We're Not #1

Not being valedictorian of my high school class ruined my whole life.

Every day, I cry for about an hour when I remember watching someone else give the valedictory address. I wake up at night in a cold sweat from dreams of a class rank list without my name on top. Professors don't want me in their classes. Employers don't want to hire me. As the result of not being officially named No. 1, I have been reduced to a wreck, a clinging shadow of my former self.

Not

(See, Wayne managed to change the speech habits of a good part of the English-speaking world, and he wasn't a valedictorian.)

To be honest, not being valedictorian hasn't mattered in my life. Which is why, perhaps, I read the story of Paul Siemens '98 with such disbelief. Paul, in case you don't know, is suing his school district for unfairness. Not because he was forbidden from taking an important class, not because he was denied help because of his race, but because he thinks their system of determining valedictorians is unfair.

It's not that he thinks that somehow the school fudged the numbers to keep him out. No, Paul disapproves of the system they used to determine the valedictorian--i.e. double-counting the first semester of senior year.

He's taking the step of a lawsuit because, he says, not being valedictorian will hurt him when it comes to winning fellowships and finding jobs. And besides, he feels, he deserves to be NO. 1.

Poor baby. Forgive me for sounding harsh. But, despite what Mr. Siemens and his attorney would have you believe, this case isn't about students' rights or principles. It's about one high-schoolers acting ridiculous, as many high-schoolers do. Most, however, don't drag the judicial system into it.

Paul, if you're reading this, right how you're probably getting steamed. I'm sorry. But I've been at Harvard for three years, and with this depth of experience I should tell you something.

No one cares if you were high school valedictorian.

Yes, this is Harvard, where the view is skewed. But the fact is that more high school valedictorians apply here than could possibly get it at any one time. Because of that, Harvard has stopped using it as a criteria, really. Oh, being ranked number one in your high school class at the time of applying can't hurt your chances of getting in regularly or off the wait-list. But it's not of pre-eminent importance.

And that extends to fellowships and jobs one obtains through Harvard as well. Basically, unless you win the Nobel Prize in high school, it doesn't matter that much around the Office of Career Services. They're interested in what you've done at college. You know, college, the place without any parents to make you study and with lots of distractions to keep you away from the books.

It's Harvard. Everyone here assumes that you were brilliant in high school, that you racked up the honors, that you shone. (Or that a) you play hockey like a pro or b) Daddy, Uncle Biff, Granddaddy and Great-Granddaddy went here.) Everyone assumes that somehow you were great in high school. Everyone. Your dormmates, your teaching fellows, your career counselors.

IT DOESN'T MATTER.

Now, if you're not a Harvard student and you're reading this, you're no doubt thinking that I'm an insufferable brat, hopelessly lost in the quagmire of Harvard's superiority complex.

But there is another, more general point here. Basically, Paul Siemens is wasting his last pre-college summer (and some money, too) with a lawsuit. And for what? To prove that a system of 30 years standing that his school used to determine valedictorians is unfair. Got some news, Paul. Ain't gonna happen. Never. The court system will not tell the secondary school system in America that it must allow students to determine the fairness of its class ranking systems.

Paul has convinced himself that he's doing this for some high, noble purpose. Nope. He's doing this so he can be NO. 1. You notice that he only found the school's system unfair after the fact. If he had gotten the top ranking out of this, he'd find it perfectly just.

Yes, he got knocked out of the top spot simply because he got a low grade in physics at the wrong time. But the truth is that many schools don't have a strict grade average-rank correlation. There are many reasons for this--most schools don't want their champion basket weaver and gym student beating out their science genius to become valedictorian. Some schools weight honors courses more heavily. Other schools decide to emphasize part or all of the senior year more heavily, figuring that it will be the toughest.

Is it unfair? Sorry. Many things in life are unfair. If Paul hadn't gotten to be valedictorian because of the color of his skin, that would be unfair. If he had been denied it because the principal didn't like him, that would be unfair. If he had been second-ranked because someone had altered his grades in the records, that would be unfair.

But the fact is that "the Number 1 student" isn't an easy thing to find out. Evidently, Shari Dickstein, the valedictorian held it together better during senior year while college applications and (no doubt) demanding activities step into high gear. Along the twists and turns of high school, there are often cases when a teacher's dislike, a forgotten quiz or a misunderstood homework assignment has caused a grade to be "unfairly" lowered. The Spring Valley High School system of determining valedictorians is no better nor worse than most.

I hope for his sake that Paul drops this ridiculous case. If he's reading this, he's probably mumbling at this point that I'm bitter and jealous. Nah. I'm too busy being president of The Crimson to be bitter and jealous.

But Paul's obsession with being No. 1 will not be a good thing in the environment around Cambridge. Because once he gets here, he will find amazingly brilliant people. Published authors. Award-winning musicians. Unbelievable scientists. Harvard specializes in knocking down your ego, in letting you know that you may be smart, but there is always someone smarter.

And the people who fall the hardest are those who are most into being at the top. It's usually the people more in the middle who do okay, who fluorish and grow. Sooner or later, Paul Siemens will go through an experience at Harvard in which he will not be No. 1 and someone else will be. If he can't handle that concept, he'll be crushed, part of the flotsam and jetsam floating aimlessly around campus snarling at all they meet.

Paradoxically, the most important lesson that Harvard can teach you is that it's okay not to be "the best" that "the best" is not an easy concept to determine. In other words, that it's all right to not be No. 1.

Maybe Paul will give up his case and enjoy his last summer with his friends before they all go their separate ways to college. I hope so. Because after this summer, high school will seem both far away and less and less important in the grand scheme of things. There's time enough at Harvard to act self-important and pretend that one's own goals and aims are based on universal principles. Paul Siemens needs to accept with good grace that he's not valedictorian and get on with life.

And he needs to remember to buy a good comforter, too. Because at Harvard, it really doesn't matter if you were valedictorian or not. It matters if you can keep warm during those frigid winter nights when the heat isn't working. If Paul Siemens is smart, he'll let college teach him how to put things in perspective. That is, unless he wants to be known as the "Sore Loser" for the next four years.