Surprisingly, it was the students in that upper range complaining about privacy issues. Seriously? I would think that if you had a 4.0 GPA, it would be something to be proud of and you would want the whole world to know. But really, it was the issue of being compared to their peers, being placed below others on the list that bothered people. If just that person’s GPA was posted by itself, showing its perfection off to the world, JOHN SMITH: 4.0, I don’t think that this person would be as upset. It’s the constant competition with others that makes the system of class rank a bad idea for a high school environment. 

According to College Board, some schools have done away with the class rank system because “they feel it penalizes many excellent students who are squeezed out of the top 10 percent of the class and then overlooked by elite schools.” Realistically, one person  could get one failing grade on a test, have a lower GPA in that course, and possibly be edged out of the top ten in their class, almost completely losing their chances of getting into their dream school. High school is supposed to challenge you, test you, and inspire you. It should not emotionally destroy you. So if you’re ranked at the bottom, what has high school done for you? If you’re not learning for yourself, but to beat someone else, it defeats the purpose of learning in the first place.