They're all above average

Faithful readers recall Ned's penchant for the Henrys. Today, Ned would like to take as his text (since it is a Sunday) a quote from henry IV, Part One, perhaps the best of all. For plot, comedy, character, melodramatic effect, there's none to compare.
Henry is berating Prince Hal for being too much in the common eye, and likens Hal to Richard II. He says,
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackneyed in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company,
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But, like a comet, I was wond'red at;
That men would tell their children, 'This is he!'

What we have in this country is a surfeit of narcissistic exceptionalism: everybody is a star. Everyone deserves their few minutes of fame? Why? Because we, being Americans, are "special." Everyone is to be wondered at. A corollary: everyone who "tries" should get a prize. But by setting the bar so low, we prostitute renown, and corrupt accomplishment.
Today's NYT features an article on the proliferation of valedictorians at the nation's "elite" (read, well-budgeted) mainly suburban (meaning mainly white) high schools. Some high schools graduate as many as 30 "valedictorians." Now, a valedictorian is supposed to the the ONE person with the highest grades in her or his graduating class. But due to the dumbing-down of the nation's educational experience, we now have too many "top students" to be able to choose the single best. Thus, everyone's a star.
This at a time when 30% of high schoolers never graduate at all.
How did we get here? Grade inflation has been a factor of American educational life for at least three decades. Research has shown that the average college GPA has increased by about 0.1 point per decade since the late '60s. Ned is no sociologist so wouldn't venture to suggest a reason. But it does direly suggest why mental illness and antisocial behavior are on the rise. Children who are told their entire lives that they are "special" and "unique" and who are given prizes for showing up and "trying" will have a hard time acclimatizing themselves to a job market where everyone isn't number one.
One of the comments made by a "valedictorian" perhaps encapsulates the problem. The student says, "..It is a testament to how hard we've tried."
In Ned's former life as a hated college professor, he had many students tell him, after receiving a grievous grade on a paper of test, how "hard they tried" or how many "hours they studied" only to be "given" a poor grade.
Ned admonishes todays students, administrators and educators to emulate Yoda: "Do or do not. There is no try."