I think it is good for people to see who is better than you. Also, I like that it shows that in the real world people who work the hardest, are the smartest or are the luckiest are on top. What I disagree with is these top students making sucky speeches.
How about this: "better at test-taking, scheduling, and getting along with most teachers than you." That plus a healthy intellectual curiosity (but not necessarily a very great intellectual curiosity) is how you get a high GPA.
Some of the smartest kids at Mann aren't even close to the top ten or twenty or even top fifty in their class. High school BORES them. And they feel unmotivated by the rewards that motivate other kids.
School is a game set up for a certain kind of kid to do well. Other kids, different kids have no idea the game is being played. No idea that there are rules...ways to win...ways to become "top students."
The games changes somewhat in college (depending on the college you choose). And when you hit the so-called "real world," it's tossed out completely. Just you wait and see.
This year's "Renaissance Mann" event pretty much summed it up. There's an idea! Let's take the "brightest" students at Mann and further divide them amongst themselves.
They marched us onstage like sheep. We were products. Products of all their hard work as teachers and faculty.
They even had the head of the police force (or something) come in and congratulate us for being better than everyone else.
He gave us the whole Sunday school bit, listing statistics to tell us how we were among the wealthiest, most privileged human beings on the planet. I'm thinking, "Where is he going with this?" Then he told us, and I quote, "I want everyone to give themselves a pat on the back for being alright."
Ah, the fruits of the high school experience. I refuse to wear that free t-shirt they gave me because I was that let down by the whole thing and what it stood for.
Was I supposed to be motivated, or only so much to be named valedictorian? Because after a certain point of being motivated to do well, the point where incentive turns into ambition, you stop worrying about acing the next three math tests just so your new and improved GPA will put you in that top 5 percent.
That's my take on it. Not as someone who's "not even top fifty," but as just another face in the sea of honors students.
I will ask this though, if college is a different game, why do they supposedly care so much about our GPA's?
College GETS different. It starts a certain way...then it turns into something (it CAN turn into something) very different. In college everyone is GPA-smart. So what do you do to distinguish yourself then? If you're Life-smart you get in with a couple of brilliant professors and spend four years learning evrything they know...hanging out with the best friends you will ever have. At least that's what I did in college. I never even thought about my GPA. Not once.
i find the propisition of abandoning the tradition of valedictions to not be really so upsetting(ive never given much of a crap about the whole thing having never had the remotest chance of being one myself). however this Minnesota school's reasoning for doing away with the tradition to be extremely disturbing if not downright infuriating.
i mean what a load of communist bull$#!*. competition is good. competion is what gets things done. economics,diplomacy, capitolism, survival, politics, are all based off of competion. trying to get ahead. trying to do better than those around you. where there is no competition there is no motivation to do better.
Yeah sure, in a perfect world everyone would want education just for the sake of bettering themselves and everyone would be happy and do the right thing just because, but the fact of the matter is that most people are going to go with the inclination to do what makes them feel the best, or at least, makes the feel the least bad.
part of the reason the Soviet Union collapsed is because in the absence of the competitiveness of capitolism, there is no motivation. the workers did not do things well because they would be paid the same whether they did their job well or not.
the real world is based upon competition and this Minnesota high school is simply deluding its students of reality if it is attempting to persuade them otherwise.
-justin
p.s i just got back from vacation in the caribbean.it was awesome. no real pirates. but lots of rum. dont worry. nobody got drunk and fell overboard like Mr. Arrow.
Thank you for commenting on the blof (finally!), Justin.
Great comments. Mostly right.
But...the Soviet collapse was much more complicated than you surmise. There was also an overarching lack of faith/beilef/purpose in that system. And a tremendous, hideously over-sized government bureuocracy.
oh yeah. there was a lot of pieces missing from that Jenga tower. like there economy being artificially inflated from within. so while the rest of the world grew closer together with trade money, they were trapped inside themself and locked eternally in the 1940's. 90 rubles a week only paid the bills on one side of the border. -justin
I think the valedictorian thing....well, I think they should leave it be so that those kiddos that think that kind of thing [GPA, SAT/ACT, etc] matters more than being actual human beings in place, so that they have something to work for.
I personally couldn't care less about that kind of thing, and my GPA is so bad I'm really almost proud of it. Haahhaha. And I am definately agreeing with the "bored with school" bit. Cause, hell, I know I am/was.
And let me say this---I have always preferred talking to my teachers above most of the students around me. Mostly cause they're more interesting but also because I just don't understand how most of the kids around me do these SAT prep classes and spend more than 30 minutes studying. It seems like such a waste of time for an extra three or four points, to me anyway.
And the people I really remember from school are my teachers anyway. Not my classmates.
9 Comments:
I think it is good for people to see who is better than you. Also, I like that it shows that in the real world people who work the hardest, are the smartest or are the luckiest are on top. What I disagree with is these top students making sucky speeches.
