Should high schools have only one Valedictorian?

ucbalumnus
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 02:33:29 +0000

Perhaps high schools and colleges which encourage hyper-competition for valedictorian or class rank may be (possibly unintentionally) showing students what real life later may be like, given the trend of economic growth going increasingly toward the elite, basically trending the economy more toward “elite or bust”.

But real life competition, while sometimes cutthroat, often does not have the clear cut rules that everyone can see like how a high school may calculate GPA to determine who is valedictorian. It is, of course, highly competitive to compete for a spot among the elite, but it is not clear from the outside how it is determined who makes it, and some people may have substantial unearned or inherited advantages over others.