No more Honor Cords, Stoles etc at future FCPS Graduations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO cords are dumb. I went to MIT and it didn't allow anything. In a crazy rat race we don't need even more mini races that don't matter.

+1

It used to be that we made a very big deal out of post-graduate degrees, a big deal out of college graduation, and a minor deal out of high school graduation.

Now, we make a huge deal out of high school graduation (even throwing parties that cost $10K or more), and we expect promotion ceremonies and major school awards at the end of preschool, kindergarten, sixth grade, and eighth grade.

It has gotten way out of hand.

So what? People can celebrate how they want to.

Fine, you can celebrate how you choose. But expecting the schools to host major awards and promotion ceremonies, give trophies for having a pulse, and allow for obscene displays of grandiosity at graduation is out of hand.

So now an NHS stole and a service cord are “obscene displays of grandiosity”? You sound insane.

Of course those two alone are not obscene, but a kid wearing 12-20 cords plus 4-6 medals, which they purchased online, is obscene.

You must be from Maryland or Loudoyn, or perhaps California.

FCPS (Fairfax County, Virginia) does not allow cords that students purchase on Amazon. Those get thrown in the trash or taken back to the high schools when the admin checks in the students for graduation.

FCPS (again, Fairfax County Virginia, NOT maryland or Loudoun or whatever state where you are from) is very strict about only allowing cords on the approved list.

No student will be able to get 20 cords. It just is not possible.

Those of you from other districts should not be commenting here.

I'm from FCPS. No one checked cords at any of my kids' graduations, and there were definitely kids with 12+ cords.

My neighbor bragged about buying cords and medals on Amazon for both of her kids. No one checked any of their cords and medals.

What achool?

I am highly skeptical of your post

I teach at an FCPS school. No one takes away fake/amazon cords. Kids wear whatever they want.

+1

There are too many kids to check. No one takes away all the fake cords.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO cords are dumb. I went to MIT and it didn't allow anything. In a crazy rat race we don't need even more mini races that don't matter.

+1

It used to be that we made a very big deal out of post-graduate degrees, a big deal out of college graduation, and a minor deal out of high school graduation.

Now, we make a huge deal out of high school graduation (even throwing parties that cost $10K or more), and we expect promotion ceremonies and major school awards at the end of preschool, kindergarten, sixth grade, and eighth grade.

It has gotten way out of hand.

So what? People can celebrate how they want to.

Fine, you can celebrate how you choose. But expecting the schools to host major awards and promotion ceremonies, give trophies for having a pulse, and allow for obscene displays of grandiosity at graduation is out of hand.

So now an NHS stole and a service cord are “obscene displays of grandiosity”? You sound insane.

Of course those two alone are not obscene, but a kid wearing 12-20 cords plus 4-6 medals, which they purchased online, is obscene.

You must be from Maryland or Loudoyn, or perhaps California.

FCPS (Fairfax County, Virginia) does not allow cords that students purchase on Amazon. Those get thrown in the trash or taken back to the high schools when the admin checks in the students for graduation.

FCPS (again, Fairfax County Virginia, NOT maryland or Loudoun or whatever state where you are from) is very strict about only allowing cords on the approved list.

No student will be able to get 20 cords. It just is not possible.

Those of you from other districts should not be commenting here.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO cords are dumb. I went to MIT and it didn't allow anything. In a crazy rat race we don't need even more mini races that don't matter.

+1

It used to be that we made a very big deal out of post-graduate degrees, a big deal out of college graduation, and a minor deal out of high school graduation.

Now, we make a huge deal out of high school graduation (even throwing parties that cost $10K or more), and we expect promotion ceremonies and major school awards at the end of preschool, kindergarten, sixth grade, and eighth grade.

It has gotten way out of hand.

So what? People can celebrate how they want to.

Fine, you can celebrate how you choose. But expecting the schools to host major awards and promotion ceremonies, give trophies for having a pulse, and allow for obscene displays of grandiosity at graduation is out of hand.

So now an NHS stole and a service cord are “obscene displays of grandiosity”? You sound insane.

Of course those two alone are not obscene, but a kid wearing 12-20 cords plus 4-6 medals, which they purchased online, is obscene.

You must be from Maryland or Loudoyn, or perhaps California.

FCPS (Fairfax County, Virginia) does not allow cords that students purchase on Amazon. Those get thrown in the trash or taken back to the high schools when the admin checks in the students for graduation.

