#Graduation Pomp and Circumstance Part 2

Most schools graduated in late May, graduated last week, or will graduate this week. Welcome to part two of a two-part post on graduation ceremonies "as I see it." 

I encourage you to read last week's post before this one. The only hint I'll give you about how I got to this point is...

I enjoyed being the "door monitor" for graduation robes after the ceremony for two reasons.

First, when Pat Carroll was principal, his goal was to finish the entire graduation ceremony—from the time Pomp and Circumstance ended until they tossed mortarboards—in 30-minutes. 

• MV averaged around 500 graduates each year. 
• There was an invocation, the Pledge of Allegiance, acknowledging the Honor Graduates, and a student speaker each year. 
• After all that, they called every student’s name over the P.A. system as they walked across their half of the stage and received their diploma from one of two dignitaries. 
• It required two dignitaries because one side of the graduates entered from stage left and the other from stage right. 
• It was a quick-moving sight to behold. 
• After two 40-minute ceremonies, he managed a 35-minute one. 
• Those of us on “robe recovery detail” anxiously awaited his final graduation—the year he retired. 
• Thirty minutes and forty seconds after Pomp and Circumstance, mortarboards flew like Frisbees. 

He’d done it!

The second reason I enjoyed being “door monitor” was my “position” at graduations, I got to see every graduate. I am proud to say that more than a few took photos with me. 

Top Row: Ph.D. Grad. MVHS as “door monitor” in 1984 w/ Babi Scott.
Middle: Doug and me “on the field” after his graduation in 1998.
Bottom Row: Emily Marsh and Julia Wright in 1993. Bobby T at GOHS (keep reading).
Hmmm.  It doesn’t look high school males were “in the mood” for photos after graduations!

I was on the field for one MVHS graduation ceremony after my “police” boycott. Because my son was a graduate, they allowed me—in my regalia—to hand him his diploma in 1998, two years after I left to take a faculty position at Point Loma Nazarene University.

I was on the field for two graduation ceremonies at Great Oak High. The first is the only time I broke tradition and asked if I could sit with a student for her graduation. Her name is Baharak Tavafifard. I’m working on a blog about her, so I’ll leave it with this anecdote: 

As a sophomore, I asked her why she never—and I mean NEVER—displayed any outlook except positivity. She looked befuddled, but only for a moment. “Why, Dr. Downing, being happy is a choice. I make that choice every morning when I get up.” 

The second GOHS graduation was because a specific student asked me to attend. I was ready to storm the podium when one speaker went off-script and needed to be shutdown. I took admission tickets or was part of security for the rest of my GOHS graduations.

Graduations at PLNU were mostly painless. Once you got past the students who wanted to wait until the last minute to line up, things went smoothly. I opted to supervise one of the first two rows because we got down to the floor of the Greek Amphitheater early and my charges had little room to do much beyond wiggle.

I attended my daughter-in-laws Ph.D. ceremony on May 20, 2017. I was hot, but they had a huge video screen so you could see each graduate receive the diploma . . . and a VERY longrepetition of Pomp and Circumstance (20+ minutes).

The next high school graduation I will attend will be my granddaughter, Hadley’s . . . 13-years from now.

In one of my first three years of teaching at Monte Vista, one of my students asked to talk with me. She was very nervous. I waited for her to begin.

• She talked with significant emotion about how, as far as anyone knew, she was the first person in their extended family to graduate from high school. 
• “People are coming from Oklahoma and Arkansas. This is very important to my family. I hope I don’t mess up.”
• After I choked back a tear, I assured her she would do a fine job.

Then it hit me.

This graduation ceremony is the major event in this young lady’s life. No one has the right totake that away from her and her family.

That was the first year I gave “the speech” to every one of my classes on the day of the second semester final exam.

I told them about the young lady I described above. Then I added,

“For many of you, this graduation is just a bump in your educational road. You’ll graduate at least once more, and some of you will graduate two or three more times. It’s tempting to blow off this graduation ceremony.”

I paused and put on my best “serious teacher face” at this point. My students all knew that “the look” that accompanied the serious face meant they’d better not only pay attention but do what I told them to do.

“You might be planningsome prank or goofy act for the ceremony. If you, or any of your friends, do that, you will ruin what might be the biggest day in someone’s life. Your fun is not important compared to being the first in a family’s entire history to graduate from high school.”

To the best of my knowledge, none of my students were involvedin any disruptive acts. I had several thank me on their way out of class after “the speech,” because they would use it on people they knew were planning something.