Reply #15: I don't think this is a bad idea

[rockymountaindem]

They've still got distinctions that honor the people who do best, so there's still an incentive to perform well. That's good. However, when you're taking the GPA down to the hundredths of points and with the various ways to avoid having to take non-honors classes as mentioned above, I'm not surprised there's discontent. The high school I graduated from when through a couple of years in the early 90s where all the people who tied for the top spot got to be "valedictorian", which meant that in one year there were *sixteen* of them. Now that's ridiculous. As an alternative, I think doing away with "valedictorian" and just giving the top three percent or something "suma" honors is fine.

Of course none of that logic will stop the usual suspects from decrying the coddling of our youth or the destruction of good ol' fashioned American competition, but that won't hide the fact that what they're doing at that school is better than the alternative in their situation.