FCPS (again, Fairfax County Virginia, NOT maryland or Loudoun or whatever state where you are from) is very strict about only allowing cords on the approved list.

No student will be able to get 20 cords. It just is not possible.

Those of you from other districts should not be commenting here.

+1

I am an FCPS parent, and I have been following this thread because my youngest graduates in 2 years.

There seems to one or more trolls posting on this thread. Several posters seem to k ow nothing at all about FCPS, let alone HS graduation here.

The troll posting about “buying cords on Amazon” appears to have fabricated that just to stir up trouble here. Go away trolls!

100% not trolls. The Amazon cords/medals have been around for years. Some kids at my daughter's school bought them for their friends so they can match and as a symbol of their shared summer job employment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where's the list of cords?

Doesn't matter because kids are wearing/buying their own. Too many grads for the school to check and approve.

Fcps does not allow kids to wear Amazon cords.

Fcps has a color coded list and only those cords are allowed

And yet they are powerless to control this whatsoever!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Robinson doesn’t take anything away. It explicitly says on their website no flowers or leis, but there are always one or two kids with them. Same with non school sanctioned cords and medals.

They're are at least 5-10 kids with leis at my kids HS. Western PWC. Not obviously Hawaiian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO cords are dumb. I went to MIT and it didn't allow anything. In a crazy rat race we don't need even more mini races that don't matter.

+1

It used to be that we made a very big deal out of post-graduate degrees, a big deal out of college graduation, and a minor deal out of high school graduation.

Now, we make a huge deal out of high school graduation (even throwing parties that cost $10K or more), and we expect promotion ceremonies and major school awards at the end of preschool, kindergarten, sixth grade, and eighth grade.

It has gotten way out of hand.

So what? People can celebrate how they want to.

Fine, you can celebrate how you choose. But expecting the schools to host major awards and promotion ceremonies, give trophies for having a pulse, and allow for obscene displays of grandiosity at graduation is out of hand.

So now an NHS stole and a service cord are “obscene displays of grandiosity”? You sound insane.

Of course those two alone are not obscene, but a kid wearing 12-20 cords plus 4-6 medals, which they purchased online, is obscene.

You must be from Maryland or Loudoyn, or perhaps California.

FCPS (Fairfax County, Virginia) does not allow cords that students purchase on Amazon. Those get thrown in the trash or taken back to the high schools when the admin checks in the students for graduation.

FCPS (again, Fairfax County Virginia, NOT maryland or Loudoun or whatever state where you are from) is very strict about only allowing cords on the approved list.

No student will be able to get 20 cords. It just is not possible.

Those of you from other districts should not be commenting here.

+1

I am an FCPS parent, and I have been following this thread because my youngest graduates in 2 years.

There seems to one or more trolls posting on this thread. Several posters seem to k ow nothing at all about FCPS, let alone HS graduation here.

The troll posting about “buying cords on Amazon” appears to have fabricated that just to stir up trouble here. Go away trolls!

100% not trolls. The Amazon cords/medals have been around for years. Some kids at my daughter's school bought them for their friends so they can match and as a symbol of their shared summer job employment.

+1

I've taught in three different FCPS schools. The Amazon cords and medals have been common at all three for many years.

Other than having an exceptionally fragile ego, there is no reason why a parent, who probably has experience with only one school and only for a few years, should think they are the expert on cords and therefore believe someone is a troll for posting a fact that contradicts their own experience. That doesn't make the other person a troll or mean they are posting from outside FCPS.

[Anonymous]

The graduation programs in FCPS are no linger allowed to recognize honor grads or any honor societies in the graduation programs.

That was banned starting with class of 2025 after a class of 2024 parent pitched a huge fit up to Dr. Reid over honor grad recognition at graduation.

The honor stoles are the only recognition remaining in fcps for honor grads, national honor society, and other honor societies.

I was at McLean High School’s graduation yesterday and the program recognized honor grads and those in honor societies (albeit in 4 pt font size so who could read it). Not sure about what’s happening next year. Just let the kids wear their cords and stoles (as long as from the county-approved list)

[Anonymous]

the Woodson graduation program astericked kids with honors and had them stand up and be recognized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robinson doesn’t take anything away. It explicitly says on their website no flowers or leis, but there are always one or two kids with them. Same with non school sanctioned cords and medals.

