However, I know firsthand how unfair the system can be. I, unfortunately, also came up short, a hundredth of a point they said – though their math was fuzzy. When I questioned their calculations they said they were sorry and that I should have taken a study hall!

I wish that I had someone on my side to question my schools calculation of ranking. And though I can’t assume that this is the case with VHS, however, the fact that VHS seems so unsure themselves on how to calculate a winner I am wary.

I think the difference is that while gymnastics and auto racing as specific sporting competitions that are narrowly defined, the recognition of our most accomplished students is not. And what the author is arguing is that perhaps we should rethink our calculus if the distinctions are so minute.

If we make it solely a numbers game [as has been the case] then we run the risk of separating students for ridiculously arbitrary differences and also potentially invite gamesmanship that loses site of the ultimate goal: validating/rewarding academic excellence and achievement. For instance, in my own high school class, the separation was so narrow between the top two students that one of the students [the ultimate valedictorian] was able to defer satisfying his PE requirement [for specious 'medical' reasons] until his last semester [after the final results were already tabulated]. Not being a particularly athletic sort, he actually received a less than perfect grade which would’ve decided the contest in the salutatorians favor.