Of graduation ceremony and of schools
In recent times, I have seen a lot of things flying up and down the internet, chief among them is that of schools all in the name of graduation ceremony. At this point, I don’t exactly know what schools are driving at with the kind of things we are witnessing; I think we are completely losing the essence of exit ceremonies in schools.
I just wonder; how did we even get here? When did finishing nursery school become such a huge accomplishment that must be celebrated with pomp and pageantry? Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against celebrating milestones and every achievement is worth celebrating. However, the way and manner in which we are going about it is the issue. Schools are now organising full blown dinner parties for kids who still need help on how to tie their shoelaces. Schools are renting halls, decorating venues, printing invites, hiring Masters of Ceremonies and Disk Jockeys all because someone just graduated from Nursery 2 to Primary 1? Is this really what we need?
The parents on their part are not helping matters. Little children are being dressed like red carpet celebrities in tuxedos, ball gowns, custom makeup, studio shoots all to celebrate what exactly? Some parents are even competing with the class of cars to be used. People are going out of their way and beyond their means to do all these. I watched a video on Facebook recently about these graduations and to say I was gob smacked was to say the least- vehicles of different kinds, little kids dressed in such flamboyance that you wouldn’t even recognise them. These little girls whose skins are still tender with their faces decked with different layers of make-up, were looking like the adult versions of themselves.
We are beginning to see toddlers ‘signing out’ from nursery to primary classes. They wear white shirts with their names signed with ink, small children dancing and twerking; all in the name of moving from nursery class to primary class. Have we not lost it? Do we even think of the academics and morals or we are just looking at superficial things? A lot of things are going wrong and we need to get back to the drawing board.
We have so much filled the minds of these ones with these things that my Goddaughter told me last week that she had ‘graduated.’ Ordinarily and to the best of my knowledge, her age had not qualified her for secondary school. When she told me she had graduated, it didn’t first register. It wasn’t until the mother met us and said she had graduated from one class to another that it really dawned on me. This is as a result of the paparazzi and the frenzy of the graduation parties she had witnessed.
Let’s not even start with those graduating from “primary school to secondary school.” The way some schools plan it, you’d think the child just defended a doctorate degree. We see teenagers in heels they can’t walk in, makeup thicker than their notebooks, and money spraying videos that look like weddings. The boys are not left out as you see them dressed like people going for prom parties, with haircuts like celebrities. What is actually happening? Where did we learn all these from?
And then the kids too have caught the virus. They’re doing TikTok transitions in graduation gowns, giving motivational speeches they clearly rehearsed with their mums, posing like what I don’t know. What exactly are we celebrating? Is it the academics or the aesthetics?
As it stands, we are creating a pandemic waiting to happen. A very big one that we may not be able to contain; a culture where appearance is starting to matter more than achievement. We are teaching children that every small milestone must come with loud celebrations and aesthetics, whether or not it was earned. The irony is actually what happens when the real pressure of life sets in and they won’t understand why nobody is clapping for them for showing up.
Agreed, we need to make memories and fond memories at that. But let’s not even pretend it’s for memories. Most of the time, it’s for content. Some of these events are even sponsored by debts. And for what? To go viral? To prove to the world that we can afford it? Yes, it’s your money and people will not be dictated to how to use their money and secondly parents are not even the government. Be that as it may, there are ways these monies can make impact and bring blessings to us. Celebrating wins no matter how little is important, but do we have to break the banks and even leave some parents cap in hand to belong?
It’s not that graduation ceremonies are bad, in fact, they can be sweet and memorable when done in moderation. But this new level of extravagance, especially at the lowest educational levels, is highly unnecessary. If we’re not careful, we’ll raise a generation of children who think hard work must always come with glamour, and who measure success by how loud the celebration is not the quality of what was achieved. Let the kids be kids and enjoy their childhood and school days to the full. They should be celebrated for real growth and effort but let’s turn and tune down the pressure, the show, and the unnecessary drama. The world out there is greater than the frenzy of these graduations.
While it has economic value for schools and vendors, it’s actually nit good for the educational system. We need to place academic success at the expense of these extravagant shows of what is not actually necessary.
I saw a post on Facebook about a school that gave out wardrobes to her graduating students who are proceeding to Secondary School. Is that really necessary? Now, parents have paid for these wardrobes. It ends there. How do the parents carry the wardrobes from there? Another onerous task for the parents.
Not everything needs to trend. Some things should just be simple and meaningful.
