For those of you against valedictorians tell me this, do you care if your heart surgeon is an idiot? Your response is probably well if he was an idiot he couldn't get into medical school. Except if there are no grades and no way to determine who the idiots are and they just let people into medical school because they seem like nice people and everyone should have an equal chance, how do you judge competency? If you don't care if your brain surgery is done by a doctor from Our Lady of the Connecticut Turnpike Medical School vs someone from Harvard Medical School then you don't deserve to have any quality control and you're saying there just should be no standards by which to judge people. Good luck with your surgery

This "give everyone a trophy" bullshit is getting ridiculous. Where did it start? Were the stupid kids complaining that they didn't get to talk at graduation? What is the harm in rewarding someone for finishing at the top of their class? Our country used to be first in education now it's not even close.

Most definitely. We should honor people that have strived to be the best at what they do.

I'm all for encouraging weak students to do better, but total inclusion by down playing others accomplishments is not how you do it. High school graduates are on the cusp of adulthood and all this does is reinforce the idea that hard work gets you nothing more than mediocre work will.

I voted Yes. I worked very hard through high school so I could be the valedictorian. Then, at graduation time, it was given to someone not even close to my average on the grounds that I had won too many academic awards and other people would be jealous. Decades later, I still feel robbed.

As long as schools have King and Queen popularity contests, sports recognition, beauty contests, then yes academic recognition is equally valid.

At my daughter's high school there were 8 students tied for valedictorian. There was an in-state scholarship associated with the award and it went to the 9th student because the top 8 all were going out of state with bigger scholarships. Because of Advanced Placement courses, all had GPAs over 4.0

Keep it; let them enjoy it. It's a distinction among their peers and a way to reward hard work that costs nothing to continue.

early bloomers do not always keep up with the pressure of being labelled the best

Those kids work extremely hard for that achievement. Keep it I say

IMO the competitiveness of the title is a very rare win-with-no-loss scenario. Universities are impressed if you're the valedictorian, but it's not a miss if you're not but have high grades.

I chose "Yes, Keep The Valedictorian". I find the mentality that we shouldn't recognize someone's accomplishment in order to avoid offending others repugnant. If you view every other person as a competitor you must best in order to be happy/satisfied you are a miserable person indeed. Why can't you just be happy for them?

Political correctness, which is what this is about, is destroying our society in so many ways. Recognizing ability and effort should not be considered a form of elitism, rather an honor earned.

I was by no means a valedictorian. but I believe if you worked that hard, and earned that title, you should be recognized for it.

This frustrated me about the high school my kids attended. Both of my sons were valedictorians and neither got any recognition for it. My daughter graduated with one other student a year early and again no recognition. Trump would be a good example of the low quality you get with popularity contests.

One of the problems with education in this country is that we have slowly taken away the incentives to do well. We're so concerned with making it so the kids at the bottom appear to succeed that we've lowered standards and removed the environment that made it challenging for the kids at the top.
If being #1 has no more merit than being #100, why bother?

Yeah , academics are definitely not a point of emphasis these days like when I came up, and I think it shows. Look at who we elect.