Graduation

I witnessed the graduation of the Class of '05 at Forest Hills Northern tonight. Personally I found the graduation to be a little out of control. The number of graduates was immense and I have no doubts that the number of students who did not graduate, if any, was tiny. I do not agree with this. Students need a clearer picture of what to do with their future. Should a students go to college or enter the workforce out of high school. Seems to me that schools are pushing a college education on everyone and the truth is that a college education is not the right answer for every student. Some would be better off not wasting the immense costs of college these days and should instead focus on a career.
One possible way to give students a clearer picture of what to do with their future is a by changing the way the GPA works these days. From my understanding, a GPA is a way for students to judge their performance against other students. How is this possible if numerous students achieve a GPA of 4.0 or better. The only reason some of these students are higher than others is because they had taken more AP credits. What kind of message does this give these students? I'll tell you what it tells them:

1. You are on the same intellectual level as the other 4.0 or better students, and
   
2. There is no need to put forth more effort than what is needed to achieve a 4.0

I propose that the GPA scale be changed so that the top student in the class has below a 4.0 and the average is moved back to a 2.0 where it should be. This would be done by an increased difficulty added to the classes in schools. By adding difficulty, students with 2.0s will still receive the same education as before but the students with a 4.0 have room to increase their knowledge. Also, classes will have caps on the GPA given. A remedial math class may have a cap of a 3.0. By instituting these caps, students are no longer awarded the same for doing well in a remedial class as an upper level calculus course. By instituting these proposals, students will have a true class rank and it will be based on intelligence and effort.
I believe if measures such as this were introduced into public education students would receive a much greater education than they are receiving currently and they will be taught how to give forth a greater effort in their individual skills. These are just some ideas that stir off the top of my head, but this is definitely an issue that I believe needs to be covered eventually, but until they abolish the current funding by performance practices, these issues will never be touched.