of medals and graduation exercises

Exactly three months ago today, I spoke before the graduates of the National Science High School. Until now I refuse to believe that their choosing me as commencement speaker had something to do with the fact that I wrote the piece and trained their student who won first place in the quinquennial National Oratorical Contest sponsored by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. (Theme: “Modernizing Fishery and Agriculture through Quality Statistics”)

But this is not about the contest that as trainer made me 15 thou++ richer in prize money, nor is this about my speech which was shorter than the “Introduction of the Guest Speaker.” This is about medals and graduation exercises.

On my way to school as a kid in the 70s, I always slowed down every time I passed by the medium-sized, 2-storey House of the Baldemors. I remember it had a window in the second floor that opened wide to the street, revealing a wall that heaved from frames crammed with medals of the Baldemor kids who were either valedictorians or salutatorians.

The House of the Baldemors emboldened me to aspire for bigger things. During my time, medals were badges of honor as only the valedictorian, the salutatorian and the first honorable mention received them; us lesser mortals got mere ribbons. Thus I was aghast to see that over two-thirds of the Science High graduates got themselves medals for this and that! Don'g get me wrong: Of course I understand that it was their way of rewarding students, but these awards have to be carefully thought of because they could dilute the medal's importance or its sanctity even. I mean, how could one fully appreciate his/her medal when almost everybody has one, earned either as “band majorette of the year,” or as “number one solicitor of the year.” There was even an award for “general services.” Please don’t ask me what that meant.

Some awards were redundant. Take the student I trained: For the same event, she got five, count ‘em, five medals: one each for the intra-school, inter-school, provincial, regional and national competitions! The valedictorian received so many awards that all her family members, including a cousin who was just starting to walk, had to mount the stage nine times. By the time the last medal was awarded, the valedictorian was already drooping from the combined weight of the medals that I imagined her smelling of Efficacent to soothe an aching neck as she welcomed her guests during her “blow-out” that evening.

This award system, which obviously panders to parents and students, has to be evaluated because aside from trivializing the awards that really matter, it eats up a lot of time.

I waited for three hours just to deliver a 10-minute speech.