This is one of those times where you have to encourage your kid to miss out on the honor of appearing to be the best student by having her gain real knowledge and experience instead. In my opinion, it is better to have a real education and no award, than an award and a half-arsed education to go with it.
ITA with you Frog. The thing we wrestle with here is that ds' school program mantra is all about "getting into the *best* college", and GPA is stressed by his counselor, as well as by a lot of parents so there are a lot of students hyper-focused on it. DS' counselor has gone so far as to point out that if you opt to add high school courses taken in middle school to your transcript you might "accidentally" lower your cumulative GPA by adding in additional classes with non-weighted As and the same can happen by taking additional classes during high school which aren't weighted.
The only classes which are weighted here are AP courses - honors courses, gifted courses, accelerated courses, dual credit college courses etc are not weighted.
I find the emphasis on class standing and GPA very frustrating - and I'm not a student!
polarbear
