High schools and colleges should hold two graduations

[Ex Lurker]

One for the graduates who have family members who know how to conduct themselves at these events. The other for the graduates with relatives who want to hoot and holler, blow airhorns, and otherwise make fools of themselves when Junior gets his name called -Good grief. I've come to hate these things.

[TeamPooka]

1. Don't fall off that high horse. You might get hurt. nt

[tblue37]

4. The loudness drowns out the name of the next graduate in line. nt

[Mister Ed]

7. Yes. I just got home from a University graduation exercise.

I felt sorry for the families of graduates whose names were drowned out by rubes still blowing airhorns, screaming, and yelling "woot, woot!" for the previous grad.

[redstatebluegirl]

26. Since I have to attend two every year I can tell you it has gotten much worse.

I may be old, but I miss the days when they didn't scream and yell like crazy people. Celebrate with your young person after the ceremony. Lots of older grandparents can't stand so they can see over you to see their grandson or granddaughter who is right behind your newly minted graduate.

It is a circus, not a solemn ceremony anymore.

[uppityperson]

2. First world problems

[Major Nikon]

6. Not unlike the other 99% of GD threads

[lindysalsagal]

3. I agree. It's like "Bubba's the first one in our family to graduate highschool!!!!"

Long, tedious, painful.

[AgadorSparticus]

5. Sorry, but I find this silly. It is graduation. People are happy, excited, & proud.

Let them be. There are far worse things to be irritated over....like for example, slow drivers in the left lane. Totally understandable if you went postal on that.

[SheilaT]

8. The problem is relatives and friends acting like total assholes.

And denying another grad of recognition.

It's NOT people being happy, excited, & proud. It's acting like idiots.

[yeoman6987]

9. Sounds like the master of ceremonies is screwing up

The person should wait til the deserved family gets done and continue names. Easy solution.

[Travis_0004]

14. If everybody was loud and they had to wait the ceremony would take 6 hours.

[yeoman6987]

24. I agree but usually it is a few throughout the ceremony

[MrsMatt]

15. Nope, not a solution.

In my city, large high school graduation ceremonies are held in civic auditoriums, and are frequently back-to-back (my daughter's last year was sandwiched between two other commencements).

It's a timing issue; your solution would create a situation where the first ceremony would go over the allotted time, which would push back the start time for the following commencements.

If you're only renting the facility for 2 hours, you have to finish in that time frame.

[LibDemAlways]

10. Agree. At my daughter's university graduation last year

a large and loud family sitting directly in front of us stood throughout the ceremony holding a huge banner. They yelled, screamed, hooted, and hollered inappropriately throughout. I asked them politely to please sit down so my 92-year-old mother could see her granddaughter accept her diploma, but they ignored me. They were obnoxious and acting like idiots. Was so glad when that ceremony was over. Ruined by morons.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

13. While I agree, people should be aware that every student....

....deserves their moment, and carrying on for several minutes is simply fucking rude to every other family trying to enjoy their kids moment

[AgadorSparticus]

17. Several minutes??!?!?!! Every graduation I have gone to, each student gets 15 sec tops?

Even then, graduation still takes forever. So the hooting and hollering lasts at most 15 seconds. And even then, it is just a loud "wooo!" and then they move on to the next student. How do they go on for minutes? The next student comes up and the next family goes woo. And maybe this is the part that I don't get. Are they still yelling when the next name is called? Because that IS rude. I have never seen that.

[MrsMatt]

33. Yes, they are still yelling

and blaring air horns.

I've experienced it; just last year when my daughter graduated h.s.

[madaboutharry]

11. I totally agree.

It is very rude and obnoxious. People behave inappropriately even after the principal asks them to remain quite. I don't understand it.

[Ilsa]

12. In some ways, I'm glad that in many places,

there is a limited number of tickets for guests. At least everyone is limited to the same representation.

I feel your pain. It's a moment that can't be repeated, and someone thinks their kid doesn't know that they are proud of them, so they make asses of themselves.

