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Not everyone should get a trophy
EDITOR'S NOTE: This column is in response to Andy Weld's May 21 column. You can read that column here.
To the editor:
I agree with your assessment. In the age of entitlement, where "everyone gets a trophy," some things should be left to the simple definition.
The valedictorian is The Top person in the class, period. I graduated from Blytheville, some years ago, and I was not the valedictorian or anywhere close for that matter. But I do remember the difference in the valedictorian and the salutatorian in our class was that one had made a B in typing class, simply because he wasn't quite as fast a typer as the valedictorian.
May not seem fair, but as they say, it is what it is, and I think this particular salutatorian would be the first to step up and say that it ended up the way it should have.
Both are highly commendable, but let's not get caught up thinking that everyone has to win an award, because, in the long run, sometimes the denial of the things that people "think" they deserve is the very motivating and driving factor that pushes them to the greatness that they would have never otherwise achieved.
Let's quit giving the youth of this world a pat on the back with the message "you deserve whatever you want," and start giving them truth. Truth, in that the only thing they will ever receive out of life is what they put into it. No one owes us anything. Let's start being contributors, and quit being entitled. Only then can we rise above ourselves and begin to become part of something greater than ourselves, as individuals, and as a whole.
There's no denying the great accomplishments of these very capable individuals, and they should be commended for their efforts. That's what honors are for. But let's not call them all "the best," just because they came close. Let's celebrate the real and true things they accomplished, while separating the most distinguished from the rest.