Ohio School Gets Rid of Valedictorian to 'Reduce' the 'Competitive Culture'

Ferlon Webster Jr. | May 14, 2019
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A high school in Ohio is getting rid of valedictorian and salutatorian honors because they fear students who don’t achieve these awards are so sensitive that they’ll cry like babies. 

Mason High School has succumbed to the soft, weak-minded liberal mindset that continues to invade our world. The school believes the competitive nature of striving for high grades can damage students’ mental health even though they’ll have to face this type of competition in the real world. 

As WLWT reports, the school came to this decision after a yearlong study and focus group with students. They will do away with the honors starting with the Class of 2020. 

“There’s healthy completion and unhealthy competition,” Jonathan Cooper, Superintendent of Mason, Ohio told Fox News. “As our community came together and started to look at some of the unhealthy patterns, the rise in anxiety and depression and suicidal ideation. We know that suicide is the second leading cause of death in youth today across America, and so we started to look at what we can do as school leaders to make a change."

“I think in the long run it’s really going to change the atmosphere of the school in a positive way,” Ryan Griffith, a Mason High School sophomore told WLWT. “We should have fun in high school and not just try to push ourselves to the max.” 

Many people thought the school’s decision didn’t align with reality, saying participation trophies aren’t the way to go about life. 

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Principal Bobby Dodd responded to the criticism his school received with a politically correct statement that his liberal peers would approve of:

"We are moving to a recognition system eliminating valedictorian and salutatorian honors, and shifting to recognizing students who have achieved outstanding academic success through a multitude of pathways,” he said according to WLWT. “The recognition system will reward our students for genuine academic success based on their academic accomplishments. This will help reduce the overall competitive culture at MHS to allow students to focus on exploring learning opportunities that are of interest to them.”

The school says they will use the Latin Honors system beginning next year, which would designate students with a GPA of 4.00 and above in summa cum laude; students with a GPA between 3.75 and 3.99 will be designated magna cum laude; and students with a GPA between 3.51 to 3.74 will be designated cum laude, according to WLWT.

Honestly, what the heck is so bad about being competitive? Maybe I’m missing something here. Competition is a good thing, the more you compete the better you get. This school is prepping these students for a rude awakening once they arrive in that real world that soon awaits them. 

 

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