Clarifications

I went to my first high school graduation as a teacher. Some things are a little different from when I graduated 15 years ago.  I believe I witnessed a conflict between the need for a profound ceremonial reflection and the needs of the students to own their graduation experiences as individuals.

In addition to the frequently seen–and just as frequently confiscated–beach balls bouncing among the graduates, there were also a number of students who were barefoot, a brief volleyball game with a blow-up sex doll, and two girls who unzipped their robes to reveal scanty clothing underneath: one was wearing low-rise shorts and a bright green bikini top.

In their speeches students also mispronounced the names of Yeats and Ovid, whom they quoted, but that only bothered the English teachers like me.

I happened to be sitting next to 2 teachers who retired this year. They both noted the irreverence of ceremony in these actions. But, while I agree with their observations, they failed to note the need of students to make an individual mark.

I certainly don’t support these students’ actions, but I think that graduation ceremonies are generally mishandled, and the few ceremonies we subject students to in school are thin facades for control. Students see through the school ceremonies of bell-regulated schedules, desks in neat rows, no talking/texting/drawing/eating/drinking/individual thinking, and they conclude that all ceremonies are probably as meaningless to their lives as most of the artificiality of school. Since most students don’t attend strictly structured religious services, or come from traditional cultures with long-standing traditions, there is little other exposure to any other ceremony.

And students need to be individuals. They don’t want to be recognized just as a class; they want to shine. They want to be Leigh, Kodi, Cody, and Alan. Putting all the students in maroon and white gowns and caps and having them sit in neat rows according to the letter of the alphabet does not impart profundity to my students, it screams Maoist oppression–not that any of them know who Chairman Mao was.

As a result, the conflict between an (adult?) need for a profoundly ritualistic ceremony and the (students’?) need for individual expression became not a conflict at all. the students were in control.  Individualism wins.

I wonder how other teachers use ritual and ceremony in their classrooms. Is there any purpose behind it? Do we have metacognitive, explicit conversations about the value of ceremony? Do we show the students of ceremony or tradition? If not, do we believe that there is a value in these ceremonies?  Or do we just cling to tradition like old codgers, without reason?