"Better than you?"
How about this: "better at test-taking, scheduling, and getting along with most teachers than you." That plus a healthy intellectual curiosity (but not necessarily a very great intellectual curiosity) is how you get a high GPA.
Some of the smartest kids at Mann aren't even close to the top ten or twenty or even top fifty in their class. High school BORES them. And they feel unmotivated by the rewards that motivate other kids.
School is a game set up for a certain kind of kid to do well. Other kids, different kids have no idea the game is being played. No idea that there are rules...ways to win...ways to become "top students."
The games changes somewhat in college (depending on the college you choose). And when you hit the so-called "real world," it's tossed out completely. Just you wait and see.
Can anybody relate?
I never really cared. If someone works hard and has the grades, shouldn't they be rewarded in some way? Why not have a valedictorian?
I can relate...
I hate the whole GPA hierarchy of high school.
This year's "Renaissance Mann" event pretty much summed it up. There's an idea! Let's take the "brightest" students at Mann and further divide them amongst themselves.
They marched us onstage like sheep. We were products. Products of all their hard work as teachers and faculty.
They even had the head of the police force (or something) come in and congratulate us for being better than everyone else.
He gave us the whole Sunday school bit, listing statistics to tell us how we were among the wealthiest, most privileged human beings on the planet. I'm thinking, "Where is he going with this?" Then he told us, and I quote, "I want everyone to give themselves a pat on the back for being alright."
Ah, the fruits of the high school experience. I refuse to wear that free t-shirt they gave me because I was that let down by the whole thing and what it stood for.
Was I supposed to be motivated, or only so much to be named valedictorian? Because after a certain point of being motivated to do well, the point where incentive turns into ambition, you stop worrying about acing the next three math tests just so your new and improved GPA will put you in that top 5 percent.
That's my take on it. Not as someone who's "not even top fifty," but as just another face in the sea of honors students.
I will ask this though, if college is a different game, why do they supposedly care so much about our GPA's?
[/rant]
College GETS different. It starts a certain way...then it turns into something (it CAN turn into something) very different. In college everyone is GPA-smart. So what do you do to distinguish yourself then? If you're Life-smart you get in with a couple of brilliant professors and spend four years learning evrything they know...hanging out with the best friends you will ever have. At least that's what I did in college. I never even thought about my GPA. Not once.
i find the propisition of abandoning the tradition of valedictions to not be really so upsetting(ive never given much of a crap about the whole thing having never had the remotest chance of being one myself). however this Minnesota school's reasoning for doing away with the tradition to be extremely disturbing if not downright infuriating.
i mean what a load of communist bull$#!*. competition is good. competion is what gets things done. economics,diplomacy, capitolism, survival, politics, are all based off of competion. trying to get ahead. trying to do better than those around you. where there is no competition there is no motivation to do better.
Yeah sure, in a perfect world everyone would want education just for the sake of bettering themselves and everyone would be happy and do the right thing just because, but the fact of the matter is that most people are going to go with the inclination to do what makes them feel the best, or at least, makes the feel the least bad.
part of the reason the Soviet Union collapsed is because in the absence of the competitiveness of capitolism, there is no motivation. the workers did not do things well because they would be paid the same whether they did their job well or not.
the real world is based upon competition and this Minnesota high school is simply deluding its students of reality if it is attempting to persuade them otherwise.
-justin
p.s i just got back from vacation in the caribbean.it was awesome. no real pirates. but lots of rum. dont worry. nobody got drunk and fell overboard like Mr. Arrow.
Thank you for commenting on the blof (finally!), Justin.
Great comments. Mostly right.
But...the Soviet collapse was much more complicated than you surmise. There was also an overarching lack of faith/beilef/purpose in that system. And a tremendous, hideously over-sized government bureuocracy.
oh yeah. there was a lot of pieces missing from that Jenga tower. like there economy being artificially inflated from within. so while the rest of the world grew closer together with trade money, they were trapped inside themself and locked eternally in the 1940's. 90 rubles a week only paid the bills on one side of the border.
-justin
p.s.i get a kick out of cold war stuff.
I think the valedictorian thing....well, I think they should leave it be so that those kiddos that think that kind of thing [GPA, SAT/ACT, etc] matters more than being actual human beings in place, so that they have something to work for.
I personally couldn't care less about that kind of thing, and my GPA is so bad I'm really almost proud of it. Haahhaha. And I am definately agreeing with the "bored with school" bit. Cause, hell, I know I am/was.
And let me say this---I have always preferred talking to my teachers above most of the students around me. Mostly cause they're more interesting but also because I just don't understand how most of the kids around me do these SAT prep classes and spend more than 30 minutes studying. It seems like such a waste of time for an extra three or four points, to me anyway.
And the people I really remember from school are my teachers anyway. Not my classmates.
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