Graduation ceremony

(If you do not have the time, or the will to read most of this story just read the bold parts)
Even though I am not from the United States, I am fascinated by American traditions (and yes I know that many stem from British ones). One of these traditions is the gradution cerenomy, as far as I know we (the Dutch) do not have a compareable cerenomy (except the inauguration of a judge).

Soon I too will graduate, the 22nd of June to be precise, and since many of my fellow-students have called or even consider me an American (the reason for this I will explain later) I have thought up of a suiting and may I say original ending to this misconception.

Before I ask you, the American members of the snarkpit (which are numerous), for advice I will enlighten you with the reason why people call me an American, even though I am a native Dutch. The reason is rather simple actually, throughout my childhood I have been exposed to the English language and it seems that this has resulted in the ability to 'almost' fluently speak the English language (and a near American way of speaking). I am not ashamed of this, I actually manage to exploit it in many situations. This however has resulted in the misconception of me being an American immigrant, which at times does cause akward situations (getting blamed for the situation in Iraq is one :razz: ).

As I mentioned before, I have thought up of a suiting ending to all of this, and I am planning to wear a graduation gown (and matching hat) to the upcoming gradution. I feel that it is my duty to imprint my 'legacy' on their celeberal cortex.

This is where I ask your assistence, I have been surfing the web for information, I am yet to find a detailed step-by-step document on the tradtition/ceremony. I have however found out that the most appropriate gown for me to wear is the one in black.

I would like to know what exactly the ceremony traditions include (wardrobe, customs etc). Thanks, I appreciate everyone taking the time to read this message.

Over here in Belgium, we just have to put on some decent clothes, bring our parents with us and fetch that piece of paper. :smile:

Over here you get given your paper with grades onit & then swiftly kicked up the arse. then head home.

Over here you get given your paper with grades onit & then swiftly kicked up the arse. then head home.

Funnily enough, for our GCSEs, we had some sort of s**te ceremony around 6 months later with some dude from the local news handing out certificates (this is because we only got result sheets, not ctualy certificates, at the end of the summer). We just walked up, shook his hand, grabbed the certificate and sat down again. Boooorrrrriiinnngg. And certainly not worth an hour of my time watching everyone in the school shake hands with this guy.

Blah. I find it better to just grab the certificate at the end of the summer with a bunch of mates, and take the piss out of each other and laugh at ourselves a bit. :smile:

We dont have any ceremony at my school, we just have to go in to pick up the sheets with our grades on and then go home feeling happy/sad [hopefully happy as i wil get them sheets this yr]

Hmm, here's what details I can remember. Not sure if it's traditional or not:

• There's a stage, and then there's chairs (lots of them) where all the students are forced to sit while they hear various people talk about their glorious future (principal, teachers, superintendants, board directors, etc.) It can generally be indoors or outdoors.

• Then the students start coming in within lines, slowly filling up the chairs while the band plays Pomp & Circumstance.

• As mentioned before, students sit there and listen to graduation speeches. It's customary for some students themselves to prepare speeches.

• Then, students march up there one by one, onto the stage, where the principal (or whoever) hands them their diploma and their name is announced over a loudspeaker. Student recieving diploma shakes hands of various important people. The crowd cheers! Student marches back to their seat.

• Principal makes some witty closing remarks. Then the end comes. Sometimes the students march back within lines (as with the beginning), other times the ceremony just ends right there.

Funny, I never really saw it as something exclusive to the United States or anything. Probably varies a bit from school to school as well. shrug

Mine was roughly what CJ described. Only the principal didn't make closing remarks. And the students who gave speeches at my graduation didn't talk so much about the glorious future so much as they did about the "good times" that we had together in the past.

Me crying on senior trip because a guy was snoring really loud, for example.

I remember a girl from our class giving the most hypocritical bulls**t "we all love each other" speech I have ever heard. Most of us wanted to strangle her after that.

I'm really glad I went to a mid-sized high school and not one of these monstrosities with more people in a class than my entire school... just under 200 people is enough to be cozy without being forced into too much contact with the people you never want anything to do with ever again.

I don't think graduations vary from school to school, since everyone I've ever been too, including my own High School graduation (that term high school is important here), has been any different from what CJ described.

I think the only thing that changes is the color of the robes. Mine was crappy ass blue, bleh, and I had to pay 120 bucks for it, those bastards.

You're not missing much, Bruce. I know college graduation is a bit different, in my understanding they call by majors, not names. It's really just an annoying cerimony to be honest, and It doesn't make sense when you think about it.

It's there to give you a sense of accomplishment ... but you haven't accomplished anything really, getting a job and getting a huge promotion, now that's an accomplishment. Or developing the first real case of Cold Fusion (I know that's very well impossible, but it's an what if senario), that would be an accievement.
The thing I don't understand about it, is that through your entire High School period they say they are "preparing you for the real world" ... well last time I checked the real world doesn't scould you for talking, having "campus lock down", or a big party when you don't do anything important. If anything all High school does, here, is prepare you for the amount of work you'll have in college, that's it, or at least that's as far as I can figure it.

I'm not bitter, I swear, but I've been burned by the school district way too many times (never held back or anything like that, just the entire staff of K-12 were incompetant instructors, besides the occational cool instructor, which was far and inbetween)

graduation from "basic/AIT" is very similar.

The thing I don't understand about it, is that through your entire High School period they say they are "preparing you for the real world" ... well last time I checked the real world doesn't scould you for talking, having "campus lock down", or a big party when you don't do anything important. If anything all High school does, here, is prepare you for the amount of work you'll have in college, that's it, or at least that's as far as I can figure it.

