May 2002

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The more I think about this policy to allow only those who have proof of future plans to participate in high school graduation exercises, the more I find the attitude of those who made the decision to be arrogant and repulsive. And I did go to (and am a graduate of) college, thank you very much.

It is not appropriate to insist that unless someone is going on to some higher level that they not be allowed to celebrate with the rest of their classmates by participating in a graduation. It is elitist, and mean-spirited.

The way to encourage people to aim higher is not to take away celebrations of what they have accomplished. It is a fine and wonderful thing to have completed the first twelve or thirteen years of school. It is something to be celebrated, and honored.

And if anyone had proposed such an idiotic, exclusionist step back in my Senior year, I would have refused to participate in degrading the achievements of those who had no plans for higher education. You may think I don't know what I would have done---but trust me: that would not have been the first time I walked out on something important to me because I thought a system sucked. That's another story for another day.

This is not written to comment one way or the other on the importance of a college education, or whatever post-high school training a person can take. It is meant as a comment on a plan that I think needs unplanning, now.