I read local crackpot George Brauchler's latest column in the Denver Post yesterday, bemoaning the decision by the Cherry Creek School District to drop class rank and the title of "valedictorian" by 2026.
He sees it as the next step in a race to mediocrity, which is yet another example of this governor-wanna-be trying to establish his bona fides as opposed to all things liberal or even rational. After all, without demonstrating his willingness to take on those all-powerful educators what hope does he have for a political resurrection?
He bungles even defining what a "valedictorian" is or should be from the very start. And, of course, he can't resist mentioning that HE was the chosen speaker for graduation of his Colorado high school despite being firmly in the middle of this class in terms of class rank.
Well, good for George and ain't he something?!
My dim memory of what a valedictorian was in 1968 was the person with the highest grade point average, usually by a hundredth of a point. The word itself is Latin and means "person who delivers the farewell speech," and most schools combined the highest class rank with this opportunity to give a speech to the class.
I have absolutely no memory of either who our class valedictorian was nor whether she (and I assume it was a girl) gave a speech at graduation. I'm sure it was packed full of cliché and hollow advice about the world being ours to create/improve, if it happened. Being chosen as a graduation speaker is an ephemeral honor, at best.
I will say that over four decades of teaching experience shows me that speaking ability has almost no connection to academic success, at least in such a formal setting. My last stop as a teacher, Rock Canyon HS, holds a competition among interested seniors to choose three different speakers for three different end-of-year celebrations. GPA is not a factor. But the school still names 40 or more valedictorians each year.
On the other hand, grade inflation has created a higher and higher mean for most schools when it comes to ranking. We are now at the point where a B-average won't get you to the top half of the class, which ought to be all we need to know about the importance of class rank.
Most schools now have so many students with more than a 4.0 GPA (with so many AP classes earning a bonus point in unweighted GPA) that they go with the Rock Canyon policy, with dozens of such honorees.
The world is a competitive place, certainly, but few educators favor class rank as a useful tool. Just as good old George did OK for himself despite his mediocre rank in his class, most of us know all sorts of successful people who did not end up ranked #1 (or graduates of Harvard).
Brauchler just wanted yet another excuse to lob little rhetorical grenades at public schools. After all, what did they ever do right?
Well, in his case, I guess, the system worked.
I put valedictorian in the same category as Homecoming royalty, where an elite few are honored while the vast majority are left to contemplate not being good enough, or popular enough, or wealthy enough, or tough enough, or pretty enough...
Class rank is all about ordering the sheep and keeping everyone on the "right" path. Class rank honors test taking and not running afoul of the powers that be on campus. Class rank is about recognition and scholarship money and elite colleges.
Class rank has little to do with "success," however that is defined.
No one in the Cherry Creek district will miss it when it's gone, and no one in the district will spend much time worrying about Brauchler's outdated and elitist views.
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