Watch to find out why they are taking away the valedictorian honors in the video below.
Video credit: LOCAL 12
One high school in Ohio decided to stop giving out valedictorian and salutatorian honors in order to protect the “mental health” of the students who didn’t manage to get the honors. The move prompted NFL star quarterback Baker Mayfield to speak out.
In a tweet, the Cleveland Browns quarterback wrote: “This is so dumb. You’re telling me competition doesn’t bring out the best in people? If you want something bad enough, work for it.”
He later added: “People are too soft.”
His tweet went viral, getting more than 242, 000 likes and over 51,000 re-tweets.
And Mayfield knows what he’s talking about, having “worked hard enough” to get where he is right now, noted
foxnews.point 8 | com/us/ohio-high-school-removes-valedictorian-salutatorian">The Blaze
.point 77 | In college, he received the distinction of being the first and only walk-on player to win the prestigious Heisman Trophy in 2017.point 185 | Walk-on players are those who join a team without being recruited beforehand or weren’t offered an athletic scholarship.point 294 | 1Mayfield went on to become the No. 1 overall pick for the 2018 NFL draft and went to the Browns. Despite having started in only 13 games, he managed to break the NFL rookie record when he earned his 27th touchdown last December.
Which is why it’s understandable that Mayfield reacted the way he did when Mason High School in Cincinnati announced on Thursday that they will eliminate valedictorian and salutatorian honors next school year. In a statement to FOX 19 NOW, Principal Bobby Dodd said that the school will instead focus on recognizing “students who have achieved outstanding academic success through a multitude of pathways.”
The statement read: “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. The recognition system will reward our students for genuine academic success based on their academic accomplishments.”
Dodd added that this shift “will help reduce the overall competitive culture at MHS to allow students to focus on exploring learning opportunities that are of interest to them.”
FOX 19 NOW noted that the 2020 graduation class will instead use the Latin honors system: “Mason High School students with a GPA of 4.point 389 |
00 and above will be designated summa cum laude.point 40 | MHS Students with a GPA between 3.point 68 | 75 and 3.point 75 | 99 will be designated magna cum laude.point 107 | MHS students with a GPA between 3.point 135 | 51 to 3.point 141 | 74 will be designated cum laude.point 168 | ”point 175 | 1
Dodd also noted, “The paradoxical nature of class rank within the culture of MHS does nothing to decrease the competition among students.”
MHS superintendent Jonathan Cooper cited a rise in suicides as he defended the move during a Fox News interview on Monday.
“As our community looked at some unhealthy patterns the rise in anxiety and depression and suicide,” he said. “It’s the second leading cause of death in youth today across America, so we started to look at what we can do as school leaders to make a change.”
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