Do you think that graduation ceremonies should wait until the students finish high school?

Well, sure if students spend all their lives in one school (as we did in Russia, for example) but since a kid may go to a different kindergarten from their elementary school and then to a different middle school and high school, I don’t see why they can’t mark each transition with a celebration. Besides, kids need short-term goals and short-term support – that is, they can’t really conceptualize that many many many years from now, they’ll have to graduate and then they’ll celebrate. Reminding them along the way that we support them and their education is great.

Yes! I think that graduations from pre-school, kindergarten, and grammar school are ridiculous. I am on the fence about middle school graduation ceremonies. The end of middle school is the end of elementary education and marks a transition into secondary education. There is at least some reason to celebrate that milestone. If my 8th grader had a graduation ceremony every step of his education, he would have experienced no fewer than four so far, no matter how one looks at it, that is overkill.

I don’t mind them. I don’t think anyone celebrates them in the way they do a high school graduation. I think it’s nice to say “you’ve accomplished something, congratulations and good luck on the next step in the journey”

I think it’s nice for kids and their families to have some form of celebration if they are moving on to a new school. It’s a chance to say goodbye to friends and look forward to the next school. I still have the Timex watch my parents gave me when I graduated from elementary school. (It still works after 45+ years.)

As a side benefit, the ceremony acts as training for later in life when you need to dress and act appropriately at a structured, public event.

Quite a few of the kids love it. I don’t see any harm in it. Life can always use another celebration as far as I’m concerned.

Yes I think they should just save it for the end of schooling. It’s not like your life changes because you go to first grade or ninth grade. I really don’t see the point. My elementary graduation was like a candy wonderland! lol All of the kids were angry at the teachers it was so funny.
It’s also very annoying to set up.

My kids went to a middle school where everyone had been with the same kids for 9 years and upon graduation, they would all be separating out into high schools all over the place. So I think a graduation there is appropriate. It recognizes the role the school has played in their lives. For many of these students, the friends they made here will last the rest of their lives. The school gave them a foundation that will serve them well no matter what happens next.

On the other hand, my middle school was really not different from the high school. They shared buildings and ninth graders took classes with upper class members. There was only one high school to go onto, so everyone was still with the same people. In that situation, a jr high graduation means nothing and is pointless.

I think that graduation ceremonies are a recognition of the community as much as of the individual kids. More so, the younger the kids are. So a kindergarten graduation is purely about the community, and I’m in favor or having rituals that bring together the community and give people an excuse to eat food together.

As for individual recognition—frankly, I think nothing less than a PhD is worth recognizing. I thought my high school diploma and college diploma’s were pretty meaningless. I really don’t even think a master’s degree is special. But a PhD, I think, is special. It is not something, incidentally, that I have. But I would feel pride if I earned one.

Given that, I think that graduations serve primarily to help bring communities together and give people a shared sense of purpose and accomplishment. Individual honors don’t seem to me to be important. Indeed, I think they take away from the focus of the moment.

Every special occasion is a great reason for a ceremony. Having ceremonies for changes in life is very common, from the yearly birthday/anniversary to moving up in life in school at every level. It does not diminish the High School graduation in any way.

Keep in mind that the school ceremonies act as encouragement to continue the good work all the way through. (Plus, some kids won’t make it that far).