Should high schools have only one Valedictorian?

Happytimes2001
Sun, 18 Nov 2018 22:43:55 +0000

@MusakParent Totally with you regarding learning and competing in what you are interested in.
I live in a town however where the folks who love the idea of not competing made that mandatory for all the rest. No grades. No accolades, nothing. Wasn’t an opt in/opt out thing. So I have gone that route. They LOVED the movie Race to Nowhere. Though I personally wouldn’t spend money on that kind of thinking I was told that the message is essentially about kids where the parents/society pushed too much and some ended up committing suicide. Hmmm. Ok,

That may/may not be the premise of the documentary. If it is, I think people need to factor in the causes of mental illness ( family, genetics, etc). They also need to factor in the positives of competing and learning to fail. We have seen many families in our town where the parents won’t let the kids compete (participation trophies for all, diminish kids/parents who compete). These are often the families with some of the issues (suicidal and emotional, depression).They hover around their kids asking questions and the kids can’t breathe. Very few kids who are competing especially if they are doing things they like and competitive sports seem to have this issue. They learn to lose.

In our family the focus is always on doing your best and on grit. Did you throw you hat in the ring? Did you go outside your comfort zone? Why, or why not. Though we don’t have mental illness in the family, I think making our kids get out there is important.

I went to the State Cross Country state championships this morning. The kids ran wildly across packed ice, into the muddy woods and back across a muddy field, about 150 strong . When I picked up my kiddo from the bus we laughed a lot. Craziest race ever. Where do you get that experience if you don’t compete. Yep, all the scores were about 2 minutes behind. But I can pretty much guarantee they’ll all remember it.