Not too many years ago, Lawrence public school officials visited with Journal-World representatives and urged the newspaper not to publish the names of students on the school’s honor roll. The argument was that such a listing would hurt the feelings of those who did not make the honor roll.

In the past several weeks, the Journal-World has printed the names of Lawrence High School and Free State High School students who have achieved “honor roll” status. The honorees number in the many hundreds — a number so high as to cause some readers to wonder who didn’t make the honor roll.

It’s either a case of a tremendously increased number of students doing superior work or requirements to achieve honor status being greatly relaxed. Or maybe school officials are trying to please many more students and parents and make fewer students — or their parents — feel bad.

One hopes it’s a case of more local high school students doing excellent work in their classes. If that’s the case, it reflects well on both the students and their teachers, who play an integral role in stimulating and encouraging students to learn and enjoy academic success.