweighted GPAs and anyone who gets a 4.0 is a valedictorian. Not that it really matters at all though… the whole thing is just pointless and stupid.</p>
<p>How about having a senior class of one?..<a href=“404 Not Found”>404 Not Found; :)</p>
<p>We just use weighted GPA. The person who deserves it always gets it. It is almost always the person with the most honors courses, which is good because honors courses are super-hard at our school (we don’t offer Ap’s, but my honors Calc AB class, for example, covered all the Ab material AND half the additional BC material.</p>