Pre-school prepares you for elementary school. Elementary prepares you for middle school/junior high. Junior high prepares you for high school. High school prepares you for college. College gives you a piece of paper and then suddenly you realize that that's not the way things work in the world.

Degrees? Where we're going, we don't need... degrees. I love my field of work. :smile:

But that's my point. In High School they "claim" that they're preparing you for the working world, when they're not. In fact nothing can prepare you for it, to be honest, so I don't know why they claim it in the first place is all.

High school prepares you to "shut up and listen" for college/university.

Campaignjunkie said:
High school prepares you to "shut up and listen" for college/university.

really, i have noted no distinctions between the groups, or ages.. both know everything about nothing at all.

still, in theory, you are correct, but i feel the military comes much closer to teaching you "shut up and listen" :biggrin:

in all seriousness, of the graduates i have met, both in high-school and college, all i have ever seen is book smarts, reality smarts must not be taught in school any-longer :sad: cause in each instance, the poor kid crumbles when real life hit them :/

I'm going to have to go to Dutchland and kick some ass.

WOA CJ, thats a lotta chairs and peeps, more than when all of my school were on the feild, and there was 2000 of us.

"reality smarts must not be taught in school any-longer "

Reality smarts, aren't the kind of things you can plug into a kid. They are the lessons you learn from beating your head agains the same wall that the people before you did. You don't pick that s**t up in a book. No amount of lecturing is going to convince you that "sex and drugs are bad!!", if you are a curious sorta kid, like most of us are/were.

School prepares you for the time structure of our working world. It conditions your mind and body to focus for 8 hours or so, with the occasional 15 minute break and an hour or so for lunch. But hey....we could go back to 'simpler times', where children worked in factories as soon as they were big enough to hold a pick, or toss rocks.

For me, and my friends, graduation wasn't about ceremony, or accomplishment. It was about being cut free, untethered, to drink/smoke/f**k your little heart out. Then again, I graduated in a small town, where academics were unappreciated, and the devil had a good grasp on all of us little hellions.

i know you are right, but i do recall my teachers mentioning reality issues in school, but the kids i meet now days, seem to live in this fantasy realm somehow.. i am beginning to believe its the parents fault, by creating this image of "you're special" or "you're beautiful" and so many other image boosting hog s**t.

anywhos, at least in my case, i understand and/or know more now than i did in school, not reality stuff, but book smart stuff, i failed history in school miserably, but love it now.. same with a few other subjects.

my reality check, began when i was 16 and my parents separated.. but thats not a lesson i would wish on anyone... my nature is to be sympathetic to people, but my life's experiences made me callous to others.. i am in constant state of mixed feelings... my heart tells me "oh the poor bastard" but my brain says "f**k'em"

anywho's life is not a storybook most times.

The only "real life" thing I've learnt in school is to deal with idiots.

I'm glad to see that this thread actually managed to go somewhere, maybe a little bit off road but that could have been expected.

On the ceremony, I'd like to thank you guys and especially CJ on describing the basic guidelines a little bit more. However if you could perhaps explain why at some ceremony's I've seen people turning their hat around after they had received their degree I would be even more thankful.

On the new topic that has sprung up here. I believe that school does indeed prepare you "real-life/work", after you leave school there might still be a lot you need to learn on your worksite, but thanks to school most of the basics have already been covered.That's exactly what school provides you with, basic knowledge, and the rest you can learn over the years.

Education is a very important factor in every society, there is a reason for this. Education does help, it does prepare you. People without education, or a very basic one, seem in general to have a very hard time suceeding in 'real-life'.

OtZman said:
The only "real life" thing I've learnt in school is to deal with idiots.

and to wait untill outside of school to deal with them

People move thier talass (I thinkn its called) to the other side to signify completion, success, finality and so on and so forth. I don't recall which side you start or finish at though.

$loth said:

OtZman said:
The only "real life" thing I've learnt in school is to deal with idiots.

and to wait untill outside of school to deal with them

Well, the easyest way to deal with idiots and imature basturds in "real life" is to become thier boss :biggrin:

I take it Bruce you mean, graduating and graduation in the sense of University.. ? not school/high school/secondar school or somesuch..

I've only ever known of Uni's doing proper graduations :smile:

I thought the best way to learn to deal with idiots was to play CS online...?

ZZZZZZZZING!

GrimlocK said:
People move thier talass (I thinkn its called) to the other side to signify completion, success, finality and so on and so forth. I don't recall which side you start or finish at though.

I think you move it from the right to the left... Or was it from the left to the right?! Argh. :smile:

There is one thing everyone forgot to mention, the smartest person of that graduationg grade (or class as some call it) come up and give a long speach to their fellow class mates about how much they will suceed and everyone else will fail in life........ And then its the all night partying, the high school that I went to literaly locks you in the gym from 6pm to 6am and DOES NOT LET YOU OUT.

wil5on said:
I thought the best way to learn to deal with idiots was to play CS online...?

ZZZZZZZZING!

What a Cass moment!

Well when I left they literaly told us not to come back unless we have exams they were going to through us a bit of a party but we trashed the school so they kicked us out.

and when I went to get my results there were 2 of my teachers standing behind 2 tables with them layed out and I went picked mine up and left but not after I took the piss out of acouple of friends for getting s**t grades and then they found out mine and took the piss out of me. and that was it until I had to collect my certificates acoupple of months later when I was in 6th form.

and now the bastard government has knocked my school down.

That didn't read very well mate - stop being lazy and write with proper punctuation :razz: