As a the wife of a rebbe of the graduating class in a prominent yeshiva and myself a long time mechaneches I’d like to respectfully tell you that the letter writer is right on the mark and the rest of you are totally off.
1. The idea of rewarding people for their IQ has 0 to do with kinas sofrim, and let’s face it that’s what most awards are for. If effort and persistance were being rewarded I’d be all for it but even then we would need to measure the effort put in relative to the student’s own ability in that regard and not someone else’s. For example a student capable of 90% effort who puts in all 90% should get the award and not the student capable of 100% effort who puts in 95%.
2. As far as students learning to live with being second fiddle, trust me, these students who are not at the top have been learning this important life lesson day in and day out for many long years (e.g. when the teacher is asking questions in the class or returning tests etc) by the time they graduate and they do not need that one last big slap of busha in the face by graduation.
3. The awards don’t serve our awardees well either. They (and their parents)are blown up into baalei gaava who think way too much of themselves.
My husbands yeshiva has done away with awards and instead chooses a few wholesome all around solid bochurim to speak.