THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 23, 1996 TAG: 9602210143
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
A proposal to do away with designations of valedictorian and salutatorian in Portsmouth's three high schools at first seemed like an off-the-wall suggestion.
Instead of having the two top honorees, the schools would designate graduates the same way colleges do: summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude.
So when I ran into School Board Chairman Tommy Benn last weekend, I asked what was going on.
Benn said it was an idea based on some real-life events that have happened in recent years.
For example, two kids who go all the way through school in Portsmouth and make all A's obviously are competing for the top honors. If one happened to take one more class than the other, the person who took the least number of classes would emerge from the computer as the valedictorian.
Now, is that fair, he asked me.
But is life fair? That question came from Louise ``Sis'' Walden, a School Board member who was listening to my conversation with Benn.
Walden obviously has some doubts about doing away with the traditional ``top scholar'' designations.
``It's a tradition I think we need to keep,'' she said.
It's a tough call when you hear the stories Benn tells about those who have been so close but missed the top honors because of taking an extra class or something that changed the computations.
But I understand what Walden is saying, too.
Traditions are important. Furthermore, it seems to me that universities always are bragging about the number of high school valedictorians in their incoming freshman classes. Obviously, they pay some attention to the traditional designation, but how much does it count? Also, if there is one space in a freshman class at one of the major universities in the country and two people want it, would a summa cum laude Portsmouth graduate lose out to someone who happened to be designated valedictorian at another school?
Maybe the answer is a compromise. Instead of letting the computer spit out a grade-point average that would favor one student who took fewer courses over another, maybe the schools should designate as co-valedictorians everybody who makes a perfect A score.
I don't think that would amount to a whole lot of students at each school.
Or maybe the schools should do both. They could institute the new designations and continue to do the top honors for a while until people get used to a new way of doing things.
Or maybe Walden is right. Maybe we should learn early on that life isn't always fair - and learn to live beyond the disappointment.
Certainly, as life goes on, most of us find out that the most important thing about school was not the grade but what we actually learned from a course.
Science was tough for me, but my natural curiosity prompted me to choose both chemistry and physics as electives during my last year in high school. The same tough, but nice, science teacher taught both, and she wasn't going to give me anything even if I did choose to take two of her classes at the same time. My grades in those courses were not the best in either class. But I wouldn't trade the knowledge from those courses for all the A's I could have made by opting for less demanding courses.
But that was a long time ago, and the choice universities were not quite so demanding in their requirements for admission.
Having heard Benn's rationale, I really think the notion of summa cum laude and magna cum laude sounds like a good idea. Certainly, that would create a mechanism for recognizing more seniors for academic excellence.
The idea came from a committee of educators, students and parents. But, judging from the split reactions on the School Board, I wonder if we wouldn't find the same split within the total community.
The School Board will discuss the proposal again this week at its retreat. Citizens, especially students and their parents, who have any thoughts on the subject should call their favorite board members and relay their feelings. by CNB