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Idk if this varies but when/where I was in highschool they used the unweighted GPA to determine class rank or something like that so while there were all these people that slogged through AP and honors courses paying very close attention to their GPA, the valedictorian ended up being some dude (who in academic terms was nowhere near as talented as some of the others) who coasted through the mid level courses with a near perfect GPA.
The actual smartest person in my class though was this dude that was nowhere near the top of the class because he never did his homework but he was far and away smarter than anyone and a decent musician too. He never got any recognition for it from the school though.
Next time just @ me. Found out that the universities I wanted to go to wouldn’t accept fancy class credits so I never bothered with them. Musician guy was truly brilliant and a great friend though, wish I knew what they were up to these days.
having grades in high school is wild. death to america
Wait, other countries don’t have this?
i live in western europe and it’s not normal to my knowledge. in Ireland nothing means shit in high school basically until the one big set of exams at the end which is all that determines what college you can get into. no exam or assignment you do in the 6 years leading up to that matters at all except for certain subjects which might have some projects and stuff in your final year that contribute partially. which obviously is a system with its own severe downsides lol but I’ll take it over having to care about grades when I’m like 15 fuck that. we also don’t have to write letters and shit or care about extracurriculars to get into college, it’s a purely mathematical process based on how you do in your final set of exams.
You’d probably hear more about material conditions like poverty, an unstable home, or lack of accommodations at school, so they’d never do it.
But having a time slot dedicated to one person who made it to the top is an early part of capitalist myth making. They want a justification of the status quo, not its condemnation.
the kids with the “lowest” grades were generally not present, unless we’re talking about “lowest grade but still actually graduating” which was probably similar. the struggling households put pressure on teenagers to work and provide household income, and that makes the 6-8 hours of schooling wasted time. all the “truant” kids I knew had jobs.
but what used to really drive me nuts as a kid is that the valedictorian was always a safe selection. there was always an “out” for the high achieving student who didn’t want the title so it could be passed off to a career-oriented striver… the one who would deliver a message administration liked and not make waves or use the platform to make a statement.
looking back it was a very instructive lesson in how institutional power is deployed to steer people into acting in support of it.
Being real how many teenagers are able to articulate this? The idea that material reality has a measurable effect on people isn’t even accepted in most of the USA. The lie of “work hard for good results, people deserve their place in the hierarchy” still has most adults fooled.
This is a thing?
American schools are weird
It can be worse. Sometimes they honor and give recognition to students who will join the military after graduation. Or at least they did at mine.
Death to america
Is that…the nostalgia critic?
I think it’s the avgn actually
yeah it’s big nerd bragging rights to be selected as valedictorian
Big weird
Yes, my high school had top 2 students by grade and the student president give speeches
It was awful
50/50 on being an insane unhinged trauma dump or speech about how socializing and having fun is more important than studying and good grades
I don’t think it would be unhinged so much as an act of catharsis by giving a neglected student a microphone to explain how the system failed them. But yeah, some students get there with no regrets.
presentation on how to perform various cod zombies easter eggs
It would arguably be a better speech too
Probably hear less about Harry Potter and other vapid bullshit. (Yes, one at my college actually mentioned JKR and HP)
I bet they wouldn’t spend the entire time jacking their ego off and then listing their entire family tree
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these are high school students
Oh, oops. I should probably delete this.
High school graduates. Most are 18.
The only discernable difference between educated liberals and uneducated ones is that the uneducated ones are worse at hiding their hate and ignorance.
to those of us who this would have been, im curious what your speech would have said
mine would have just been “many of you dont know me” and then i walk off
keep em guessing
I would have just quoted StarCraft Brood war
would’ve been my chance
me with a 52-6% average passing all classes for most of highschool
