By: Daniela Bolnaños
You get an award! You get an award! Ah, you too, don’t worry. These very words are on rewind like a broken record in our society. We have become a culture that rewards participation, rather than hard work. If you or any of your friends have received the stereotypical medal with the words printed on it, “PARTICIPATION”, you know the feeling. The feeling of defeat after giving it your all makes you feel horrible, but the piece of ribbon engraved with those dreadful letters causes you to feel even worse. While our culture believes that giving you a ribbon will brighten your spirit, it promotes a culture of not trying. With this complete disregard towards so many student’s fight to the top, it releases an unforeseen anger that can only be taken out on the small paper or ribbon that you receive for all your hard work. Not winning is already enough justification for your sadness, but the embarrassing moment of having to receive the ribbon is the cherry on top. You could say this sprung up with the new-school style of parenting where parents feel their children deserves acknowledge just for showing up. As our society continues to groom people to become increasingly sensitive, the question arises: is it fair to reward one individual’s hard work while neglecting everyone else’s?”
In attempts to make the system more equal, it has caused even more injustices. As a child you watched every cliché high school movie that set your expectations for high school very high, only for Braddock to let you down. The nice cafeteria in High School Musical that serves full course meals is nowhere to be seen in Braddock. The iconic outfits in Clueless that you will never get to wear because of Braddock’s uniform policy and the beautiful scene of Rory from Gilmore Girls delivering her valedictorian speech at graduation is something that your senior class will never experience for themselves. If you have noticed the absence of a valedictorian and salutatorian at graduation, it’s because Miami Dade County Public Schools did away with this time-honored tradition in the early 2000’s. Since then, they have replaced this tradition with a three-tiered academic recognition system. Dade-County Public Schools recognize Summa Cum Laude: the top 5%, Magna Cum Laude: the top 10%, and Cum Laude: the top 15%. Braddock’s Activities Director, Nelly Odio explains it simply. She said, “they have created a larger range of academic recognition of the graduate class as to not signal out the best two.” Even more ironically, is the fact that Dade County Public Schools are alone in this practice. Both private schools in Dade county and Broward County Public Schools continue to recognize their two best students as graduation speakers.
When we asked Senior Melissa Montero, one of our top 5% students, what she thought about the removal of said sacred practice, she responded with, “It’s tradition, but I understand why they changed the system.” While she accepts the new way, one of her classmates thought otherwise on the matter. Senior Natalie Hernandez, who also belongs to the top 5%, stated that the top two students “should be recognized and rewarded for all their hard work. I don’t agree with how the system is now.” Evidently, some students have opposing views regarding the disappearance of valedictorian and salutatorian. It can be said, we have lost the value of healthy competition in our society.
Just a few weeks ago, a perfect example of this occurred. Cheerleaders at Hanover Park High School in New Jersey held try-outs and cuts were made based on skill level. However, a disgruntled parent reached out to the school’s athletic director which resulted in a classic participation culture move. The director ruled that moving forward, anyone who tried out for the squad, would be allowed on the team. And the school board backed the decision saying, “In order to facilitate a more inclusive program, the alignment between the various cheerleading squads would be modified to allow all interested students to be able to participate. This decision was made in the best interest of all students and was made to be as inclusive as possible.” Typical.
Whatever happened to earning your spot? To earning your academic standing? What happened to good old “hard work pays off “and “not everyone is a winner”? As a society, we are prying those wonderful triumphant moments of success and achievement away from students by creating a participation culture. As harsh as this sounds, failure can propel motivation and encourage your ambitions for excellence. Society teaches students ”you get what you put in”. Unfortunately, this true and simple principle has been lost somewhere between fairness and inclusion. It’s undeniable that the message we’re sending to the young population is all you have to do is “try”.
The Watchdog 