Students all over the U.S. deal with the academic struggle of class rankings. One test can make the difference between celebration and depression. Even worse, our own parents contribute to the effects of class rankings. The better ranking you have, the worse it gets. It’s a silent killer in today’s education system.
Why Is it bad?
Mental health has made tremendous strides in today’s day and age. People are much more aware, and there are many more preventative measures for poor mental health. However, even today, there is something no one can prevent from harming your emotional health… class rankings.
1. Competition is healthy, but not too much
Athletes. They practice for a few hours a day, have a big game, then go home and relax. That is some healthy competition, especially when your opponent is another team. In academics, every other student is your opponent. Even your own friends become enemies. The friend who does the best on the test suddenly becomes the resented one. Grades never end. Every single class ends up being reviewed, studied, and tested. Everybody is in competition to make the best notes, study the best, and do the best on the test. See the pattern? Sports come and go. Most sports are even seasonal so that we don’t get too much of it. Our bodies and minds need a break more often than we actually give it to them.
2. Parents say what we’re already thinking
Nothing is worse than when your mom starts nagging, especially when it comes to grades. While sometimes it is deserved, they also don’t understand we are also doing our best. Even if you’re an amazing student who gets straight A’s, that doesn’t stop your parents. While you are a stellar student, you are only number two in the class. There is a lack of fulfillment when you are anyone but number one. Parents constantly remind you of how you’re not trying hard enough. While a good amount of parents congratulate their children on trying their best, most still try to advise you on how to do better next time. We are constantly in our own heads about how bad we are doing. We don’t need our parents to help us out when it comes to being hard on ourselves. Class rankings just show parents how much worse you are doing in comparison to every other student in your class.
3. It’s a never-ending cycle
Everyone is doing everything they can to be number one. Even when you are the best in the entire class, there is now an extremely heavy weight on your shoulders to maintain your valedictorian status. Then, you take that one history test that you fell asleep while studying for and kiss your valedictorian status goodbye. The amount of agony you feel after you lose the spot you worked so hard towards could be so drastic as to send someone into a depression. It’s bad enough not to do as well as you thought on a test, but worsening your rank is only another punch in the gut.
4. Discourages exploring interests
While your passion might be engineering, you’re too afraid of the difficult class tanking your GPA. Or you want to take that art class, but you can only take AP courses to get that weighted boost. High school is meant to help kids learn what they like and what they don’t. Teaching them to just like how high their grades are is no way to prepare today’s children for the world. Schools in other countries that use class rank actually take into consideration personal attributes and school involvement toward GPA. Some parents discourage their children from taking up a sport because they want them to focus on their grades. This system makes it so that star athletes actually have a chance in comparison to the students who stay home and study on Friday nights.
Solution
It may be difficult to completely abolish something that almost every American school uses. Hence, let’s find a way to not erase but reshape the way to determine academic excellence. Universities have a system in which people are divided into groups instead of numbers. They use terms like Summa Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, and Cum Laude to accredit academic excellence. While these terms should remain on the collegiate level to keep their notable status, high schools should develop a similar system for the sake of mental health. While it is impossible to remove things like valedictorian, salutatorian, etc., so many more students could be rewarded for their academic excellence with an accreditation like Summa Cum Laude (with a different title, of course.) Either create a new system overall or adjust it, like how the European countries consider school involvement into GPA. Athletic performance and extracurriculars could count just as much as doing well on a test. In summary, for the well-being of our children, get rid of class rankings.