Written by: Bella Ingram, Editor
TRANSITION: Lack of a valedictorian leaves many students feeling that years of hard work will go unrecognized, while administration urges that reduction of stress is paramount.
“Welcome honored guests, members of the faculty, family members, and distinguished graduates, the class of 2022”: the introduction to a speech familiar to all, and one that millions of students across the country will hear in a few short months. However this year, who the students hear this speech from will likely be vastly different from past years. For many school districts, this esteemed speech will no longer be delivered by the high school’s valedictorian, and instead each student in the school will have a fair shot at giving the respected speech. After years of debate over the intense stress that grades force upon underage students, many districts across the country enforced a change in the form of removing class rank, valedictorian, and salutatorian entirely, including RUSD. In order to account for the lack of the classic valedictorian speeches, in some school districts, such as RUSD, the new speaker(s) will be decided on by using a method of competition, one that is open to all students with a GPA higher than 2.0. However, as explained by Principal of Poly High School Darel Hansen, the new method of selection for speeches at graduation is truly “not a valedictorian competition”, because the main reasoning for the institution of this new system was to be “far less stressful” for students. Furthermore, RUSD will move to following a system of Latin Honors, acknowledging instead those graduating Cum Laude (3.0-3.49), Magna Cum Laude (3.5-3.99), and Summa Cum Laude (4.0 and above). Hansen postulates that this new system, as well as events such as PRIDE night, which serves to celebrate the senior class, will also act to better “recognize many more students.”
While both administration and students can agree that stress reduction is important to consider in deciding an academic recognition system, many students feel that removing valedictorian at graduation will leave them feeling stripped of their largest academic award to date. Valedictorian thus far has stood as a symbol of academic pride, integrity, and scholastic achievement, and failing to honor that will not immediately ease the competitive rigor of high school academia; for some, it will only make hard-working students feel less honored when standing upon the graduation podium. According to Poly High senior Estera Boca who is graduating Summa Cum Laude, the shift away from the traditional valedictorian system, while valid in its efforts to acknowledge each student more individually, does not accurately convey the true feelings of the majority of students. According to Boca (12), the competition that the valedictorian system encourages is healthy, if it can even be described as competition, and “we push ourselves and we challenge our minds solely to become better students and to become better educated.” “We all simply do our best, I’m not battling my friend’s for the valedictorian spot”, says Boca (12), echoing a feeling shared by many graduating seniors, “so it definitely feels like a loss of recognition.”
In today’s modern age, finding balance between focusing on the mental health of each student as well as keeping the acknowledgment of those students’ achievements principal is becoming increasingly difficult. As for the foreseeable future, Poly and hundreds of other districts across the country will begin the process of shifting focus to wellbeing, and removing the time-honored tradition of valedictorian. Only time will tell if this new philosophy will take root and stand the test of time.