I don't current practice. When I was a valedictorian, the teachers wrote my speech. I had no idea what to write. They "suggested," There was not one word or thought of mine on the speech. Different places select different people. It is not always the highest grades.
Pls. every place I ever attended school, if I were not one of the top two, my closest friends were. This would be outrageous conduct from any religion. People are there to see their family members graduate. The students are there to hug each other and celerbate with fun. Little attention is paid to ceremony. You do need some event, though, to plan the parties around it.
I graduated from a private university. It was during the height of the Viet Nam War. Parents schemed like mad to get their kids into the school and paid a fortune. The kids rebelled but learned a lot. You say b.s. about what you learned. When I graduated, we attended our local college graduation which was intimate, only a few hundred people, and the massive university event, with thousands upon thousands.
So I am graduating Barnard in 1975. Even the SDS contingent is split up, according to alphabetical order. I never saw my faculty look better. The grounds have fresh flowers for once. Banners are everywhere. We march it. Families snap. A famous American author and screenplay writer delivers remarks. The local press is out in force to snap our photos. The New York Times is part of our local press. It was bland but I thank God for bland after what we went through b/c of the draft and protests.
Barnard throws us a short reception, while Columbia College holds its festivities. There is a massive celebration of both schools, informally off campus, at Rockefeller Center. The marching band entertains us.
We cross the street as a group, still in cap and gown, and take our place for the university wide graduation. Every single two bit school in the university is present. The crowd is so massive it reaches as far as the eye can see. Boring. Yet we can't smoke weed or sing Beatles or Dylan out of respect for others. Naturally, the Columbia College contingent is only a few feet away from us. We laugh so hard at the guys wearing gorilla suits. I think why can't the women wear gorilla suits to graduation? Those men have it all. The main campus and gorilla suits. A whole bunch of academics and famous people receive honorary degrees. Time stops. No one is prepared for this. The actual scientists and physicians who developed the modern birth control pill are receiving an honorary degree. We are shocked.
The entire multitude, including family members, spontaenously cheers. People throw their caps in the air. There is a big competition between Barnard and Columbia over who can cheer this particular degree the loudest. Barnard wins b/c we stand on our chairs to shout. It takes a long while to calm down so the next honoree can get their honorary degree.
End of story.
High school. Because of race riots and other tensions, we cannot graduate in the auditorim as countless generations have before us. We have to go out of our way to the city skating rink. Total boredom. A kid graduates who took ten years to finish high school. Everyone gives him more respect, including the teachers, than the valedictorian and salutarian. I don't know him personallhy but the nearest Italian kid tells me he had so much trouble. In fact, he was a Mafiaso but wanted to get out. He worked harder than anyone could ever realize. I applaud him more seriously than anyone else. Friends speak. I speak. Everyone wants to go to the parties.
A dear friends' father was a Pentecostal minister. I've know the guy and his parents since preschool. With a school of many black Baptists and extraordinary student ministers, this white dude starts praying. Everyone is polite. B/c of my JW training, I glance around. Everyone but me has their head bowed. The old white dude prays. Hours go by. The white dude prays. I start thinking what other people are thinking. Jesse Jackson came to speak to us, not our teachers or parents. He was about 20, had a huge Afro, and worse a dashiki. Why could they not invite him to pray? The white dude prays. Maybe he was confused b/c we were not holy rollers. Now I'm thinking the local ignorant, boring monsigneur would have finished hours ago. The white dude prays. The black kids and familes can't take anymore. Mumbling starts. I glance up, glad that they are making noise so maybe the white dude will get the hint and wind up.
I can't keep my head down. This prayer is about nothing at all and he is just starting from all indications.....My teachers and the entire administration are looking at each other. No one seems to know what to do. The city councilman and congressperson sit nicely but they seem surprised too. This is a very public school. We have many Jews and Moslems, too. He keeps praying about Jesus, Paul, and Timothy. The KH was better. The black kids start screaming, "Get him off the stage." "Drag, that honkey man down now!" Some Italians add, IThe coloreds are right. Stop." He finally ends.
Food is cold. Relatives called the police to see what was happening. They knew something was very wrong.
Graduation is a time for general, bland niceties. The important stuff you say privately. All you learn that day is how to celebrate with flair. One more year of school and I might be rich b/c the school officials did nothing. People meet after thirty years and we recall the endless prayer. No one can recall what he was praying about or for. All we know is that Pentecostal were but a very small fraction. The principal prob. decided we could without prayer for several years.
