Cheering at graduation a no-no.

Excessive and heavy handed.:BangHead:

 

Dumb. Real Dumb.

They keep this stuff up, and no one will want to come to graduations anymore. I'm a believer in a respectful ceremony, but if you can't cheer for your kid and will be ARRESTED, what's the point in going? Have a bar-b-q, invite family and friends and get the diploma in the mail. Then you won't disrupt, won't get arrested, and the ceremony will be shorter for those that do go and sit in silence.

 

If it is anything like our local highschool the school asks that cheering be held until all the names have been called and all the students have received recognition. Otherwise the choice is either some students' names are not heard by the audience at all because someone was still cheering for the student called just before or the handing out of diplomas is held to wait for the cheering to stop (which may not ever happen). Waiting for the cheering to stop after each name is called could drag the ceremonies out to several more hours if there are hundreds of graduates.

It also doesn't stop at cheering - it can also get into canned airhorns and foot stomping and chair banging like you see at a baseball game. At our graduation ceremony the longest and loudest noise was made for the class clowns that just barely graduated.

 

The same announcements are made to withhold applause and cheering until after, yet it occurs during the ceremonies of passing out the diplomas on college campuses........ only on a grander scale than one usually sees in high-school.

Yes, sometimes it seems excessive, and, yes, sometimes it infringes on the recognition of others..... but I know my neices and nephews when they march.... and, hey, I enjoy the celebration and expressed hope..... much more fitting for the end of one era and the beginning of another than a formal and sobering eulogy.

 

Refraining from cheering during a graduation ceremony should be a matter of common decency and respect for others. Cheer afterwards if you wish, but don't ruin the ceremony by calling attention to yourself.

 

IMHO, there are a few reasons why cheering is being limited to the end.

One is that the crowd can get quite wild, being this is a group of hormonal teens.

Secondly, if cheering is allowed, then it turns into a popularity contest. There is no way to get around this.

The child who is unpopular (maybe ugly) walks up to receive their diploma, something they have worked 12 long hard years to earn to receive LESS applause than the other children. How would that make them feel? Or what if they were boo ed?

If cheering is allowed, then it paves the way for booing.

The graduating students worked very hard for the majority of their lives to receive their diploma.
IMO, if people can't be decent and follow the rules, they ought to stay home. This is not a sporting event.

If the only way to ensure the students behavior is honorable to other students is to have them arrested, then so be it. By 18, they ought to know better.

 

Well, I don't really know how it may be elsewhere:
But I followed my two neices (not twins and different ages)
through their graduations from high shool, then junior colleges, then University of Florida at Gainesville, then graduation from med school at Florida State University and physical therapy at University of Florida. I observed the rules and most people appeared to also.... but there were always some that seemed to bring their own cheering squad ........but, like I said, I knew when and where each was in line and I didn't let myself be bothered by the less reverent.

In almost every one of their classes there were graduating students whose challenges were obvious based upon the tools, medical equipment, or other assistance required to make the walk: In every case, there was greater applause by the general audience and the class than for others..... And there were the cheered who seemed very special for whatever were the reasons to their circle of classmates and friends which was not obvious at all. The same thing happened at my graduations......way back in the 60's. Some of the locations of these services are held on a football field or in a basketball stadium: I think some people have trouble disassociating the cheering which is normally acceptable under the usual use of such locations throughout the year.

I just don't let it bother me.

 

Good reasons, Joe. Here's another one. Cheering/clapping for each individual takes up a lot of time when there's a long list of names being read. The seconds and minutes really add up, and people get bored and tired of sitting that long.

 

Yep, that's why I have told the people to not applaude me when I take the pulpit!!! :laugh:

It took up too much time, and they got bored because of it....:thumbs: :laugh:

 

Someone once said, "The mind can only comprehend what the seat can endure!"