Earlier this week we attended the high-school graduation of one of our grandsons. (Summa cum laude!) Recently I read a joke somewhere to the effect that speakers at a graduation resemble the corpse at a wake -- they have to be there, but you don't expect them to do much. Actually, the talks at this ceremony were short, pithy, and uplifting. One student speaker applied Disney's TANGLED as a metaphor for the end of high school. School was like Rapunzel's tower sheltering them from the "big, scary outside world," and now they're ready to chase their dreams and "follow the lanterns." Brevity of speeches was probably encouraged because that venue hosts something like fourteen county school graduations in one week. As described in an article in our local paper, the staff apparently cycles the proceedings through with the speed and efficiency of June weddings at the Naval Academy chapel.
I was shocked to learn, upon first reading the Harry Potter series, that British secondary schools don't have graduation ceremonies. The students just finish their courses and leave. Academic qualifications are earned by performance on standardized tests administered externally, not by the schools -- the inspiration for OWLs and NEWTs in Rowling's series. As explained by British people posting online, the rationale for not holding a graduation is that their high-school-equivalents don't award diplomas/degrees. Degrees, and therefore graduation rituals, occur only at the university level.
Apparently different countries follow a wide range of customs. A Wikipedia page with examples:
Graduation by CountryNot too surprisingly, Japan seems to have even more elaborate ceremonies than the U.S.
Homeschooled students in the U.S. can join in group rituals or organize private celebrations as simple or elaborate as they choose.
I'm reminded of Isaac Asimov's classic story "The Fun They Had," set in a distant future when schools don't exist. In this society, students get individualized computer instruction from AI "teachers." Here Asimov anticipates not only distance learning but also e-books. The two children in the story find hard-copy books, as opposed to an electronic device that can hold hundreds of texts, as strange as the idea of human teachers. The kids envy children in the olden days for gathering with their friends instead of slogging alone at a computer terminal. Most comments I've read on this story seem to assume it's an unironic exercise in futuristic nostalgia. In fact, Asimov didn't enjoy public school and probably would have welcomed a system like the one in the tale. Anyway, we must assume students in this future world don't have graduation ceremonies at all, not even similar to those of contemporary homeschoolers, since they don't have even a vestigial concept of "school" as a group activity.
When we establish colonies on the Moon or other planets, or social groups on starships, how much will present-day academic rituals be preserved? Will the kids in those cultures participate in something analogous to school as we know it or study individually on computers? Will they "graduate" or simply earn certifications for each phase of what may become a continuous course of lifelong learning? I like to believe some kind of completion rites will still occur for important life transitions, including educational ones. Human beings need ritual.
Margaret L. Carter
Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.
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