Mark KennedyView other columns by Mark Kennedy
Back in the mid-1990s, reporters at the former Chattanooga Times huddled and decided to elevate coverage of the area's high school valedictorians.
Forever, readers had pointed out that we had a bunch of sports writers covering high school athletics, yet we gave almost no coverage to kids who showed academic prowess.
So, the newspaper began a yearly report featuring the valedictorians from area high schools, a Chattanooga newspaper tradition that continues to this day in the Times Free Press. (Look for the 2017 valedictorians list in the Life section on Sunday.)
The reporters involved in this coverage discovered early on that there are very few - if any - accidental valedictorians. Just as there were no accidental all-state linebackers.
Anymore, it takes a nearly perfect score in a series of academically rigorous classes to earn the honor. A student must line up 99s and 100s as far as the eye can see to become a valedictorian.
This is almost impossible to accomplish by just being smart. Every homework assignment, every research paper, every exam has to be executed with an eye to perfection. That means never rounding off corners, never giving in to fatigue.
We recently learned of a Hixson family that has produced two high school valedictorians in three years.
What kind of family culture produces that result, we wondered? Turns out, it's not one that's parent-driven. It's more about young people setting goals and deciding on their own to delay gratification.
Bailey Harding, 20, (Hixson High School's 2015 valedictorian) is a nursing student at Carson-Newman University, and her younger sister, Maddie, 18, is Hixson High's valedictorian this year.
Far from carbon copies of one another, Bailey is an extrovert and Maddie an introvert. But both young women, the daughters of Dana and Julie Harding, are determined goal setters. Their common denominator is sacrifice.
"There were times when I could have just taken the easy route," Maddie said. "But something inside me would say, 'I can do better. It would be a waste if I don't use my full potential.'"
There were nights when Maddie, who has attention deficit disorder, stayed up until 1 or 2 a.m. perfecting a paper or studying for a test, said her mother, Julie.
Julie said she was careful to assure Maddie she didn't have to match her older sister, Bailey's, academic success. In fact, she said she was surprised to learn from a gifted- class teacher that Maddie had set becoming valedictorian as a goal when she entered high school.
Maddie's final grade average, by the way, was an astounding 99.7, and she will be a music major at Carson- Newman next fall.
For her part, Bailey still remembers all the times that she had to put activities on hold to pursue her dream.
"Let me tell you, it wasn't easy," she said in an e-mail interview from South Africa, where she was studying abroad for a few weeks. "There were days people tried to tell me it's not worth it.
" One of the obvious sacrifices that I had to make is that I had to spend more time studying and less time hanging out with my friends. At times, it felt like some of my friends didn't understand the amount of pressure I was under to have to juggle many different responsibilities."
Bailey wants to eventually go to graduate school and become a nurse practitioner. Maddie wants to use her musical talents to become a praise leader and travel the world.
Being a high school valedictorian is a nice line on a résumé, but it's not a free ticket to anything.
On the other hand, being a proven long-term goal-setter willing to set aside short-term desires for long-term gain is the most durable skill a young person can have.
In fact, it transcends skill and shapes actual character.
And good character, over the long run, has a 100-percent success rate.
Contact staff writer Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.