Registering a public complaint..

[Ron Sower]

Yesterday, after a 1.5 hour drive which normally takes 30 minutes, to the Tacoma Dome, we sat through the graduation services of our exchange student. Also our granddaughter was serving as an usher which is an honor given to the juniors with the top 10 highest GPAs in their class. Like all the other graduations I've been to in the recent past, it was a "hootenannie". People, students and families alike, were shouting and screaming like it was a sporting event. No real decorum honoring the occasion at all...IN MY OPINION!

Does anyone share my feelings?

The only saving grace was the choir, orchestra and string orchestra. They performed wonderfully.

[Mugwump]

Yesterday, after a 1.5 hour drive which normally takes 30 minutes, to the Tacoma Dome, we sat through the graduation services of our exchange student. Also our granddaughter was serving as an usher which is an honor given to the juniors with the top 10 highest GPAs in their class. Like all the other graduations I've been to in the recent past, it was a "hootenannie". People, students and families alike, were shouting and screaming like it was a sporting event. No real decorum honoring the occasion at all...IN MY OPINION!

Does anyone share my feelings?

The only saving grace was the choir, orchestra and string orchestra. They performed wonderfully.

...the graduations have become more singular in character now...the 'ME' generation thinks it's all about them....never mind that others are involved too

[Rjb3]

When our daughter graduated last year we had to listen for three hours to a bunch of stuffed shirt alumni telling us all how great they were. Almost as an afterthought, the graduating student's names were called off so quickly there was no time for hooting or hollering. By the time your kid's name was called, they were calling another.

This year, our daughter's boyfriend graduated. But, because there were so many graduates, they had two ceremonies.  There were 5,500 graduates from UW Milwaukee this year. We were lucky enough to be at the 9 AM. They, the alumni, couldn't go on and on about how great they were because the next group graduated at noon. It was a breeze.

Only the orchestra playing reminded us it was graduation. No decorations. Nothing else.

[Mugwump]

I graduated on a warm night in the Rose Bowl......John Muir HS, and Pasadena HS, graduated on the same night there. My class of '63 was about 1643 kids....we played our home field football games there too......blew my Dad away when I took him to a night game against our rival...yup, Pasadena HS...the crowd filled better than half the RB....LOL....

...good times....

[GraphicGr8s]

Yesterday, after a 1.5 hour drive which normally takes 30 minutes, to the Tacoma Dome, we sat through the graduation services of our exchange student. Also our granddaughter was serving as an usher which is an honor given to the juniors with the top 10 highest GPAs in their class. Like all the other graduations I've been to in the recent past, it was a "hootenannie". People, students and families alike, were shouting and screaming like it was a sporting event. No real decorum honoring the occasion at all...IN MY OPINION!

Does anyone share my feelings?

The only saving grace was the choir, orchestra and string orchestra. They performed wonderfully.

...the graduations have become more singular in character now...the 'ME' generation thinks it's all about them....never mind that others are involved too

Can't blame them fully though. Need to look at the generation before that raised them.

Can't say much since I haven't been to a graduation in years. Last one was my SIL and that was at USF.

[BillT]

I find graduations mostly boring, so I can understand the somewhat off-subject revelry.

My own graduation was pretty boring to be in. We had about 1000 people in the graduation and we were supposed to get up in rows and go up to the podium to get our prop diplomas (real ones were mailed later). Some people did things to liven it up however, like stand-up in a wave from one end to another. Pretty wild, not liked by the school officials. Heard about the year before when someone brought a chicken in under their gown and released it in the auditorium.
I was not at all interested in even attending my own college graduation.

Cheering people getting their diploma doesn't seen so bad to me. It happened at my son's graduation from the U of O a few years ago. I just wish I was closer to the stage and there were not so many people.

[LizStreithorst]

I didn't even go to mine.  I was glad to be free when I graduated.  I was expected to be everything that I am not.  All I wanted to do was put 4th through 12th grades behind me.  College was so much better.

[Rjb3]

I remember when I graduated high school in '72. I graduated with honors. Members of the National Honor Society were allowed to wear a gold rope draped over their shoulders during the graduation ceremony. The catch was they rented you the rope for $2 extra. I kept my $2 in my pocket. My thought was they should have given us the stupid rope.

[big b]

If you were one of the honor people, they should have at least given you the stupid rope for $2. Unless the rope was made of SOLID GOLD, I cant understand why they wouldn't give it to you.

[BillT]

I cant understand why they wouldn't give it to you.

I am guessing that in general the schools don't really have time to do all this once a year special stuff, so they farm it all out to people who want to make money off of it. Thus, everything costs.

[big b]

I cant understand why they wouldn't give it to you.

I am guessing that in general the schools don't really have time to do all this once a year special stuff, so they farm it all out to people who want to make money off of it. Thus, everything costs.

The only thing I understood was everything everything costs. I am guessing that whole thing as a long way of saying schools are cheap?