<p>Absolutely agree, no to airhorns, whether at a small or large graduation.</p>
<p>Shout outs as son/daughter/friend makes it to the stage is pretty normal even where they ask applause to be held, not out of disrespect, but due to a spontaneous utterance of pride. It’s especially welcome for/by those kids who’ve had a tough road to get to that stage.</p>
<p>At my son’s HS graduation, clapping and shout outs were allowed, because the class size was so small, and the kids at this special education day school had gone through so much to arrive at that moment. It was even more special, because so many of them got into major colleges and universities that had never before been realized by the preceding classes.</p>
<p>As for college graduation, again, it depends. I recall that at UCLA, back in the day, all of our names were, in fact noted, but clapping and cheers were limited and divided by departments and by degrees. In short, all BAs from the English department stood up and were honored, en masse. I don’t recall that we had to leave our seats other than stand up and be recognized, but that was a LONG time ago, so my memory is short on whether we actually went on stage. I’m thinking if we had to do that, graduation would have been an all day and all night affair!</p>
<p>It was nice, at a community arts event honoring seniors this weekend, that a group of high schoolers in the audience applauded and hoorah-ed enthusiastically for *all *of the honorees, not just their particular friends.</p>
<p>I will always remember D’s HS graduation. The only family that used an air horn also happened to be the only family who gifted their daughter breast implants for her graduation.
nuff said</p>
<p>Oberlin College and Conservatory, 3 years ago, somebody’s younger sibling had an airhorn and sat next to me (and far from her parents, evidently). She squawked that thing anytime she liked somebody’s name. I realize it wasn’t her ignorance but I did ask her to stop after many, many blasts. </p>
<p>That’s at a college where the student body knows not to clap between movements of a symphony, for goodness sake. Airhorns are just not appropriate at a college graduation.</p>
<p>You should have seen the graduation at Syrcause this morning…the students were throwing beach balls around during the ceremony. The usher type people (I’m not quite sure who they were exactly??) kept trying to take them away, but they just kept pulling out more. They were chucking them around at the ends of speeches, while they were calling out the names of the graduates getting PhD’s, when they were getting conferred…I found it really rude, but a lot of people thought it was funny.</p>
<p>Con, most definitely–but I will say that if a name is not heard because of crowd noise, that’s not only the noise-makers’ fault. There’s no excuse for the people at the microphone not waiting till the crowd is quiet before calling the next name. This is one of the biggest moments in these kids’ lives. Their names deserve to be heard, even if that means the ceremony runs a shade longer.</p>
<p>We just got back from our son’s college graduation. All in all, everyone was rather respectful. There were a few people with stupid air horns but they limited their sounding to a quick shot from the can. One quick/short honk. </p>
<p>When son’s name was called to go up on stage, I got caught up in the moment and yelled out “Yeah (insert name)!”. He graduated in the top 1% of his graduating class–Summa Cum Laude with a GPA over 3.9. I felt as though he deserved a little extra applause for his accomplishment. :)</p>
<p>Do you know what I appreciated the most about his college graduation? I loved the diversity of the students and of those in attendance for the celebration. It was lovely.</p>
<p>Just returned from two ceremonies for DS. One for honors students in a smaller venue. And one in the standard big venue. Believe it or not, the honors ceremony had more call outs. Although the call outs that did happen in the stadium were LOUDER. One large family treated it like a sporting event, sat way up in the nose bleed seats, and stood up and yelled very loudly with big signs. Stupid. I joked to my ds about tasers…well we ARE from the Philly area, so what do expect? Anyway, no air horns in either. </p>
<p>For HS graduation, I remember an inflatable doll being tossed around. It was confiscated rather quickly. The doll was…how can a I say it…NOT in good taste.</p>
<p>Getting upset about this is fighting a battle you can’t win. I just attended my medical school’s graduation ceremony and no level is immune from this behavior. </p>
<p>However, the students themselves didn’t heed the instructions for a certain member of their class, who had just had appendicitis two days earlier. Sometimes when people cheer and you don’t it just means you don’t know the back story.</p>
<p>OK, how about this…Commencement speeches are often long and boring. How about parents bring string instruments and start playing at the end of the long speeches to let them know they should wrap it up like in the Oscars.</p>
<p>I’m in the minority here, I guess. Let me ask y’all this …</p>
<p>At my junior college graduation, when my name was called my friends unfurled a bedsheet from the balcony that read “We (heart) you, YDS!” It didn’t make noise at all. Is that horrible, too?</p>
<p>YDS, that reminds me of a graduation I attended where the families were asked to simply stand up when their S/D’s name was called. It actually worked out fairly well, but must have taken a lot of discipline!</p>
<p>At my D’s graduation yesterday, the crowd was pretty well-behaved, considering we were crammed in like sardines for 2.5 hr. The thing that bothered me a little was the attire of the students; many had decorated their caps in some way (the better to be spotted by their families maybe), many others were wearing decorated miner’s helmets instead of (or in addition to) their caps, several wore jeans/tennis shoes, I saw one in shorts/flip flops! It was all a bit distracting.</p>
<p>Honestly, there should be a dress code for the students. Bikinis, shorts, flip flops, et al are all ridiculous, and if you’re sending someone out into the work force or to a 4-year university they should be able to conduct themselves with minimal decorum.</p>