To the editor,

I decline my induction into the Durango High School Academic Hall of Fame.

This supposedly prestigious accreditation hypocritically corrupts the same values it is said to honor: hard work, character and personal academic achievement. To accept such an incorrigible, wanton bestowal would not only support the paradoxical and disgraceful practices of the prize-giving institution, but also include me as a member of those who accept, support and even amplify flimsy ethics and injudicious lifestyle.

Four years of high school undoubtedly require energy and hard work. While an honorary piece of paper and some collective words of recognition do pay homage to this self-evident statement that I labored academically (as every high school graduate did at some point), the prize in itself demeans the same hard work it supposedly celebrates. How? By remunerating a high-school graduate with such an insignificant trifle is almost to say that this is what we should expect out of life – that you can expect from hard work, the very hardest work in fact, simply a picture on the wall. Work should be equally rewarded as due. However much one has worked, whether in quantity or practical value, they should be paid fairly for their work, not superficially with an inconsequential frippery.

I do not deny that I have worked a great deal to earn high grades and a high school diploma. Yet that is exactly what I worked for: my time and effort were spent in acquiring skills and knowledge so as to establish a sufficient foundation for myself and my future. I, as a high school student, set intentions to learn and prepare myself for further education. I did not shallowly set my mind to achieving some ultimately unbeneficial social glory. I accordingly reaped my glorious labored-for winnings: immense amounts of knowledge and skills (with a corresponding GPA to reflect such), acceptance to my college of choice, a high school diploma, and overall personal accomplishment. I put in hard work and got justly compensated for this work. Cause and effect.

Then, to create a label and a time-sucking ceremony to parody the bestowal of some grand accolade is simply pre-posterous and unnecessary. The cause (an ambitious high schooler striving in classes) does not correspond to the prize-bestowing institution’s forged effect (a place in the academic hall of fame). Instead, my honored academic prestige causes simply my academic superiority. I have no need for any label to know what I’ve already achieved. Others, on the other hand, find this labeling of success as an ab- solute necessary. Do they want to make my educational performance an act to be judged? Do they find that in rating one person’s attainments over another’s that they can somehow externalize education as an act that is independent of personal development and intention? Do their needs to subject individual’s lives to social scrutiny outweigh the actual value of an education?

Please read the rest of my idea at: nomoreacademichonors.weebly.com

– Kate Petty, Durango