I have to admit, I was a skeptic with all of this Kindergarten Graduation stuff being bandied about. I never had a graduation ceremony until I was in high school and here in Chicago, they have Kindergarten, Eighth Grade AND High School Graduation. Overkill, if you ask me. Ben kept bringing home flyers about it -- wanting us to donate money and/or things for goodie bags, asking for volunteers to decorate before the ceremony, and a flyer for an after-graduation party (which we had in high school, it was an all-nighter though).
However, it was really sweet. I loved seeing all of the kids up there and reminiscing on how far Ben has come and thinking back to how anxious I was about it before he started. I'm really thankful for his outstanding teacher who made this transition as painless as it could be. I'm also thankful for his friends who have welcomed him. Though I was cynical about it before graduation, it was a good time for me to reflect and to see how far he's come.
I have thought about why Chicago has so many graduations -- I only had High School Graduation when I was growing up. Chicago Public Schools has one of the highest dropout rates in the country -- I wonder if people make a big deal out of Kindergarten/8th Grade Graduation because they never get to High School Graduation. Same thing with prom -- prom is a huge deal here, maybe because so many poor, minority, urban kids never end up getting married, so prom is their one opportunity to get dressed to the nines and be celebrated?
Anyhow, I'm so proud of my little man. He's come a long way this year through a lot of hard work. Congratulations Ben, Class of 2024!
No comments:
Post a Comment