What is your opinion on fake (for lack of a better word) graduation ceremonies?

I think it’s over-the-top… just as I do for all the hoopla given for any social milestone. Professional photo shoots for 1-month olds, or engagements? Why? Sweet sixteen parties that are as lavish as weddings, what’s the point? What are people trying to prove, and to whom?

I find them kind of silly and certainly don’t see a need for a big celebration or lots of gifts. If anything, maybe a family luncheon or barbecue.

Maybe the trend is intended in part to compensate for our lack of shared cultural rites of passage in a pluralistic society. We have so many fake ceremonies like this in our early years, yet it’s almost expected that 20 year olds won’t know whether they are adults yet.

I remember going through such ceremonies myself, and that my parents did not take them very seriously.

Graduating from 6th grade? Ugh, beginning middle school is nothing to celebrate…

I think graduations and ceremonies of that sort are a massive waste of time in general. I didn’t walk when I graduated high school and if it weren’t for my family pretty much demanding I walk when I graduate college, I probably wouldn’t go to that ceremony either.

Tom Wolfe nailed the reason for this in his most excellent Bonfire of the Vanities years ago.

Without giving away much of the plot (because if you haven’t read it it’s very much worth reading, if only for “Kindly behoove me no ill behooves!” from the judge), here’s a paraphrase of what he said:

In some inner cities the graduation rate from high school is so low – and the attrition rate on the street for kids to even reach that age is so high – that some parents may never get to see their child in a high school graduation photo. So they take every opportunity to photograph kids in a cap and gown: Nursery school; Kindergarten; Primary School; Junior High, and so forth.

If you want to see one “fake” high school graduation, watch last week’s finale of Showtime’s outstanding TV series, “The Big C.” Just be sure to have a hanky handy.

I am regularly outraged by these farces.
Instead of blowing sugar up their arses, they should be accurately told how much time they wasted in preschool/primary school without accomplishing anything of value, how worthless their lives have been so far, consuming valuable resources without producing anything of worth, and if the country were at war with the Nazis, they would be effectively fighting on the side of Hitler by consuming those resources, that could otherwise be used to feed and clothe the soldiers in the trenches.

I detest these faux graduations.

I don’t like any graduation ceremony – preschool, 6th grade, high school, college, etc. I think they’re generally boring, pointless, and a waste of time. I don’t intend on going to my college graduation in December. I’d rather go to dinner to celebrate and skip all the agonizingly boring speeches and sitting for hours waiting for my name to be called.

The idea of little ones “graduating” is cutesy, I guess, but it’s over-the-top for sure.

Well, I have to agree with the rest, they drive me crazy BUT as a child, I graduated from my private kindergarten with cap and gown and that picture is the cutest thing ever, I was so proud.

So from an adults pov yes they’re silly, but from a child’s pov, it’s acknowledgement of an accomplishment, which could lead them to more interest in school and achievement. :)

Meh. Any reason for a party, really.

I remember fifth grade graduation well. I had a solo sign-language-to-music performance. My mom showed up late and missed it. Also, I got an attaboy certificate of some kind signed by then-President Bill Clinton. That was pretty cool.

I agree that the ceremonies may be over-the-top in perspective. However, as @KNOWITALL says, the experience form the child’s point of view is different. While at my middle school “graduation” several years ago, even then I realized how it was being blown out of proportion. But trust me, it does feel very good to be up on stage in front of half the school while receiving X number of awards for various things.

If the children are old enough to understand the significance, it makes them feel proud of their accomplishments. Our school does a sixth grade graduation, to celebrate the children maturing, preparing for bigger responsibilities, and leaving their elementary days behind them. After the ceremony, the kids walk the school’s hallways for the last time, while the younger classes stands there, clapping and cheering them on. It’s a very emotional, sweet day.

Plus, they receive school awards for things like perfect attendance and honor roll, and a personal award which they receive from fellow classmates, for their best personality trait. The classmates all vote for their fellow students to receive special recognition for outstanding kindness, generosity, sense of humor, etc… You should see their faces light up when they find out what their class has said about them.

