American students may be lagging globally in math and science, but hey: Everyone feels good about themselves! Such is the strategy of schools today as they focus on feelings and self-esteem rather than academic rigor and excellence. Yet another school district demonstrated this, striving to win the great race for mediocrity, by making the decision not to honor valedictorians. In a board meeting Wednesday night, members decided Colorado Springs School District 11 would stop honoring the top two academic achievers by grade point average — otherwise known as valedictorians — and instead “switch to Latin honor designations for top academic achievers.”
The decision was made in part because, as a school spokesman claimed, the competition was getting too petty — students were competing for “one-tenth of a percentage point difference.”
