Along the same lines, while I was chair and trustee for the Halton Catholic District school board each school was to select one staff person to recognize each year.  Within a couple of years each school selected the caretaker because it had been decided by teachers (as instructed by their unions) to not recognize any one teacher over any other.  This type of thinking is yet one more example of our rush towards mediocrity.  

Likewise, when the school board was asked to recognize one of its high school students who had won international awards for developing a program to help autistic children communicate, it was commented by several trustees that it would not be appropriate to recognize this one student because "we have so many good students".  My response:  Yes, that's true, so let's start with this one !

We need to think, would that kind of thinking have put a man on the moon?  Or perhaps more importantly, will that kind of thinking find a cure for cancer or address world hunger?