> Hail,
>
> > Congratulations, what ever a Valedictorian may be!
>
> Yep,basically same here : Congrats, but I dare raise the same question : what is a Valedictorian ? I thought I'd be clever and read all other posts to sortof obtain a clue, but to no avail :)
>
> I detect a hint of "dictator" or "dictate" in the word, but dictating what ? A "vale" is a "valley", right ? Hmmm ... Valley Dictorian ... Valley Dict(at)or ian ... sorry, i know this sounds just about as wrong as you can be :-)

I have decided to answer this, but the answer will be kind of vague, since the role of valedictorian varies a bit from place to place.

At my high school, the valedictorian was simply the student with the highest average in their final year of high school. Being valedictorian involved giving a speech at the graduation ceremony and getting a couple of extra scholarships, plus some neat awards which did not involve money.

I have heard of other high schools where the valedictorian was elected by the graduating class. I suspect that there are some limits on who can be elected, as the term "valedictorian" usually implies some sort of academic achievement, and often, the most popular (and thus most likely to be elected) student is not exactly a high academic achiever.

Those are the two definitions I have seen. I'm curious to see/hear what other people have experienced for methods of valedictory selection.

Don Monkey