How much celebration is too much? I ponder this as our child graduated from middle school to begin life as a high schooler. There was pomp during the circumstance - that of a rigorous three year period of classwork, prep and exams, standardized tests, track and field events and extra curricular speech writing and contests near and far.
All of this with a desire to build a foundation that can support the mental infrastructure needed to gain wisdom and guide this child of ours toward it's place in the universe. Or so we hope.
Every child is precious to its parent and rightly so. It is their physical manifestation of unfulfilled wants or desire, or in some cases a vicarious aspiration to achieve glory for themselves but certainly for all an intangible feeling of sheer joy to see this young mind climb another step in their ladder of life.
In india I remember the fanfare limited to the immediate household to celebrate a grade or passage through them. Americans tend to market everything and even the middle to high school promotion was no exception.
We gathered at the field of their new home, the local high school where the parents took seats on the bleachers as the students walked in led by their Principal and staff. The middle school band played their brass instruments in the background dressed in their satin blue and black.
After pledging allegiance to the flag (never get this part) and the singing of the anthem the class president gave a rousing speech quoting Churchill and the likes wishing the new high schoolers to look forward to 2020, when they will graduate again- then to achieve higher goals.
This was followed by the meticulously choreographed (including a white woman MC navigating the long winded names of South Indian dieties that are the last names of most kids along with some consonant heavy Mandarin ones) awarding of the diplomas to the 300 plus students as parents, friends and extended families cheered, honked and took deluge of pictures to add to the ever growing Facebook arsenal.
All of this with a desire to build a foundation that can support the mental infrastructure needed to gain wisdom and guide this child of ours toward it's place in the universe. Or so we hope.
Every child is precious to its parent and rightly so. It is their physical manifestation of unfulfilled wants or desire, or in some cases a vicarious aspiration to achieve glory for themselves but certainly for all an intangible feeling of sheer joy to see this young mind climb another step in their ladder of life.
In india I remember the fanfare limited to the immediate household to celebrate a grade or passage through them. Americans tend to market everything and even the middle to high school promotion was no exception.
We gathered at the field of their new home, the local high school where the parents took seats on the bleachers as the students walked in led by their Principal and staff. The middle school band played their brass instruments in the background dressed in their satin blue and black.
After pledging allegiance to the flag (never get this part) and the singing of the anthem the class president gave a rousing speech quoting Churchill and the likes wishing the new high schoolers to look forward to 2020, when they will graduate again- then to achieve higher goals.
This was followed by the meticulously choreographed (including a white woman MC navigating the long winded names of South Indian dieties that are the last names of most kids along with some consonant heavy Mandarin ones) awarding of the diplomas to the 300 plus students as parents, friends and extended families cheered, honked and took deluge of pictures to add to the ever growing Facebook arsenal.
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