The "Graduation" thing

[mamadeb]

This is part of the whole "britpicking" kefuffle.

There's a reason why American writers were so surprised that there was no graduation ceremony in Britain - and it's not lack of imagination. It's that high school graduation is so important here. It's *the* rite of passage, the step into adulthood. Neither I nor my brother-in-law went to our respective college graduation ceremonies - I finished in January and he had an Ultimate Frisbee tournament and anyway was going to be an academic and never really leave even if he was going to a different school. We both went to our high school graduations.

We have parties and gifts and cards and Barbie Dolls all for this. And we even have imitation events all through school - kindergarten graduation, elementary school graduation, junior high school graduation. I remember helping my eighth grade students into their caps and gowns - and the culmination is high school. It's very difficult to conceive of finishing the equivalent of twelfth grade (yes, I know it isn't, but they're the right age and the end result is the same - independence or further training) without the whole ceremony. In fact, it was shocking to me and to others I know that it didn't happen in Britain. Not everyone goes to college; pretty much everyone graduates from high school - and it's shameful if you drop out.

Just like wickedcherub was shocked when she found out that American schools have no houses - Houses are so integral to British schools, apparently, that she can't imagine a school without them. This isn't lack of imagination on her part - it's a complete shift in the universe. Just as no graduation is to Americans.

Comments

[wickedcherub.livejournal.com]

Houses are so integral to British schools, apparently, that she can't imagine a school without them.

Well, I can now, after all the explanations that I received :) I'm still rather amused that so many people thought that J.Ro made them up.

[vass]

Houses are so integral to British schools, apparently, that she can't imagine a school without them. This isn't lack of imagination on her part - it's a complete shift in the universe. Just as no graduation is to Americans.

That's - wow. Because I come from the same city as wickedcherub (she's not British) and I knew not all schools had houses, because I'd read so many school stories set in Australia, the UK and the US - it's hardwired into me. But what broke *my* brain, in the same way, was realising that people hadn't *heard* of houses. Like, they thought it was a cool thing J.K.Rowling made up.

As a further symptom of how my brain is broken, I now have various house cheers on a loop in my brain.

[penknife.livejournal.com]

It's very difficult to conceive of finishing the equivalent of twelfth grade (yes, I know it isn't, but they're the right age and the end result is the same - independence or further training) without the whole ceremony.

Oh, absolutely. To the extent that one of the few things schools can threaten graduating seniors with to keep them in line (since they've either already been accepted to college or know what they're planning to do for a job) is not being allowed to march at graduation. And in a lot of schools, even if you're going to have to go to summer school to finish, you still get to march (and get handed an empty diploma case).

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

You're right. It is hard to conceive of not having some ceremony to mark the completion of secondary school. I find myself assuming against all comments from Brits that surely, there must at least be a familial party marking such an occasion. I remember that even my friend Kip, who skipped the entire last semester and was therefore last in the class, showed up for graduation. Granted, he had Sylvester the Cat taped to his mortarboard (our friend Lisa had Tweety-Bird), but he showed. I was salutatorian and gave a speech, and there were fights (not in my family, but in others) about limited numbers of tickets and who could come to the actual ceremony. If a family was divorced and there were four tickets, did they go to both parents and new spouses? Or a grandparent apiece? Or did only one parent come while the other was left steaming? My mother and I drove to New Jersey for my cousin's graduation (a seven hour drive), hoping it wouldn't rain so that we could go to the outdoor ceremony instead of sitting at home while he did a valedictory address in an auditorium (we lucked out; the weather was great). Grandparents frequently fly in from all over the country to attend these things.

College graduation is skipped by more than one person. I was at my undergrad graduation--I thought about skipping it, but my mother threatened to cry if I did; she said she'd earned it--but my grad school graduation? Not a clue what went on there; I was moving that day, and not interested in attending anyway (how do I hate my grad school, let me count the ways).

Whether you go to college or not, the end of high school is the end of childhood. All the people you grew up with and were educated with will now scatter to the four winds, and you pick up with a totally new life somewhere else, more often than not away from home. So it's definitely considered the end of an epoch, and is marked accordingly. It's almost inconceivable to not think of it that way.

[axiom_of_stripe]

heh. that's fascinating. i guess i let it slide...but, you know, it explains why it's such a big deal to hold the tri-wizard competition. we americans compete against other schools all the time....

Speech Night

[zsero.livejournal.com]

At my school, at least, the Year 12s did get acknowledged at Speech Night. But speech night isn't just for the Year 12s, it's for all the students. Each class does something, puts on some sort of skit, song, presentation or something.

Houses

[zsero.livejournal.com]

The original purpose of the house system was to create rivalries between boys of the same year, so as to minimise their opportunity for forming particular friendships, which means exactly what you think it does.