Pre-K Graduation? Really??

My niece's was awesome. It's more for the parents then anything else, very cute.

 

I had a Pre-K graduation. I think have caps/gowns/invitations is over the top, but getting a little certificate and celebrating something for children is not bad.

I don't think graduating High School is an accomplishment aside from those who have handicaps or graduate with some type of honors. It is a celebration of mediocrity.

 

speak for yourself.

 

I think that has more to do with the "I want to do what makes me happy" nonsense. Work is work. If it wasn't then they would call it play. If you do well in school in a practical field, finding a job isn't that difficult.

 

The only commencement ceremony I'm in favor of is after 12th grade. The rest just waters down the real thing. Each level of commencement ceremony just waters it down more.

 

My daughter finishes 5th grade this Friday (private school).

No "graduation" ceremony or anything. F*** that sh**.

 

Great point. When I got a job out of college, my sister kept saying stuff like, Wow I don't know how you can be a corporate slave, you're working for greedy businessmen! yada yada. I tried to tell her that a job is a job, and money is money. She always had this ideal of working for an art gallery or Greenpeace or something. She just graduated and now emails me all flustered about not being able to find a job. Noooooooo...duh.

 

What? Nevermind the man behind the curtain controlling everything! Look over here! It's another ceremony!

 

I don't see the big deal about it. They did this 18 years ago when I was a little one. Just giving the kids some recognition.

 

I think this is slightly misdirected. I don't believe most European schools have multiple graduation ceremonies at each level of schooling.

It seems to be slightly more harsh there, where schooling is more directed at University for those that seem to be cut out for it according to their system or education geared towards an occupation, unlike in US where education strives to push the idea that any and every student should go to University.

The more cut throat system seems to be European not here in the US

 

Going through Pre-K is not an accomplishment, though. Of course, I don't think graduating high school is an accomplishment, either (for my family, not for everyone).

It is not an issue by istelf but it is an issue when taken in context with everything else about how we treat kids. Everyone is a winner, every "accomplishment" is great, but then the education system is not challenging and doesn't really teach much (until eventually everything becomes testing-centered...which only teaches one thing) while at the same time occupying a huge amount of time (home work is at a very high level - even if it is not hard it still has to be done so it wastes time).

Blah.

 

I don't believe it's going to add anything, but at the same time i dont see the harm in it, which is why i don't understand the dislike for them. I had a 5th, 8th, 12th, and didnt attend by college graduation. i dont believe it's made any difference in my education or career. I think it's just a social thing. Family time and fun with friends, so that's what i take it for. If the school wants to organize it, then fine, if not then it should be fine as well. It's up to the parents to let the kid know it doesn't define their success.

And are all of these graduations cap and gown?? From what I've seen, 5th and 8th grade are just about dressing up for an awards/grad ceremony.

Pre-k graduation is nothing more than a fun time for the kids. What we think shoudln't matter as long as they enjoy it. There's plenty of other things done at that age that seem silly and stupid, but they're done because the kids enjoy them. It's silly to us because we've grown out of it.

 

I think it has a lot less to do with the kids, and a lot more to do with the parents wanting to mark a milestone in their kids' lives/development.

I'm not saying I love it or want it, but now that I've got a kid, I understand it a little more.

 

I think it's silly too, but as a parent, I know I'm gonna probably fight back tears when he "graduates" Pre-K next year. It's less about the accomplishment and more about the fact that he's growing up. Hell I was a little sad seeing him transition into his new class this week.

Now the whole awards thing is silly. Literally every student at the school I teach at receives an award at the end of the year. I think it gives some students a false sense of accomplishment and devalues the real achievements. And even beyond that, every grade level has to have a program. When I was in elementary school, only 2nd and 5th grade did a program. It just seems overkill imo.

 

I think graduation ceremonies in general are a waste of time. There are better, less boring ways to celebrate academic accomplishment than to sit in a chair next to people you may or may not know for 2 hours, waiting for some dude to call your name so you can shake hands with the dean. Meanwhile, the people you actually want to celebrate with are about 100 yards away, bored out of their minds until they hear your name. They then go crazy for about 5 seconds, then go back to chuckling at interesting names on the program.

We do odd things in the name of tradition.

 

I don't think it's a new thing. I had a graduation ceremony for pre-K 30 years ago. I made my own cap with a little poster-board and paper.

I'm not buying the watering down argument. These milestones mean different things for different people. Graduating high school was a given for me. Graduating college too. Now, if I got a PhD, that'd probably be worth a ceremony.

But, graduation is a rite of passage (and Americans have very few of those). Graduate high school and then you're going to move away for college or get a job. That's worth a ceremony. Same graduating college -- no more hiding behind academics, you've got to go earn your own keep. That's a passage. In that regard going from pre-k or kinder to real primary school (where they will start expecting you to do some work and wipe your own butt) is a tangible transition that should be marked so the child knows they are moving on to new things. It seems like a good idea to me.

5th grade doesn't make any sense to me. What's special about that?

 

Pre-K's are private "schools" by definition, right?

The "graduation" is nothing more than a marketing tool to make your consumers, the parents, feel happy and feel that they are getting value.

It is literally no different than open houses, christmas plays, recitals, etc.

All of the above have the ancillary benefit of making the 4 year old feel "big", and ready for kinder. And that's not a bad thing really.

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The whole give-an-award-to-every-kid-in-class is really debatable and needs to be handled differently.

For example, I see merit in recognizing a student for finishing with a B average, when he started as a C- student, but busted his butt and performed to his max and worked hard.

On the other hand, if you have a B student that is smart, but coasts and is lazy, don't recognize that kid. Getting that B is meaningless, and acknowledging it rewards and encourages laziness.

 

If everyone is special, then no one is special.

We're gonna have two generations of kids in a row who were never discouraged, never given genuine criticism, never given the opportunity to fail - we're going to have a population of self-affirmed superkids who have never actually been challenged by anything, never actually had to prove that they're worthy of the massive self-esteem they have for themselves.

We're going to have scores of middle-class kids who have the same sense of entitlement and the same unjustifiable self-worth of the wealthiest children of former generations - but, of course, none of the wealth.

We're in for rough times.