Quote:
Originally Posted by 757690
Let them cheer. It's a once in a lifetime experience, marking an eccomplishment that is every parents dream. If they cheer too long, wait. Who cares how long the ceremony lasts?
Considering how many students these days aren't graduating, I would think a school would encourage parents to expresss their excitement at their child graduating.
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The parents do get to cheer, at the end of the walk, with all the other parents.
I suspect you haven't been to too many graduation ceremonies, and certainly haven't been there with elderly relatives. I went to a large high school, a large university, and law school, and have family members who have done the same. I also taught for a while and went through graduation ceremonies for my students every semester for 2 years. While the worst I have to deal with is falling asleep, long graduation ceremonies are taxing on elderly grandparents and family members with health issues (such as diabetics), especially when the venue for the ceremony relies on bleachers or folding chairs for their seating. And if it's outside on a hot day, people get dehydrated. Now imagine you've got a 600 student class and you let everyone clap and cheer as much as they want. You're now dragging out a 2 hour ceremony to 3-4 hours, a real test of endurance. Do you think school want to have an entire paramedics department stationed at the ready to deal with people passing out? Is it fair to make grandparents and family members with potential health problems stay at home because they can't handle a measly 4 hour graduation?
The reason schools want to keep the ceremonies moving along is because they know: a) a lot of people just can't handle sitting through a ceremony that goes beyond 2 hours, and b) those that can usually want to get the ceremony over with so that they can move on to the real celebration, the graduation party.