Should Valedictorians and Salutatorians Be Recognized for Their Achievements?
BY KÉRA MATTHEWS '24
It’s the commemorations, awards, and recognitions during senior year that help define your grand finale. From the entertaining superlatives to the senior athlete send-offs, the last year of high school is where you are meant to look back at how you grew and thrived. Amongst those awards, the valedictorian and salutatorian awards are one of the most notable ways to get recognized. This defining achievement is where a select two are congratulated for their stellar academic achievements throughout their high school career, ranked first and second in their class. However, this familiar award has sparked much more disapproval recently, with increased concerns about students’ mental health in conjunction with awards that put others on a pedestal. Despite these concerns, the concept of a valedictorian is still a valid way to commemorate hard work and achievements; however, the criteria that come with it are limited and require modifications to be truly fair for students.
Though controversial, it’s hard to deny that valedictorians are rightfully praised. College is a separate step in life and can offer many new opportunities for new students, but to close off high school, a moment like a valedictorian award can be just the beacon of hope that a student thrown into the real world may need to stay motivated. According to a CNBC article, valedictorians don’t tend to be the most financially successful people after high school, but many kids who struggled during high school do find success. Still, after high school and during high school are two very different stages that require two very different methods to succeed. It is unfair to treat them as one linked system when high school is a more rigid system that caters to younger people. Additionally, people who are able to thrive academically under high school pressure are equally admirable to those who think outside the box and, although not praised for it during high school, flourish from it later on in their lives. At the end of the day, students will always be compared, so instead of treating valedictorians and salutatorians as better than everyone else, we should acknowledge their academic drive during their four years of high school. One can argue against recognizing academic achievement, but it mirrors other feats only on a different scale. Take sports, for example. The standard is to grant end-of-season, banquet, and, most importantly, leadership awards to team members, and seniors especially acquire those benefits. In sports teams, you rarely ever hear complaints about one member getting leadership recognition awards for doing particularly well—that’s because they act as a team. The issue is not so much that valedictorians are recognized but rather that interpersonal interactions throughout high school are toxic comparisons that prevent everyone from supporting each other, just as a sports team would. Just as every person on a soccer field plays their part, working offense and defense as one unit with one captain to guide them, someone like a class leader who organizes events, or a classmate who helps others so the entire class feels understood, is a vital piece to the puzzle. It’s perfectly okay to be grateful for those people while simultaneously knowing that everyone in the class, you included, has different strengths that also contributed to the success. Valedictorians are really strong at specific things, but that doesn’t encapsulate every strength a person could have. The question then becomes, are these supportive people being recognized under the umbrella definition of a valedictorian? Because the valedictorian and salutatorian titles are academically based, it means that they are selected solely for being the highest-ranked students amongst the graduating class. Although their achievements are important and deserve to be recognized, other people warrant awards for equally admirable measures of excellence. While GPA is honorable in one way, valedictorians should perhaps be based on more than that—for example, their leadership skills, community service, and attitude towards others—something similar to the criteria National Honors Society students have. Alternatively, there could be a number of awards: one for academic achievement, one for community building achievements, one for creative contributions, and maybe more; a vote among senior students can grant these awards. We can start to eliminate the toxicity that comes with the title of valedictorian, and in doing so, additionally, still note who was memorable in terms of what they did for the people around them. Those standards will feel much more justified, and those who those students impacted will be able to support them with love rather than shut them out in envy. Although the current climate surrounding valedictorians and their roles is tainted, we can begin a new era of acknowledging and revising potential flaws surrounding its meaning. In entering a new time of positivity and inclusivity, we can also work to keep honors in school systems because, at the end of the day, the school community should strive to lift up every type of student. |