Why medals are not enough

By Herman M. Lagon

Every graduation has its rituals. Mothers adjust collars with nervous hands. Fathers clear their throats more than usual. Students grin for photos while quietly wondering what comes after the applause. Then come the honors—medals, ribbons, and Latin words that sound grand during graduation. In many of our homes, they carry the story of sacrifice: careful budgeting, sleepless review nights, borrowed uniforms, and parents quietly setting aside their own dreams.

But it is worth saying this plainly: honors deserve celebration, yet they have never guaranteed career success. We often believe they do because we like clear narratives about effort and reward. In real workplaces, the picture is more complex. Many capable professionals were not the most decorated graduates. Some studies in on honors note that leadership positions are not always filled by top-ranked students (Cornelio, 2023). That is not an insult to honor graduates. Many succeed brilliantly. It simply reminds us that success also depends on judgment, resilience, initiative, and the practical wisdom we call “diskarte.”

There is also a quiet truth behind many medals. Effort matters, but so do circumstances. Students with supportive homes and stable resources begin their studies differently from those juggling responsibilities or financial strain. Achievement often grows where opportunity exists. Pinoy life is used to holding both truths at once.

Then there is the problem people are too afraid to name during commencement season: honors are becoming easier to distribute in some schools. Not everywhere, not always, and not to everyone, but enough for many teachers and employers to notice. When distinctions become too common, they begin to lose their power to distinguish. That is not a swipe at students. It is a structural concern. If almost everyone in a batch is “excellent,” then the word itself starts to wobble. This is the heart of the grade inflation debate.

Scholars like Valen Johnson have long warned that persistent grade inflation can reduce the credibility of grades as signals of mastery (Johnson, 2003). Locally, many teachers have also observed how pressure from parents, institutional branding, retention goals, mental health sensitivity, and post-pandemic compassion have all changed grading culture. Compassion matters. So does honesty. The challenge is that schools sometimes want to be humane without being accused of being weak, and rigorous without being accused of being cruel. That tension is real. So is the confusion it creates.

To be fair, those questioning grade inflation are not simply being nostalgic. Some are making a practical point: standards matter. No one wants a doctor passed out of sympathy, an engineer approved for convenience, or a teacher with honors who cannot explain a lesson clearly. Some professions demand competence, and schools must defend that. The debate becomes unhelpful when it turns simplistic—when one side dismisses honors entirely and the other refuses to examine them at all. The real question is whether grades still measure learning honestly.

This question matters because many young people believe honors guarantee a better life. Parents often say, “Mag-aral ka nang mabuti para guminhawa ang buhay mo.” It is loving advice, but incomplete. Grades may open doors, yet what sustains a life are quieter virtues—humility, reliability, resilience, grit, and emotional steadiness. Clinical psychologist Ronald Del Castillo warned that visible success does not always lead to happiness (Del Castillo, 2019). Many high achievers eventually discover that praise in school cannot protect anyone from the realities of adult life.

Teachers know this in their bones. Some of the brightest students I have met were not always the most awarded. Some were too busy helping at home to polish their grades into gold. Some were awkward in class but brilliant in insight. Some panicked in tests yet shone in actual work. Some had no honors at graduation but later became steady, creative, deeply decent adults whom communities trust.

On the other hand, some award-heavy graduates moved into the world assuming that excellence meant being first, being praised, or being deferred to. Then the workplace introduced them to people who did not care about their medals and deadlines that did not ask for their feelings. That collision can be healthy if it humbles them. It can also be devastating if their identity was built entirely around academic validation. That is one reason student mental health deserves a place in this conversation too. When worth is tied too tightly to grades, every imperfect mark begins to feel like a verdict on the self.

None of this means honors are meaningless. They still matter. They matter to the student who stayed up studying by the light of a half-broken lamp. They matter to the parent who sold food, worked overtime, or delayed a medical checkup just to keep a child in school. They matter to the first-generation graduate who carried not just books but a whole family’s trembling hope. We do not have to mock honors to tell the truth about their limits. A medal can mean the student has discipline. It can mean the student learned how to follow through. It can mean the student has stamina, respect for structure, and the patience to work within systems. Those are not small things. Many careers are built on exactly those virtues. But honors should be read as one clue, not the whole biography.

As basic education graduation approaches, perhaps the best message for students is this: celebrate the honor, but do not mistake it for destiny. If you earned it, enjoy the moment. Your hard work matters, and your family’s pride is justified. Let the photos happen. Let your lola share them with pride.

But remember that life after school values habits more than titles. It will ask whether you can listen, adjust, collaborate, admit mistakes, empathize, and keep your integrity when nobody is watching. A medal can mark a moment. It cannot carry a lifetime. After the applause, what remains is character and the quiet discipline to keep growing.

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Doc H fondly describes himself as a ”student of and for life” who, like many others, aspires to a life-giving and why-driven world grounded in social justice and the pursuit of happiness. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions he is employed or connected with.