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academics, ethics

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2 Responses to “academics, ethics”

1. floria Says:
   May 6th, 2005 at 1:10 pm

   Here are my thoughts -
   though the author makes many good points (namely, the last 3 “answers” he provided to his question “why not award true excellence in academics?”) that i firmly agree with, i don’t think the academic troubles in high school would just go away if the valedictorian system were dumped. i think if you got it, then you should be awarded - true, many who deserve don’t get, and many who don’t deserve do, but there are flaws to all systems and let’s hope that the majority of the awards given out are hard-earned. (and in the end, those who cheated in high school or were otherwise non-deserving of whatever awards they got, will inevitably pay for it. and those who may have not been recognized for what strengths they possess, will also get what good things are coming to them. in most cases. let that be the motivation to work with integrity). the valedictorian system isn’t the only thing driving students in high school. to parade around at graduation with a single valedictorian medal may seem equally as good (if not worse) as another who has 5 cords from extra-curr’s they’ve been involved in, flowers/balloons from many friends/family, and that person may have gotten by with but a 2.5 GP - it’s evident that valedictorian status is not all that matters, go to a hs graduation and you know.

   The root of the problem is that what drives students in high schools is not only impressing their peers/teachers/parents, but mainly colleges. and how else can a college admissions committee survey thousands of applicants other than looking at a standard criteria - your GPA (or your SATs, APs, etc). there’s no way everyone can be interviewed to get some superficial grasp of how a student’s character really is, and the extra-curr’s that students list can be half-assed anyway. so the only objective way is to go by standard numerical values such as your GPA. who’s fault is it that this causes cut-throat, academically competitive kids in school? plus, a little competition in high school doesn’t hurt. those students from saratoga and lynbrook are probably better prepared for college and so on, are they not? and these 2 high schools are no where near representative of america’s public education system anyway - so if the competition it bothersome, move 15 miles away and go to prospect (or another hs). this system is preventing students from exploring other activities such as art or acting, but i think there is a way to get good grades and have a well-rounded, balanced, healthy life style in highschool as well.

   in my life science class yesterday, my professor gave us all a wake-up call - america is ranked about 42nd in education in the world, really far back in academic scores, scientific breakthroughs, something about how the infant mortality rate is higher here than in europe, and our healthcare system is just pretty sucky overall, actually. point is - we are lagging educationally and scientifically, and with our resources we really ought to be pushing our public education harder.

   okay we don’t want to end up like china and raise a bunch of stressed-out engineers / nuclear physicists who fear their parents and enver see their families, but i think america is pretty fat and dumb already. as usual, it’s survival of the fittest..

2. floria Says:
   May 6th, 2005 at 1:26 pm

   actually, i think the magna cum laude summa whatever system would be better.

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