I know I am going to come off as a grumpy old man. It is what it is. We are flush in the middle of graduation season. Kids are all excited they are getting out of high school and beginning to look at the rest of their lives. College grads have their diploma and they are looking for jobs in the workforce. I have seen all of this play out on Facebook. I’m also happy for all the people going through these events themselves and their kids. What about all the other graduations? Why are there so many?

We will start with the low-hanging fruit. Kindergarten graduation is a nice beginning for kids. In the past it allowed them to start their regular school career and end it with a diploma. It is something for parents to cherish and look back upon at high school graduation. As a father, I understand this one. It could be argued that it is unnecessary, but it brings people together to celebrate that the children are moving forward and no longer are the toddlers we still see them as.

If that was the only other graduation I don’t think I would even bother with this post. However, watching Facebook, there is also a 5th-grade graduation. I’m sure this is for the school systems with a middle school. So in theory it would be a graduation because you are leaving an intermediate school.

I have also seen 8th-grade graduations. I’m assuming this is the leaving the junior high/middle school and entering into high school. There is trauma enough switching schools, but now we put them on a display and say “It was fun. See you later!” I didn’t like ceremonies like this when I was a kid, but I would tolerate them. I am assuming for some kids it was agonizing.

Those are what I’ve seen. I am going to make some assumptions. With school districts that have a proper junior high (7th and 8th grades), is there a 6th-grade graduation? We didn’t have that when I lived in Elyria and was entering 7th. It is a bit too foreign to me.

We moved to Vermilion the summer before my 7th-grade year. This school district had four schools that children progressed through. South Street Elementary School handled kindergarten until 2nd grade I believe. Vermilion Intermediate School handled 3rd through 5th grade. Sailorway Middle School handled 6th through 8th grade. Vermilion High School handled freshmen through seniors. The schools have since consolidated a bit.

Working off the theory that we give kids graduation between schools, how many is that? Kindergarten, 2nd grade, 5th grade, 8th grade, and senior year combined give us five graduations. I’m happy I only had to go through two. If this is part of every kid get san achievement mentality, what about the 1st, 6th, 7th, freshmen, sophomores, and juniors? Is it they are not switching schools? Do they not get a celebration? How many graduations are too many? How many are too few?

As I said, I had a kindergarten and a high school graduation. Xie remembers having a 5th grade. I’m just confused about how it all spiraled out that kids need a diploma for every grade. Granted, in thirty years, maybe my son will be writing that 1st-grade graduations are new things and he doesn’t understand that.