<p>“Easy solution as far as I’m concerned - announce that anyone violating the rules will be escorted out.”</p>
<p>They won’t care because they will have yelled, etc. as their student graduates. They won’t care about missing the rest of the ceremony since all they cared about was their student. :(</p>
<p>Con, all the way. Adults should be able to behave considerately and with decorum. My thoughts about those who insist on egregious displays: You and your kid are not the only people inhabiting the universe. Get over yourselves.</p>
<p>Is there really anyone who believes that it is ok, especially when specifically asked to refrain from making noise, cheering or calling out? What happpened to common courtesy?</p>
<p>Our kids go to school in a small, rural district. Most kids here live within shouting distance of their entire family, grandparents, cousins, great-grandparents. It is not unusual for a kid to have 20-25 family members show up for a KINDERGARTEN music show that lasts twenty minutes. So you can image what graduation is like. Our kids have only the two of us – for S1 graduation one grandma flew in, but that still just makes the three. At his graduation there were kids who asked for over 100 tickets. So our little polite clapping for him sounded pitiful next to even the polite clapping of the kid in front of him’s 100 family members. </p>
<p>So for S2 H and I are thinking we will hire a brass band, dancing girls, flag wavers, fireworks, etc,etc, etc. To hell with decorum. We figure after 15 years of being the quiet ones it is time to cut loose.</p>
<p>If the graduating class is more than a couple of dozen, asking people to hold applause until then end is futile. But air horns…?</p>
<p>Con Graduation is a ceremony that should dictate a certain amount of decorum. The party should take place after the ceremony, kind of like a wedding and reception. Last year we attended my nephews HS graduation. It was held at an arena on a college campus. I felt like I was at a sporting event. They sold concessions and people constantly got up and down to get food it just seemed odd to have people eating hot dogs and popcorn at a graduation ceremony. There were air horns, cow bells, hooting and hollering. It felt inappropriate. My sons high school has a very old tradition of letting graduates walk with their friends instead of in alphabetical order. A new age benefit of that tradition is that the randomness helps keep people in their seats because they dont know when their student will be called. I think it helps with the excess celebration, too. People are less likely to drown out their childs best friends names from being heard.</p>
<p>Our last name begins with A. Son will be the 9th kid announced. I find myself selfishly hoping the audience will obey the “hold your applause” request that long. Please. If they do it for him, I promise to comply for the 302 kids that follow.</p>
<p>I would rather attend a graduation with a ‘football game’ atmosphere than one with a ‘funeral procession’ atmosphere. Of course, the ideal atmosphere would be somewhere in between.</p>
<p>Sons graduating class was a little over 900 students. If you added 5 additional seconds to the wait between names the ceremony would have been 75 minutes longer.</p>
<p>75 minutes longer. Ugh.</p>
<p>If my son was getting his Phd and a bunch of people were knocking around beach balls for everyone to focus on I’m not sure how in the world I could hold back my anger for the complete lack of respect shown.</p>
<p>If everone just did what they wanted (yelled, hooted, threw balls, used airhorns, waved signs, got up and down whenever they felt like it . ) there would be no “tradition” to speak of… just a free for all with people trying to one up one another. Focus no longer on the student and the accomplishment.</p>
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<p>Small potatoes. </p>
<p>However, if a family gets up and LEAVES after their kid crosses the stage, I’d want to share a couple thoughts with them.</p>
<p>Alright, I can’t hold my fingers back any longer: Some of y’all sound like you’re wound really tight. </p>
<p>A PhD ceremony – yeah, decorum. But a HS graduation? What’s wrong with a little enthusiasm? I’m not talking about a parade, though I will admit that my brother was guilty of the airhorn at my HS graduation. But, really, what’s wrong with a “YEAH!” and some clapping?</p>
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Because if everybody does it, the ceremony takes forever. And if not everybody does it, then the kids whose families behave as they’re asked to get shortchanged.</p>
<p>I mean, sure, it’s not that big a deal–on the scale of ethical violations, it ranks somewhere between forgetting to clean out the sink after you shave and forgetting to call your mom on Mother’s Day. Nobody dies, nobody is traumatized. But it’s a bit rude and inconsiderate around the edges.</p>
<p>I’ll admit it also annoys me because it’s yet one more example of the trouble people in this culture have controlling themselves. It’s like the way some people just cannot be still and quiet at music concerts (the unamplified kind).</p>
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<p>I shudder at the thought of a perfectly well behaved audience that waits in complete silence while 900 names are called out and 900 diplomas are handed out. Around #400, I’d be hoping for a couple of airhorns to liven things up a little.</p>
<p>“Because if everybody does it, the ceremony takes forever. And if not everybody does it, then the kids whose families behave as they’re asked to get shortchanged.”</p>
<p>Yes, that’s the point. Also the airhorns and other noise makes it impossible to hear students’ names called. </p>
<p>" shudder at the thought of a perfectly well behaved audience that waits in complete silence while 900 names are called out and 900 diplomas are handed out."</p>
<p>All I want to do is hear the names of my student and my students’ friends. I’m not there for the entertainment. Fine with me if the diploma presentation is conducted in dead silence except for the names. I don’t need to be entertained my airhorns. I can be entertained by seeing the proud smiles of the students and their families and friends.</p>
<p>nightcheff…reply #72…very well said. Thank you.</p>
<p>Sometimes I think families need to prove to the world that they love their kid more than the next guy loves his kid. It’s a competition to see who can outdo whom.</p>
<p>At a relative’s graduation from a top lac; a professor, seated in full view of the audience, dressed in full cap & gown regalia, was wearing flip flops and eating his lunch! That was far worse than anything the families were doing.</p>
<p>True confessions: I did holler out my boyfriend’s name at his graduation, but got such a stern glare from his father, I’ve felt chastized ever since! And that was 27 years ago!</p>
<p>I wonder what’s happened? Can’t we celebrate anything with quiet pride and dignity?
D graduated college Summa and overcame a struggle difficult enough to have been mentioned in the Dean’s address. But when her name was announced H and I smiled, cried a little and gripped each others hands. We were there for her, not the goon family right behind us with the air horn.</p>
<p>“And if not everybody does it, then the kids whose families behave as they’re asked to get shortchanged.”</p>
<p>How are they shortchanged? It sounds like those who don’t clap are most worried about the popularity contest.</p>
<p>And for the record, not calling your mom on Mother’s Day is a MAJOR lapse in my book. ;)</p>
<p>“It sounds like those who don’t clap are most worried about the popularity contest.”</p>
<p>no…we just want to hear our kids name.</p>
<p>I think shortchanging occurs when the comotion drowns out announcing the names. </p>
<p>If Mary Elizabeth Smith’s family wants to hear her name announced, it’s awfully inconsiderate of Marilyn Jane Smith’s family to shout, stomp, and clap. Next thing you know John David Starky is the name heard after Marilyn’s. I would feel 
for Mary Elizabeth’s family missing the announcement.</p>