As a late generation Boomer, my education milestones were measured the old-fashioned way. You went through kindergarten and twelve years of elementary school and high school, and then you received a diploma. Afterwards, you went to college and received a two- or four-year degree, so depending on when you stopped your secondary education, you received one or two more diplomas.
Today children graduate pre-school, Kindergarten, elementary school, possibly middle school, high school, and finally college.
The youngsters under the age of five or six have no real idea what is going on. The pomp and circumstance mostly satisfies the adults, who aim their cameras and cell phones at the little darlings with pride. The kids are going to all-day schooling at last, but the relieved parents don’t get any reward for their hard work.
I’m not certain who invented the concept of middle school, but it seems to be a variety of purgatory meant to show the sixth through eighth graders that they are not young children anymore, but neither are they full-fledged teenagers. My school system adapted a middle school well after I had left. Apparently, they have a full ritual introducing the incoming ninth graders to the rest of the building when they are ready to leave the middle school behind. How do the fifth and ninth grade students perceive these transitional folks? Are they in a–dare I say it–class of their own? Are they the subject of awe or disdain?
I remember our junior high school choir visited my old elementary school for an event of some kind, and when we walked through the doors leading to the auditorium, I felt like a giant entering Lilliput. When did the hallways, chairs and common room shrink? Or maybe when did I sprout so tall? The walls closed around me as if to say I should not have returned, that I no longer belonged.
Graduation means more than just a commencement and diploma. In each phase of our younger lives, we are transitioning from one incarnation into a new one. We may not look the same in one 24-hour period. Or act the same. We are constantly entering a new room with new people and learning different things about the world and about ourselves. So, is it vital to offer a ceremony for each of those milestones? Are we overindulging the reward over the patience needed to earn it?
I waited thirteen years to get my high school diploma (counting kindergarten). I got the cap and gown and “Pomp and Circumstance” and a baccalaureate just one time. After the hoopla was over and I went home with my family, the next day I started a job and have been working ever since. I did complete my bachelor’s degree but didn’t attend commencement except online. The diploma came in the mail.
So much for tradition.
Susan's Scribblings the Blog 