They're are at least 5-10 kids with leis at my kids HS. Western PWC. Not obviously Hawaiian.

Well maybe they identify as Hawaiian. You don’t know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robinson doesn’t take anything away. It explicitly says on their website no flowers or leis, but there are always one or two kids with them. Same with non school sanctioned cords and medals.

They're are at least 5-10 kids with leis at my kids HS. Western PWC. Not obviously Hawaiian.

PWC is not Fairfax County.

Our FCPS high school takes away the amazon cords.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The graduation programs in FCPS are no linger allowed to recognize honor grads or any honor societies in the graduation programs.

That was banned starting with class of 2025 after a class of 2024 parent pitched a huge fit up to Dr. Reid over honor grad recognition at graduation.

The honor stoles are the only recognition remaining in fcps for honor grads, national honor society, and other honor societies.

I was at McLean High School’s graduation yesterday and the program recognized honor grads and those in honor societies (albeit in 4 pt font size so who could read it). Not sure about what’s happening next year. Just let the kids wear their cords and stoles (as long as from the county-approved list)

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, could you please articulate why this is important to you/your kid?

(To be clear, I ask this question as the parent of kids who do very well academically, and their graduation accessories are not something that matters to me, so I'm trying to understand where you're coming from.)

The reasoning the kids were given is to protect the feelings of those who don't have honor cords -- who (whether voluntarily or involuntarily) decided not to join the honor societies or organizations that the honor cords denote. So, some kids are not being allowed to celebrate their hard won success to protect the fragility of others.

This is the same thing as the "participation trophy" in kindergarten soccer - -except now we are talking about adults about to enter the real world.

That fits with the “equity” portion of FCPS’ overarching mission statement, known as the One Fairfax policy.

Essentially One Fairfax = DEI comes first in FCPS.

Exactly. All DEI and Woke, but what FCPS doesn't understand is that the tide has turned - look what happened to TJ by trying it (dropped to 14th in the nation, etc.). Every institution is dropping it, if not loudly, quietly. FCPS is going the wrong way.

TJ was #5 last year.

Go f yourself, MAGA trash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The graduation programs in FCPS are no linger allowed to recognize honor grads or any honor societies in the graduation programs.

That was banned starting with class of 2025 after a class of 2024 parent pitched a huge fit up to Dr. Reid over honor grad recognition at graduation.

The honor stoles are the only recognition remaining in fcps for honor grads, national honor society, and other honor societies.

I was at McLean High School’s graduation yesterday and the program recognized honor grads and those in honor societies (albeit in 4 pt font size so who could read it). Not sure about what’s happening next year. Just let the kids wear their cords and stoles (as long as from the county-approved list)

+1000

I was there as well and I completely agree.

Why is FCPS continually picking these battles and thinking up ways to further diminish our kids schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The graduation programs in FCPS are no linger allowed to recognize honor grads or any honor societies in the graduation programs.

That was banned starting with class of 2025 after a class of 2024 parent pitched a huge fit up to Dr. Reid over honor grad recognition at graduation.

The honor stoles are the only recognition remaining in fcps for honor grads, national honor society, and other honor societies.

Because it is all about equal outcomes and feelings. If everyone can’t excel no one can excel.


I was at McLean High School’s graduation yesterday and the program recognized honor grads and those in honor societies (albeit in 4 pt font size so who could read it). Not sure about what’s happening next year. Just let the kids wear their cords and stoles (as long as from the county-approved list)

+1000

I was there as well and I completely agree.

Why is FCPS continually picking these battles and thinking up ways to further diminish our kids schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The graduation programs in FCPS are no linger allowed to recognize honor grads or any honor societies in the graduation programs.

That was banned starting with class of 2025 after a class of 2024 parent pitched a huge fit up to Dr. Reid over honor grad recognition at graduation.

The honor stoles are the only recognition remaining in fcps for honor grads, national honor society, and other honor societies.

Because it is all about equal outcomes and feelings. If everyone can’t excel no one can excel.


I was at McLean High School’s graduation yesterday and the program recognized honor grads and those in honor societies (albeit in 4 pt font size so who could read it). Not sure about what’s happening next year. Just let the kids wear their cords and stoles (as long as from the county-approved list)

+1000

I was there as well and I completely agree.

Why is FCPS continually picking these battles and thinking up ways to further diminish our kids schools?

Because it is all about equal outcomes and feelings. If everyone cannot excel no one can excel.