Your unpopular opinions and creepy admissions

I speak at a grade school promotion ceremony every year, to give out track and field medals to the kids in my program. It’s a blast. It lets the kids take an hour out of their lives to feel recognized and enjoy the good things about getting older.

I always err on the side of recognition for success, even for something as trivial as finishing preschool. It takes less than an hour.

I can’t imagine anyone having a problem with that.

 

I don't have a problem with a promotion, that's what it is. But it's not a graduation and doesn't deserve the same pomp and circumstances.

 

Most of our culture doesn’t have mitzvahs or quinceaneras, so high school graduation tends to double as a celebration marking the transition to adulthood.

 

High school graduations are a big deal in the weeks leading up to it and the ceremony itself. The human brain requires some sort of formal transition, I think. If you don't walk in graduation, you are still a graduate. Heck, when you walk across the stage and have your name read, you are given an empty diploma cover. And yes, they are probably more for mom and granny than they are junior.
I say all that with the authority of someone who has organized and conducted more of them than I can remember.
Now if it's still a big deal more than about 48 hours after it ends, well, it's not.

 

Eh. I’m in favor of more recognition for kids, not less.

And not in an “Everyone gets a trophy!” way. More like we know it’s a big deal to them, and we act accordingly.

Graduating preschool was a big deal to my kids. I don’t see the harm in indulging them for an hour or two.

 

My school gave us our actual diplomas. It is a major milestone in life. A time for families to come together. Graduations, weddings and funerals. Not a small thing. The ceremony itself? Meh. I don't get the pre-school and kindergarten graduation things with the gowns though.

 

Schools give actual diplomas. They just aren't in the diploma case the student receives. If they were in there, and one person got out of order, it would be a nightmare to sort out. The kids report to tables immediately upon exiting the ceremony to get their diplomas and clear any obligations if they have them (money owed to the school). I'm reasonably sure that's the same way when I got my masters. Didn't walk for bachelors, and sure as heck don't remember high school.

 

When I graduated high school, one of the local banks sponsored and gave out wallet sized replicas of your diploma. I bet I carried that think in my pocket for 5-6 thinking I'd need it. I do still have it, though.

 

I remember sitting in the bleachers at my junior high graduation and one of my classmates cracked, "the next time we do this it's in caps and gowns."

At my last stop, a rare (for the area) thunderstorm broke out on graduation night. Not a big deal to me since I'd been through some monsoons in Arizona. How windy was it? A large tractor tire on display at a garage across the street from our office blew into our parking lot. I rolled it back. The ceremony was canceled about halfway through. Well, you would have thought the world was coming to an end from the calls and emails from parents mad because they didn't see little Beau or Brianna cross the stage! The school held a do-over so parents could get the pictures.

 

In my town they're called promotion ceremonies, until you get to HS, then you graduate. From what I understand, the ceremonies help to instill in the kids the importance of staying in school. Hartford had a big graduation, or lack of high school graduates some years ago, so I think there is a push to encourage kids wherever you can.

 

My son was a pretty good photographer when in high school and would occasionally take photos for the newspaper where I worked. When he graduated from high school in 2016, we still shot photos at every graduation in our circulation area.

I got a call from the photo editor the morning of his ceremony telling me the assigned photographer called in sick and could little MTM shoot it. I said he’s graduating so I was asked if I could shoot it.

I missed enough of his events covering other kids and explained that I just wanted to be Dad.

We compromised and I got there early and got some shots then sat in the stands with my then wife and her parents. After they read his name and he walked across stage, I went down and took more photos.

Our name is later in the alphabet, but my son was among the top scholars in his class so his was one of the first names read.