Niagara Falls drops class rankings for today's graduation
There will be no valedictorian at today's Niagara Falls High School graduation.
As Niagara Correspondent Caitlin Murray reports in today's Buffalo News, 18 students will graduate instead with valedictory honors.
“We felt it was nice to recognize a valedictorian, but those other kids were so close,” said James Spanbauer, head of Niagara Falls High School. “We’re talking hundredths of a point sometimes. We felt they were all deserving.”
Niagara Falls is the first district in Niagara County to do away class rankings and naming a valedictorian.
Read the full story here.
So what about the one student that wasn't just 'close'? He or she couldn't be recognized because others were so 'close'? This just removes the incentive to excel and be the best. What a shame.
To the student that actually deserved the honor all to him or herself - Congratulations on a job well done! If your own school won't recognize that, then I will. Please don't let this prevent you from continuing to strive to be the best!
Posted by: FormerBuffalonian | June 27, 2009 at 12:26 PM
It is a shame that we are moving towards a watered down competitive environment based in avoidance of making tough decisions because we don't want to hurt the rest of the competition.
What about the actual person deserving of the award???
The rest of the world is catching or has caught up to the United States because they realize that in "Reality" someone does win. It doesn't make everyone else a loser as.
I was taught to do your best!
What happened to rewarding excellence!!!!
Posted by: BacktoReality | June 27, 2009 at 05:36 PM
How unfair! What about all the other graduates?! I think the entire graduating class should be valedictorian - even those who dropped out along the way. It's certainly not their fault.
Posted by: Richard | June 27, 2009 at 06:47 PM
I recall that the BAED program at UB did not name its best student a couple years ago. The rationale for that was foggy, but the student grapevine indicated it was because the student had a run-in with the department chair, so not giving the best student award was a form of payback.
Whenever these kinds of things happen, one has to speculate about the motives of the person in power. If the best student at NFHS got burned because he or she had bumped heads with the principal, that would be a shame. Hopefully, it wasn't some form of discrimination (i.e. the top student was LGBT, minority, etc...), and the administrators were reluctant to award the best student degree to the person who beat the white students.
This is why I left western New York. Petty high school back biting doesn't happen in normal places. My advice to the best student in Buffalo is to do what I did and leave for greener pastures. Smart people should go places where they can be among their peers and not dragged down by knuckleheads.
Posted by: UBGraduate | June 27, 2009 at 06:55 PM
"The most competitive students work the system of weighted averages for maximum benefit." By "working the system" you mean taking AP courses instead of basket weaving, right? Yeah, we should punish the kids who do college level work. Who do they think they are?
Posted by: Jim Reeves | June 28, 2009 at 02:57 AM
I'm not too concerned about awards. I'd rather talk about the kids who flunk-out or quit.
Tom Friedman began his column (6/28) with this:
"I was at a conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, a few weeks ago and interviewed Craig Barrett, the former chairman of Intel, about how America should get out of its current economic crisis. His first proposal was this: Any American kid who wants to get a driver’s license has to finish high school. No diploma — no license. Hey, why would we want to put a kid who can barely add, read or write behind the wheel of a car?"
...Thomas L. Friedman
NYTimes
Sounds like a great idea to me.
Posted by: BobbyCat | June 28, 2009 at 11:33 AM
BooHoo, life is not fair. The school may have put off for a week or two the Real World. As soon as they get that sheepskin the Real World takes over and each one of them will have to prove their worth to society. If I was the one whom got screwed, that would be the last time I had anything taken from me. Good luck to the real valedictorian.
Posted by: Shane | June 28, 2009 at 12:12 PM
These students have spent their school years working very hard starting in the Gifted and Talented program at the elementary level. They ALL deserve this wonderful honor! It is about time some recognition is given to our future successes. Good Luck kids.
Posted by: retired teacher | June 29, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Heaven forbid that someone should actually be better than everyone else! No wonder Generation Y is so screwed up: no one is allowed to lose or fail or be worse than anyone else. They get certificates and trophies just for showing up. Their parents have gone out of their way to make sure they never face adversity...
Posted by: Buffalo Libertarian | June 29, 2009 at 11:57 AM
BobbyCat wrote: "No diploma — no license. Hey, why would we want to put a kid who can barely add, read or write behind the wheel of a car?"
...Thomas L. Friedman
NYTimes
Sounds like a great idea to me."
Well, it would be if the vast majority of today's graduates could actually add, read or write on even a 12th grade level by the time they're about to graduate.
Posted by: Buffalo Libertarian | June 29, 2009 at 12:00 PM
As long as no gets "hurt feelings." Feel-good seems to be the operative theory of education these days.
It doesn't matter anyway, because the only job prospects of most NF Graduates will be serving coffee to their Chinese or Indian bosses.
Posted by: pgr88 | June 29, 2009 at 01:54 PM
I cannot wait for the sports teams in the Niagara Falls Schools to adopt the same philosophy when it comes to keeping score, awarding winners in races, or any other endeavor in their district. Maybe this attitude will extend to athletic scholarships and then anyone can receive a collegiate scholarship offer because there is so little difference in any contestant.
Posted by: Jay | June 29, 2009 at 04:08 PM
OMG!!!!!! Competition!!!!! What if someone gets their feelings hurt????? My son didn't go to NF High School because we don't live in NF but he said he wanted to and now his feelings are hurt because he didn't get a degree from there. Could you please send him one to make him feel better?
Posted by: Dave | June 30, 2009 at 09:19 AM
I see "retired Teacher" still has her teachers union attitude. "They ALL deserve this wonderful honor!" Yep... Wouldn't want to single anyone out as the best. All for one and one for all... We will all stick together... Everybody did something so you are all "entitled" to get rewarded. It is ok to reward different people for different things. Did these kids also get sport trophies and recognition even if they didn't participate in the sport (maybe they weren't good enough?) They took gym... Doesn't that count? Oh no... Everyone is equal... remember?
Posted by: Dave | June 30, 2009 at 09:27 AM
A concern that should be addressed is why the highest honors achievers even when expanded to 17 students does not reflect the diversity of the district? There must be some way to identify and encourage all learners and their potential early enough to enable broader representation for academic excellence.
Posted by: Former Western NY Resident | June 30, 2009 at 11:06 AM
I agree with Dave. "Retired teacher" clearly has been part of the NEA/NYSUT establishment for way too long. You don't reward students for being close. School is *supposed* to prepare students for real life, and *in* real life, some people lose (ie, do not come in first). Shame on you, NF High School, for setting a horrible example to the students in your city.
Posted by: Mark | June 30, 2009 at 11:22 AM
100 meter sprint - all the contestants finish within a few hundredths of a second of each other - they ALL tried so hard - EVERYbody gets the gold medal! Geesh! When does this nanny behavior end?
Posted by: frankm53 | June 30, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Former Western New York resident wrote: "A concern that should be addressed is why the highest honors achievers even when expanded to 17 students does not reflect the diversity of the district?"
Among certain underachieving* groups doing well in school is considered "acting white" or being an "Uncle Tom" or a "traitor to the race."
*I say "underachieving" because I'm convinced the group is capable of achieving far more for itself than it presently chooses to achieve.
Posted by: Buffalo Libertarian | July 01, 2009 at 05:00 PM
I hope the people who are setting or should I say lowering the bar are not the same ones asking for the best doctor or the best medical advise when they or someone they love are ill. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Some decisions are just totally ridiculous and makes me wonder how people got in the position to even make such a determination.
Posted by: Observer | July 06, 2009 at 07:16 PM