I think the schools should screen for obnoxious devices, like noisemakers and banners, at entry. Ask people to show a little class and restraint.

[linuxman]

16. I hate that shit.

Some family of low-class idiots hoots and screams, bangs pans, whatever, thus drowning out the name of the next person in line. I get it. You're totally shocked and amazed that someone from your gene pool made it through High-school. You know what? The family before or after you might be attending their first graduation too, but they have the situational awareness and decorum to hold their shit together and not drown out the next graduate's name. Some people ruin it or everyone.

[bigwillq]

18. I love the hoot and holler. They have every right to be proud and excited.

It's a happy day. Let people be happy.

[Travis_0004]

20. so your right to cheer is more important than the next students right to have his name heard?

[bigwillq]

21. That wasn't the point expressed by the OP.

OP objected to the hoot and holler. OP didn't mention your point. Folks should be respectful of the next student, but there's nothing wrong with the hoot and holler, which was my point in my reply.

[treestar]

25. It's not that but the selfishness

of your happiness being so much greater than others don't deserve theirs.

Why that's hard to see I don't know.

[phylny]

19. I agree.

We were at a graduation ceremony yesterday for students who earned their Masters degree. You'd think it was a football game. There's supposed to be a level of decorum, but there isn't.

[dumbcat]

27. Decorum?

You don't really expect the proles to act like upper class, do you?

[Nye Bevan]

30. What makes you think that it was the "proles" behaving badly,

as opposed to the "upper class"? Seems that you have a fairly low opinion of "proles".

[dumbcat]

32. Because I watched them.

Do you have a problem with the term, "proles?" It was used extensively in both academic and fictional writings.

[rug]

22. I don't like graduations, period.

The schools should just open up the field or the gym and have a gigantic party.

They can have tvs scattered around with public figures mouthing platitudes, at a low volume.

[AngryAmish]

23. Just skip them and play golf instead.

That is what I did for my last two.

[dumbcat]

28. Just this past Thursday I attended a graduation

of the School of Engineering of Texas A&M University. It was in a large arena, and 900+ graduates. The names were read one right after another, and I could hear each one. It took over two hours to go through the names. There were some whoops and airhorns at some names, but did not last more than a second or so. I was actually pleasantly surprised, compared to some High School graduations I have attended.

[Nye Bevan]

29. They should announce ahead of time that such behavior will not be tolerated,

and have anyone who fails to comply ejected. I hate when a minority of rude and inconsiderate people ruin it for everyone else.

[Person 2713]

31. Well well you exposed a lot of classism here @ du ...."Bubba"' " low class idiots...." Proles

[Bigmack]

34. Taught High School for 30 years.... seniors, mostly....

... and some of the graduation ceremonies were circuses. Drunk parents, air horns, beer in the stands... And this was in a upper-middle-class district.

Our school got shitcanned from one venue for rowdiness and trash.

If you ever wonder how easy it is to fall into authoritarianism.. this is a good example. The admin and staff - seldom on the same team - got together to save our school's reputation. "Crackdown" is a mild term.
Kids were informed - mostly informally - that the graduation was for everybody, not just the loudest, and that some kid's granny deserved to hear her grandkid's name called. And she should not be subjected to abuse. Admin hired off-duty cops, and they actually busted people for public intoxication. Teachers who had been mild and meek started cracking down, too. When the wrestling coach goes down onto the floor and crooks a finger - come here - at a kid who is being an asshole in the ranks, it's embarrassing to the grad. When the old-lady English teacher gives a kid a stinkeye... most kids understand.
Kids were told - informally - that their diploma and transcript could "get lost" if they fucked up. Kids weren't searched, exactly, but a lot of the teachers at the ceremony were suddenly very "huggy" and "touchy-feely". You'd be amazed at what kids were carrying.

All kinds of police-state stuff.

And it worked.

We got our reputation back, ceremonies were survivable again, and we were able to loosen up a bit. Our graduations stopped making the local papers, too.

So.... call me a fascist if you want, but we did fix an untenable situation.