Bonny Eagle deserves a valedictorian
It doesn’t seem fair, once again, that the students at Bonny Eagle and the public at large, can’t celebrate the senior class valedictorian.
They can’t celebrate the valedictorian because the school administration doesn’t issue the coveted distinctions. And that is simply not right.
Windham does it. Lake Region does as well. Why not Bonny Eagle? It doesn’t seem possible that a school district would fail to understand the benefits of awarding the top students their earned recognition.
Obviously, there is one kid at Bonny Eagle whose grade point average exceeded his or her peers. A valedictorian is out there, but we will never know his or her identity. And that’s a shame, both for the would-be valedictorian and for that student’s family.
SAD 6’s silence when it comes to the class valedictorian and salutatorian is a school tradition dating back decades to when member towns merged their middle and high schools. One school official said the reason for not choosing a valedictorian is so the participating towns don’t get jealous of one another. That is simply ridiculous and a low view of the towns’ residents. It’s time for everyone to grow up and start celebrating this mark of excellence at the school.
The SAD 6 board of directors should reconsider this tradition. Every year, a bright kid is being robbed of this coveted distinction. It is possibly the greatest honor a teenager can attain, and Bonny Eagle administrators dismiss the idea altogether.
Bonny Eagle has done quite well as of late in the field of athletics. We rush to honor the school’s stellar athletes, but we don’t honor the class valedictorian? What kind of message is this to send to younger students?
Jim Lehrer is right
Now that students have graduated and are off in new directions, it is fitting to discuss the idea of requiring national service for high school graduates.
Jim Lehrer, the highly regarded anchor of The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, opined on this subject as the featured guest speaker at Harvard University’s 2006 commencement. Lehrer argued that he has never seen Americans so self-centered and disconnected from one another. The solution, he said, is requiring these young adults to serve their country.
A former Marine, Lehrer is pushing for a cure for this self-centered disease and he believes requiring all 18-year-olds to serve “the greater good” in one capacity or another is the answer for many of modern America’s ills. And he’s right.
One look at Windham student Robert Kirkbride (please read the front page feature story) will show you this kid has his act together. He is focused; he is selfless; he is one to be admired. His fellow students gave him a huge ovation proving that kids know military service demands respect.
If national service were required, students would gain life-changing experiences. They would learn how to get along with all kinds of people. They would toughen up emotionally and physically. It would give hope and purpose to depressed and apathetic kids. It would help some learn a useful trade. National service would also teach them discipline, a trait many American teens lack.
But most importantly, kids would see how small their lives are. Their perspective would widen considerably. Travel is a way of life in the disparate American military. Most kids don’t have the financial means to travel and broaden their horizons, but the military would provide this free-of-charge. And knowing other cultures is extremely valuable in this modern world.
And when they come back home, they would be proud of their accomplishments and they would have further goals and motivations.
Lehrer is right. National service would be a cultural improvement for America. And if he’s talking about it at Harvard’s graduation – a school widely known for its liberal tendencies – hopefully this idea of national service will soon become a reality.
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