Why is getting rid of things like honor roll, Valedictorian awards wrong?

Question

Schools are not publicizing Honor Roll status in students anymore or giving Valedictory/Saludatory awards. Even colleges choose to waive SAT scores.

Some people argue that
1. Grades create stress and anxiety, leading to things such as suicide
2. Grades create an unfair & hyper competitive environment
3. Grades are reallynot an indicator of a student's real ability

How much vailidity is there to these claims? What counter-argument would you make?

Answer 1

People whine too much. Just because you aren't the best you have to commit suicide? Nobody is going to be the best at everything. Its not the grading/valedictorian system thats the problem. Its this society telling everyone that if you aren't the best, you're worthless. How are you going to go to college if you can't show them a standardized grade to prove you can handle it?

Answer 2

I can see the argument for and against that.

I've had several classes where the teacher taught to the test, rather than the subject. For example, when we were preparing to take the entrance exam for the journalism program, the class we took broke the book into sections; each week we studied and quizzed over a certain section. After a couple of sections, we'd quiz over what we learned..and so on until time to take the test.

However, removing things like honor roll and such, encourages mediocracy. If there's no first place, why compete?

Answer 3

How hard would you work if every class you took was simply Pass or Fail? How much do you think you'd actually learn and retain?
If you are prone to stress, anxiety, and depression, you will find something else in your life to freak out about, even if it's as stupid as "ring around the collar" or as uncontrollable as "global warming". Better to have your mind focused on a relevant, attainable objective.
The world, nay life itself, is an unfair and hypercompetitive environment.
Grades are the most effective and efficient way of determining whether or not a student has learned. "Book-learning" is, after all, the primary objective of education. What other "real abilities" would you have the schools evaluate.?

Answer 4

There's nothing wrong about it. You should have awards to push people forward. The only thing I have to say is that sometimes, grades can be stupid. If you can memorize quickly, you do well. Usually, you don't really learn anything from that.

But it's the grades I care about...