Give Him an ‘A’: One Cheer for the Academic All-Stars

It was a fleeting report, either on TV or radio, and it noted that students in some countries are cheered, literally, by their fellow classmates for achieving scholastic excellence. The report contrasted that with the chiding often given American kids who are seen as brainy. It rang true: In my day, the smartest kid in class was more likely to be the recipient of a spit wad than a round of applause.

The broadcast followed up on an earlier story about American school kids generally scoring poorer in math and science tests than students around the world. For example, American 13-year-olds were outscored in science by countries as far-flung as Scotland and Slovenia.

The obvious implication was that U.S. society elevates Bart Simpson and Dennis the Menace to cult status but not its brainiest youngsters. We hold all-school assemblies to honor the football team, but what about the National Honor Society inductees or the debate team?

With my ‘D’ in college chemistry preventing me from any claim to brainy status, I sought another opinion--this one from Randy Villahermosa, a senior at Garden Grove High School and recent semifinalist in a national science competition sponsored by Westinghouse.

I found him working after school for PacTel Cellular in Irvine. He’s had various odd jobs, he said, all dealing with computers and data processing. He’s planning on pursuing chemical engineering in college.

When he did well in the Westinghouse contest, school officials announced it and put a notice on the bulletin board. It also notified the district office and Villahermosa got some local media attention over it. I asked him about the larger question of school-wide recognition of scholars.

“I’ll tell you right now, if they were to give a pep assembly for the people who got straight A’s for the quarter, more than likely, a majority of them wouldn’t want to be down there,” he said. “I don’t think they want that kind of attention. Socially, it isn’t the norm to get that much praise for academics. That’s instilled, that’s come to be expected. They’d be looking more for individual praise.”

Would they be embarrassed by the attention? “It’s not so much that they’d be embarrassed, but, socially, this is something they wouldn’t want to do,” Villahermosa said. “If I was up there, I’d feel like, ‘Why am I up here, there’s no reason for me to be up here. . . .’ That’s what you’re in school for--to do well, to succeed, to get the grades.”

How about school-wide attention for sports teams? “I have no problem giving them support,” he said. “They’re representatives of our school. But we also have two academic teams at school, and neither is sponsored by the school. If they do well, they give them a pat on the back, but they won’t help us out in any way. The faculty will, but the school itself won’t.”

To be fair, the academic teams involved only a couple of dozen students. But, Villahermosa said, their expenses of a couple hundred dollars are paid by faculty advisers or students themselves.

The larger question involves American society. “In that sense, if I met a jock and some guy who gets a 4.0, which one is going to be more socially acceptable?” Villahermosa said. “Well, the jock is. Socially, and not to demean anybody, the majority of Americans are what they consider average . . . and the jock fits in that category. Socially there’s a problem with that. There needs to be more emphasis on education. Not through the government, not through money, but through the society. If society wants education, they’ll fund it.”

Would it be better, I asked him, if Americans were more praiseworthy of the valedictorian than the star quarterback? “If I ever had children, I’d want to stress a balance between the two--go out for a team but also do well in school,” he said.

“It’s been our history that we don’t give much attention to education. A person who didn’t make it past high school but who’s a millionaire now will get more praise than someone who has a 4.0 and is going to Stanford and is going to be a doctor. I don’t know if there’s something wrong with that. What you’re basically saying is that it’s socially acceptable not to get through high school, take a risk and make a million dollars. But they don’t talk about the other people who didn’t make a million dollars. The emphasis there is in beating the system. People see education as a system. It isn’t.”

As an oldster, I always feel better about the future of the country talking to teen-agers like Villahermosa. The son of Arnie and Lita Villahermosa, Randy, 17, commutes to Garden Grove from the family home in Corona and plans to stay in California for college.

Villahermosa, who advanced beyond 1,400 other high schoolers across America in the Westinghouse contest, said he was satisfied with the attention he got. He said he wouldn’t have wanted an all-school assembly on his behalf.

Modestly stated, but it would be nice if this were the kind of country where a high school would make an annual event out of trotting out its top 20 scholars for the year and have the principal say to an all-school assembly:

“May we have a drum roll, please?”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.