Valedictorian Inflation

Wednesday night I attended a Senior Awards Night at an Orange County high school where my wife had to make a presentation. It was an interesting experience.

The first award of the night was for the "Scholar of Scholars" - the kid with the highest GPA. When I was in high school that person was the valedictorian.

The second award given was for the valedictorian...or should I say valedictorians - all 77 of them. To be a valedictorian today means you've finished high school with a 4.0 or better GPA. With honors and AP classes it's possible to get B's in some classes and still end up with a 4.0. At some point in the past it was decided that having only one valedictorian was "unfair" to all those kids who work hard, and since we can't have anyone feel left out or second best and risk hurting their self-esteem, we have to find a way to make everyone a winner.

I'm not sure when the "scholar of scholars" designation came along since it returns us to the bad old days of having one kid declared better than all the others, but the whole thing seems silly to me. What does it really mean to be a valedictorian if 76 other kids share that designation and one other kid is even better than that?

Just like the bank I once worked for where it seemed that every other employee was a vice president, it appears that title inflation has taken over in our schools.