HooRAHHH! Here is your Diploma...NOT!
Picture Courtesy of Galesburg High School web site
No matter how proud you are of your son or daughter for making it all the way to finally getting that diploma there is always just one more road block. Remember those two finger claps of years gone by while you attended school? Anything louder than that during your high school graduation ceremony and they pull your diploma in Galesburg, IL!
I could not make this up if I wanted too but the New York Times has this to say about it...
Diplomas Denied Over Graduation Cheers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 3, 2007
GALESBURG, Ill., June 2 — A high school that had warned against undignified behavior at its graduation ceremony denied diplomas to five students after enthusiastic friends or family members cheered for them during the commencement program.
On May 27, Galesburg High School students and their parents were asked to sign a contract promising to act in dignified way. Violators were warned they could be denied their diplomas and barred from an after-graduation party.
Many schools ask spectators to hold applause and cheers until the ceremonies end but few rigidly enforce the policy.
“It was like one of the worst days of my life,” said Caisha Gayles, one of the five students, who officially graduated, but does not have her diploma to frame and hang on her wall. “You walk across the stage and then you can’t get your diploma because of other people cheering for you. It was devastating.”
The school said the five students can still get their diplomas by completing eight hours of public service, answering phones, sorting books or doing other work for the district.
School officials in Galesburg, a city of 34,000 in northwestern Illinois, said the policy was adopted after hoots, hollers and even air horns drowned out much of the ceremony in 2005 and nearly touched off fights in the audience when the unruly were asked to quiet down. - New York Times
Contrary to popular belief, not all kids have a “Disney Channel Sitcom” educational experience. Yes, some children have a very hard time and for the ones that stick it through with those D grades it makes their friends and family damn proud.
If “Buffy and Biff” who sailed through with straight A’s parents want to do the two finger clap then you go right the hell ahead. If my kid struggled all along but stuck with it then I will cheer loud and proud! My kid just completed the toughest event of their young life and getting that High School Diploma is something to be very thankful for. If this were a sporting event then my child just made the first cut and made the team.
Who the hell is that anal among parents that doesn’t see the trees for the forest? Who amongst educators does not get the happiness of this lifetime achievement? Getting that diploma is the true beginning from childhood to being a functioning adult.
Would it hurt the ceremony to pause a damn minute or two to give each of the kids the encouragement they deserve from their families and friends while accepting the award of twelve years or more of continued determination to learn and make the grade. In a society that constantly bitches about kids dropping out, these folks are screwing them over just one last time simply because they hold the piece of paper that states to our society that you made the cut.
How is the kid getting the diploma responsible for this? Well, if you think about it they are. Yup, if gramps or grams with all the arthritis and bad hips gets to excited then pull that kids diploma. Mom or Dad that worked several jobs to pay for tutors and saved for college and a better future should be silent. Parents are to be seen and not heard from.
NOT!
We are just going to put this one in the idiot box and forward it to every blog we can think of. Life is hard enough for our young adults and then you get this educational Nazi idiocy movement. I refuse to “Achtung Mine Furor” on this one.
Some people are just idiots (Terminology changed due to younger readers) because they have a position that lets them be that way. Give you a clue, there are bigger idiots (Terminology changed due to younger readers) like me that care and City Councilors that care even more. Especially, when nice folks that are not idiots (Terminolgy...you know the drill) reading and idiot blog like mine simply email the real folks in charge to complain and demand justice… Hint, hint, hint…
If this post inspired you or ticked you off, please forward this post to someone else that is an idiot...
Papamoka
GALESBURG, Illinois official municipal site... hint, hint, hint...
UPDATE: The school has given the kids their diplomas.
Cross posted at Bring It ON!
Labels: Berkley, Boston College, Cap and Gown, Ceremony, College Bound, Education, Educational Dictators, Graduation, Harvard, NYU, Principals, Spelling Bee, Superintendent, UCLA, UMASS, Virginia Tech, Yale
posted by Papamoka at
9:57 PM
3 Comments:
Hmmmm, how about waving a big poster instead... quiet, peaceful, non-violent, and non-interruptive. Hooting and hollering at a graduation is simply ignorant, and the real victims aren't just the ones who get cheered: think too about the ones who don't get cheered.
The ones who DON'T get cheers, how are those students to feel? The ones whose parents didn't bother to come. The ones who don't know who one of their parents is. The one whose father's in jail, or mother's in rehab... The quiet kids, who plug away, who don't make scenes, wear clown shoes, gesticulate to the crowd... The kids with dignity.
At the many graduations I've been to through the years, I'm reminded.... would you hoot and holler to embarrass your child at a band concert? (Yo, Jenna! You blow that flute!) How about during the senior play? (You kill'em Jane, you wife of Macbeth!) During a science fair? (Hypothesis Jones! Oh yeah!) Would you come in during your child's senior English class and hoot and holler when they turn in a term paper? (Way to conjugate, Derek!) Do you come in during the prom, and hoot and holler when they dance with a date? (Woo hoo Clarence! You get some!)
You actually think the school administrators are the "idiots"?
They're just uncreative. They should have stopped the ceremony if an egregious exultation erupted, and let the senior class president, or valedictorian, or a parent stop and give a short lecture, reminding attendees that the celebration occurs at the END of the graduation exercise.
My kid's school has it right- encourage all the graduating students to clap for each other, for every name called, and allow family and friends to clap and cheer too. It should be a joyous, proud occasion. The school officials sitting on those diplomas are acting like preschoolers. Thanks for sharing the link to the city site.
Thanks for the comments all...
I have to agree with Chell that this is indeed a joyous occasion and it should be day full of great and noisy cheers for all.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home