At this time in the school year, many graduations and end of the year activities are being planned. Some of the schools in my district have a kindergarten graduation. Some of the graduations are complete with cap and gown pictures and diplomas.
My school chooses not to participate in a kindergarten graduation. We opt for an end of the year family picnic instead of a graduation ceremony.
The picnic requires no practices by the students. Instead of sitting through a graduation, in which many students get into trouble for misbehaving, our students get to play at the playground and eat outside. The families of our students are invited to attend. We furnish hotdogs, cokes, chips, and cookies.
There is no mention of who is going on to first grade and who is remaining another year in kindergarten. Our picnic is for every student in kindergarten and his/her family. Some issues that surround a kindergarten graduation include the feelings of the students that are not graduating to first grade.
Most schools practice for their kindergarten graduation during school hours. Therefore the students that are remaining in kindergarten for another year also practice. They hear the conversations about the graduation and learn the songs and the routine of the ceremony. Many times the retained students are then asked to not attend the graduation. It is very hard for the students to understand why they put hard work into the practices but are not allowed to attend.
I am not against a kindergarten graduation. However, I am very satisfied that my school chooses not to have one. I can see how the ceremony is very hard on families that have children not moving on to first grade. I feel that kindergarten graduations began when kindergarten was not mandatory and few children attended. Some schools did not even have a kindergarten class. The children graduated from kindergarten because they had completed something special that others did not choose to complete. However, now kindergarten is nothing different from first or second grade or any other grade in school. To me graduations mark the end of one part of your life and the beginning of something new. In today’s world kindergarten is not an ending at all. It is only one step in a series of many.
Related Articles
High School Activities in Middle & Elementary Schools
Desiree’s Kindengarten Graduation!
And What About All Those Paper Towel Tubes?