Personally, I’m looking forward to the ceremony in two weeks. I don’t view it as being fake or pointless, in the least.

I dislike and have never participated.

I’m graduating high school in a few days and I think these ceremonies are over-the-top. It’s so specific and done with routine, down to the placement of the tassel on your cap. I guess I can go along with it, but I don’t quite understand it. I don’t do well with “routinely” things such as graduations because I’m bad at understanding the flow and tend to be a space shot. Oh well. I guess I’ll appreciate it later on in life.

@WillWorkForChocolate and @PhiNotPi in my kids’ schools they have honors nights to award the students with outstanding achievements. My son got his 15 seconds of recognition without a graduation ceremony.

@CWOTUS, both of these kids go to schools in well off districts n solidly middle class and upper middle class neighborhoods. …and The Bonfire of the Vanities is my most loathed book ever.

One graduates from pre-school, nursery school, middle school, high school and college.

You know, none of the schools I’ve ever attended did graduation, except for high school and college. It’s strange to think that so many elementary and preschools are doing this and I was unaware of it until recently. It wasn’t long ago I was in elementary school, and the only thing we got for getting through it was…getting through it.

My grandson is graduating from Kindergarten next month and I’m really sorry I will be out of town at the time.

I love recognition ceremonies of every kind. He is in an advanced learning school and has worked very hard all year long. He deserves this.

I never liked them. I felt as though they were embarrassing and a waste of my time. I’ve only had a 6th and high school graduation. The 6th grade graduation was incredibly corny. My mom forced me go to my high school graduation. It was long and boring and very hot and humid. I also ruined all my pictures by scowling the whole time. I was hoping to upset my mother with that, but she just found it hilarious..

My class song was also incredibly corny and embarrassing..

I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t so incredibly drawn out and corny..

I really worry about this trend to make children proud of themselves even while failing in schools. Pre-school graduations are a total waste of time and resources. I would rather use the money to send the kid on a field trip to the zoo or planetarium.

The kids don’t care for the cap and gown, they’re just bored. The ceremony use is to raise the adult’s self-esteem, not the children. My girlfriend ditched high school graduation as soon as possible. We had sex while the “good kids” were baking in the sun, waiting for their name to be called.

I guess that it gives the students something to shoot for in life and allows them to feel
the success?

Like a few other people, I think even the “regular” ones (high school, college, etc.) are more dreck than anything. As a matter of fact, had I chosen to do so, I would be walking as the first uni graduate in my family this very weekend. People have been guilt-tripping me since I first asserted that I wasn’t planning to do it, the most recent episode being during lunch today. Why the hell should I walk? The college already has more than enough of my money (think gown rental, “graduation packages”, etc. etc.). I have a grand total of two family members (SO and brother) and they both live with me, so it’s not like my graduation is news to them. (My diploma is already happily socked away along with other documents.) There were a few little parties back in December when I finished—intimate and fun, the way I like them. So someone please explain to me why I would WANT to go stagger around a football field in the sun in a black gown, surrounded by overly-excited, over-privileged children and their smarmy families? Hell, I just can’t wait for them all to piss off so I can have my town back for a few months!

@peridot I completely understand and agree with your statement. GA!

@SuperMouse ”…and The Bonfire of the Vanities is my most loathed book ever.”

Thank you! I felt exactly the same way.

Crap!! I have to go to a grandsons’ Kindergarten graduation this evening. And a nieces HS grad tomorrow evening (ok this one is legit., but still boring as hell).

YAY, I was able to change my flight to leave the evening after his Kindergarten graduation so I get to go. The school is having a picnic/graduation so it should be an enjoyable experience.

I just returned from my grandson’s graduation, and believe me, there is nothing fake about it. Those little guys were ecstatic about moving up from Kindergarten to First Grade. They were proud of their achievements, just as they should be.

As adults, some of us might have developed the attitude – been there, done that – but to these kids, it is a big step in their lives.