Preschool "Graduation" or Why We Are Raising a Bunch of Self Centered Pansies

That's a grabber of a title, isn't it? I thought so, too.

This Thursday will mark my son's first ever graduation. From preschool. Except the kicker is, he isn't really "graduating" at all. He will be going from a three day preschool to what is called "junior kindergarten." But it's still preschool.

So why go through the rigamarole of having some sort of yet-to-be-seen ceremony where they gush about how wonderful he was painting barnyard animals and climing up the ladder on the playground? It makes no sense to me.

I never had a graduation ceremony until I was in 8th grade and entering high school. There was no preschool, kindergarten, or elementary school graduation held at my school. We had a chintzy naming of names and scholarships during the school day, I might add, and that was that. No caps, no gowns, no pomp and circumstance.

And really, I think that is the way it should be. We as a culture are so into affirming our children at the slightest thing that they do. Did Johnny write a barely recognizable letter R? Then let's clap and cheer and reward him with a toy.

Give me a break. I had to work for my kudos, and I think I am a better person for it. And no, I'm not bitter. I just knew that if what I had done was truly my best effort, the reward was in the doing, not the accolades.

Don't get me wrong, accolades are nice, and I don't think we should sneer at Johnny's R and tell him he will never go anywhere in life and why not just start practicing flipping burgers as soon as possible. But shouldn't we save all the fuss for the true achievements and milestones? Soon, we will be giving out gold stars just for the kid waking up each morning.

But Gina, you muse, does this attitude mean that you will not allow your son to attend his "graduation?"

No, because I'm not yet ready to buck the trend so publicly. Yet.

I read the flyer, though, about how I could buy a DVD of the ceremony for the low, low price of only twenty dollars, and now maybe this whole graduation trend is beginning to make a bit more sense.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Onward

The end of the school year, finally! Did I tell you that my son went to public school this past year? Did I tell you that my daughter was in a regular Kinder classroom this year? Although it was nice to have them both in school, there were definitely things I was not so hip on, such as having to wake up at 5:20 every morning just to get everyone out the door on time.  And then after all the driving and dropping off, going to work. Such fun! I had forgotten the dreariness of having to complete mounds and mounds of homework (even though new research has shown that homework, especially for Kinder, is for shit).  Of constant deadlines and fundraisers and things I am supposed to volunteer for. My daughter had a good year, but was definitely not without its bumps. Her teacher, an older, highly experienced, practical woman with a Master's in Education, kept referring to my daughter as an "inclusion student."  It wasn't her name or just "student" but was
Read more

Fallen Between the Cracks

Why did I stop writing here? With the grace of 20/20 hindsight, there were a LOT of reasons. My daughter's journey would get tougher and tougher, and as I added work into the mix of raising two kids, it was one more thing I just didn't have time for. And well, that work thing.  It sure does suck a lot of free time away, doesn't it?  Even though I am still only part time. I will be honest, as much as I adored all the people on the blogosphere that were kind enough to grace me with their wit and time, I just could not keep up with the constant commenting that I felt was only fair to these wonderful people.   So instead, what did I do? I did what any self respecting coward would do. I ghosted, of course. Not that I think my absence was enough to cause people to be distressed, but I feel badly if anyone felt slighted. Even as I write this, I feel like I am being waaaay too self important.  Isn't that the whole point of a blog, though?  Nobody writes a blog that doesn't
Read more

Apples and Oranges

Perhaps some of you may have noticed, but the real estate market is beginning a tumble in prices that benefit us, prospective buyers. And we're going to wait. That is cold, cold comfort to those such as J and Py , who are attempting to sell their place as we speak. But, we're not going to wait too much longer, if that makes them feel any better. There is no sense trying to time the bottom of the market, and we have been putting off moving, oh, since Mr. P was born because of the huge runup in prices. So huge that at one point, we could barely afford to buy our own place from ourselves. We should be ok even if we sell at a lower price than we could have gotten say, two years ago. We have, however, a dilemma. We have narrowed our choices down to two cities. And we are stuck there. We just can't figure out which city is better, and they are oh-so-different. Let me give you a rundown. City 1 Older, smaller houses (in our price range) Larger lots Beach city Infrastructure
Read more