WTF Is a Valedictorian?

Morning Valedictorians!

You know that thing in high school where the smartest nerd at your school graduation gets up on stage…

And… does a speech?

Ya, it's called a Valedictorian speech, but… why do we do it?

Well, take us back to medieval Europe.

Students are studying things like latin, philosophy AND… public speaking!

But, the very first valedictorians aren’t chosen for being the smartest, no, no.

They’re chosen based on who is the best public speaker.

ORRRRRRR… whose parents are most important.

Lol, so how did it go from this to… picking the smartest dude?

Well, this tradition of picking Valedictorians carries over into American universities.

But it’s the early 1900s, so the US is all about MERITOCRACY.

You know, where you are rewarded based on merit instead of… who your dad is.

This is also about the time we start ranking kids based on smartness.

To figure out who is dumb.

And who is not so dumb.

Schools also think they can get people to study harder if they reward the TOP scoring guy.

So they come up with giving them the honor of being VALEDICTORIAN!

And you know what?

It works!

Students begin competing RUTHLESSLY for the honor of being valedictorian.

They start doing things like taking extra classes to game the system and boost their GPAs.

Or skipping “easy” classes to focus more on the “harder” classes.

And nowadays it's SO competitive that the gap between Valedictorian and 2nd place is just 0.01 or 0.02 points.

Which is… not a lot.

Stay Cute,
Reece, Henry & Dylan 🌈

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