|
|
 |
Along Life’s Way
The
Inconvenient Students
By Lois E. Wilson
One year in high school, someone in authority decided to have a
contest. The winner would appear on the cover of the programs for a
school career night event.
Some classmates decided to mount an effort to elect the least-likely
girl. To them it was a prank to embarrass the girl and the school. They
lobbied undercover to secure votes for their candidate. Their
unsuspecting victim won. Unsatisfied with the results, the school
administration decided that she would not be put on the cover. To them,
she became an inconvenient student.
I knew the girl and felt sorry for her. I told my parents, “I don’t
think it’s fair. She had the most votes; she won the honor.” I often
wondered if my educator parents intervened. Something changed the
school’s decision. Its compromise solution was to put a group picture
of students on the cover. They included the student who had won the
contest in the group.
There was another “Lois” in my high school class. We were on the same
intramural basketball team. Our senior year, it seemed like we took
turns with our grade point average being at the top of our class of
340. It was a friendly rivalry. At the end of the school year, my GPA
was a little higher. Every year our school, like most others, honored
the top two students by naming them valedictorian and salutatorian to
speak at the commencement ceremony. That was not the case our
graduating year. We both became inconvenient students. There would be
no speeches by us.
Some higher-up person, I believe it was the Dramatics teacher, decided
to eliminate the tradition and have a skit starring pet students. The
skit was called “Third and Main” referring to the cross streets in the
center of Dayton. On the commencement programs, students in the upper
5% of the class were designated with an asterisk by their names. Of the
eight students in the skit, only one had an *.
This inconvenient student had an * and was listed as being on the
Commencement Committee. The other “Lois” had only her *. The Dayton
Daily News did include my picture and honors in a feature “Top Flight
Students.” One of the students in the skit became active on
national TV sports programs. Whenever his background was published, he
listed himself as valedictorian. Poor guy, he didn’t have an asterisk
to his name.
Unfortunately, similar events happen today for politics exist at all
levels of education. Today one could probably call it “institutional
bullying.” I believe all in that field have an obligation to preserve
fairness in the treatment of students—not one should ever become
“inconvenient” because of an educator’s whims and actions. That’s the
least we should ask.
|
|
|
<
|
