What's the Big Deal about Graduation
We just had our local high school graduation this weekend, with the first round of open houses as well. Since my own graduation, this entire system has baffled me.
Why do we make such a big deal about kids graduating from high school?
For none of the graduates we celebrated with was it a suprise. In fact, most graduated with honors. In 4-5 years they will be graduating from college. At that point, we'll say congrats (if we bump into them) and they'll be expected to be in at work by 9am the Monday after graduation. Does anyone else find this odd?
However, this year I got the difference. As I watched the graduates I knew cross the stage, I realized the entire celebration has nothing to do with the diploma (Does anyone even know where their diploma is anymore? Is it not the most over rated piece of paper of all time? Will my children just receive a confirmation of the completion of high school via an email in 18 years?)
Graduation is America's attempt to acknowledge the transition from boy/girl to man/woman. I watched them walk across the stage as an adult. Moving the tassel doesn't mean liberation from high school, but rather an acknowledgement that these students have arrived into adulthood. It obviously doesn't happen in the ceremony, they became adults somewhere along the way, but it's really our first big chance as a society to admit it.
Congrats to the class of 2005! As I consider the students I know from the class, I'm delighted to think of the men/women you have become. Continue to grow! Take I Timothy 4:12 to heart. And pursue God with all your heart.
Why do we make such a big deal about kids graduating from high school?
For none of the graduates we celebrated with was it a suprise. In fact, most graduated with honors. In 4-5 years they will be graduating from college. At that point, we'll say congrats (if we bump into them) and they'll be expected to be in at work by 9am the Monday after graduation. Does anyone else find this odd?
However, this year I got the difference. As I watched the graduates I knew cross the stage, I realized the entire celebration has nothing to do with the diploma (Does anyone even know where their diploma is anymore? Is it not the most over rated piece of paper of all time? Will my children just receive a confirmation of the completion of high school via an email in 18 years?)
Graduation is America's attempt to acknowledge the transition from boy/girl to man/woman. I watched them walk across the stage as an adult. Moving the tassel doesn't mean liberation from high school, but rather an acknowledgement that these students have arrived into adulthood. It obviously doesn't happen in the ceremony, they became adults somewhere along the way, but it's really our first big chance as a society to admit it.
Congrats to the class of 2005! As I consider the students I know from the class, I'm delighted to think of the men/women you have become. Continue to grow! Take I Timothy 4:12 to heart. And pursue God with all your heart.
posted by danny2 @ 10:57 AM
3 Comments:
At 1:14 PM,
Jeremy Bear said…
I like graduations. Not just the coming-of-age, gateway-into-adulthood aspect of it, but the fact that it's the acknowledgement that something very long, very important and very difficult has been completed.
I live in an economically depressed neighborhood, where I'm surrounded by people without an education. People who succumbed to gang influences, drugs and horrific family situations. For them, high school is a near-impossible feat. The ones that make it are often the first in their family to do so. It's a big deal because high school is hard. And that's good. It really should be hard.
In the play You Can't Take It With You, Martin Vanderhof is a cheerful old fellow whose favorite pasttime is attending commencement ceremonies. He likes the speeches, the optimism, the idea that people with an education will be in charge after he's dead and gone.
I can relate to that.
At 3:02 PM,
Anonymous said…
aww thanks danny ya big lug :)
you know we couldn't have done it without your guidance and whatnot.
At 8:37 PM,
Gary Underwood said…
Good points dew. Graduation is an acknowledgement of "arrival." Jer has some good points too. I think it's easy in middle-class America to forget what a big deal high school graduation really is.
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