Graduation experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a morning slot of UMBC and the grads had to leave our house by 6:30 to get there, so it was a little exhausting. They were told they couldn't use the bathrooms between 7:30 and when it finished at noon, which I thought was ridiculous, but may not have been fully enforced (I did see 1-2 sneak out). It wasn't great and I agree that the crowd control coming out was not great, but I didn't see anyone getting body-checked. Agree it's a little bit of a bummer that there's not someplace nice to gather as we came out. The next HS was already coming in as we were leaving, so it really was crowded and no place to really gather/celebrate (small grassy area to the left of the entrance, but it was pretty crowded). File this all under "MCPS is an enormous system with HSs that are way too big so there are some issues that flow from that."

Also, do they have to let the BOE people speak? That was the worst part. No one wanted to hear her, and her speech was bad. I would say the high points for us were the orchestra, chorus and the principal's speech. The orchestra really did very well.

Ours was the board member with the short hair. Her speech was horrible and thinly vailed virtue signaling but I think she was also the one reading the names and was going way to fast and not pausing when people cheered so you couldn't hear the next name. If they had cut one of the other miserable speeches maybe they would have had time to allow a beat between the names. It was disgracefully rude to the graduates imo.

Exactly. No one cares about a Board Member's speech. And there is no need to have more than one speech in addition to the Principal's. Everyone wants to hear their graduate's name so allow for time between names for people to cheer/celebrate. Do we parents have to come up with every idea in the largest school district in MD. Sheesh 🙄

Know talking about HS graduation here but at a MS promotion ceremony, there were even more speeches: assistant principal, principal of HS majority of students were going to attend, counselor, student gov leader, and one more. Why oh why?

Ceremonies have speeches. I would expect people who have reached adulthood to know this.

And someone who has actually reached adulthood knows better than to expect that many speeches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So why don’t all schools just use their football field? If Blair, the biggest HS in the county can manage, so can others.

It's more $ to hold it at the school field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a morning slot of UMBC and the grads had to leave our house by 6:30 to get there, so it was a little exhausting. They were told they couldn't use the bathrooms between 7:30 and when it finished at noon, which I thought was ridiculous, but may not have been fully enforced (I did see 1-2 sneak out). It wasn't great and I agree that the crowd control coming out was not great, but I didn't see anyone getting body-checked. Agree it's a little bit of a bummer that there's not someplace nice to gather as we came out. The next HS was already coming in as we were leaving, so it really was crowded and no place to really gather/celebrate (small grassy area to the left of the entrance, but it was pretty crowded). File this all under "MCPS is an enormous system with HSs that are way too big so there are some issues that flow from that."

Also, do they have to let the BOE people speak? That was the worst part. No one wanted to hear her, and her speech was bad. I would say the high points for us were the orchestra, chorus and the principal's speech. The orchestra really did very well.

Ours was the board member with the short hair. Her speech was horrible and thinly vailed virtue signaling but I think she was also the one reading the names and was going way to fast and not pausing when people cheered so you couldn't hear the next name. If they had cut one of the other miserable speeches maybe they would have had time to allow a beat between the names. It was disgracefully rude to the graduates imo.

Exactly. No one cares about a Board Member's speech. And there is no need to have more than one speech in addition to the Principal's. Everyone wants to hear their graduate's name so allow for time between names for people to cheer/celebrate. Do we parents have to come up with every idea in the largest school district in MD. Sheesh 🙄

Know talking about HS graduation here but at a MS promotion ceremony, there were even more speeches: assistant principal, principal of HS majority of students were going to attend, counselor, student gov leader, and one more. Why oh why?

Ceremonies have speeches. I would expect people who have reached adulthood to know this.

And someone who has actually reached adulthood knows better than to expect that many speeches.

On the contrary, someone who has actually reached adulthood expects that many speeches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a morning slot of UMBC and the grads had to leave our house by 6:30 to get there, so it was a little exhausting. They were told they couldn't use the bathrooms between 7:30 and when it finished at noon, which I thought was ridiculous, but may not have been fully enforced (I did see 1-2 sneak out). It wasn't great and I agree that the crowd control coming out was not great, but I didn't see anyone getting body-checked. Agree it's a little bit of a bummer that there's not someplace nice to gather as we came out. The next HS was already coming in as we were leaving, so it really was crowded and no place to really gather/celebrate (small grassy area to the left of the entrance, but it was pretty crowded). File this all under "MCPS is an enormous system with HSs that are way too big so there are some issues that flow from that."

Also, do they have to let the BOE people speak? That was the worst part. No one wanted to hear her, and her speech was bad. I would say the high points for us were the orchestra, chorus and the principal's speech. The orchestra really did very well.

Ours was the board member with the short hair. Her speech was horrible and thinly vailed virtue signaling but I think she was also the one reading the names and was going way to fast and not pausing when people cheered so you couldn't hear the next name. If they had cut one of the other miserable speeches maybe they would have had time to allow a beat between the names. It was disgracefully rude to the graduates imo.

Exactly. No one cares about a Board Member's speech. And there is no need to have more than one speech in addition to the Principal's. Everyone wants to hear their graduate's name so allow for time between names for people to cheer/celebrate. Do we parents have to come up with every idea in the largest school district in MD. Sheesh 🙄

Know talking about HS graduation here but at a MS promotion ceremony, there were even more speeches: assistant principal, principal of HS majority of students were going to attend, counselor, student gov leader, and one more. Why oh why?

Ceremonies have speeches. I would expect people who have reached adulthood to know this.

And someone who has actually reached adulthood knows better than to expect that many speeches.

On the contrary, someone who has actually reached adulthood expects that many speeches.

No they don't. That many speeches is not needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why don’t all schools just use their football field? If Blair, the biggest HS in the county can manage, so can others.

It's more $ to hold it at the school field.

Source?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a morning slot of UMBC and the grads had to leave our house by 6:30 to get there, so it was a little exhausting. They were told they couldn't use the bathrooms between 7:30 and when it finished at noon, which I thought was ridiculous, but may not have been fully enforced (I did see 1-2 sneak out). It wasn't great and I agree that the crowd control coming out was not great, but I didn't see anyone getting body-checked. Agree it's a little bit of a bummer that there's not someplace nice to gather as we came out. The next HS was already coming in as we were leaving, so it really was crowded and no place to really gather/celebrate (small grassy area to the left of the entrance, but it was pretty crowded). File this all under "MCPS is an enormous system with HSs that are way too big so there are some issues that flow from that."

Also, do they have to let the BOE people speak? That was the worst part. No one wanted to hear her, and her speech was bad. I would say the high points for us were the orchestra, chorus and the principal's speech. The orchestra really did very well.

Ours was the board member with the short hair. Her speech was horrible and thinly vailed virtue signaling but I think she was also the one reading the names and was going way to fast and not pausing when people cheered so you couldn't hear the next name. If they had cut one of the other miserable speeches maybe they would have had time to allow a beat between the names. It was disgracefully rude to the graduates imo.

Exactly. No one cares about a Board Member's speech. And there is no need to have more than one speech in addition to the Principal's. Everyone wants to hear their graduate's name so allow for time between names for people to cheer/celebrate. Do we parents have to come up with every idea in the largest school district in MD. Sheesh 🙄

Know talking about HS graduation here but at a MS promotion ceremony, there were even more speeches: assistant principal, principal of HS majority of students were going to attend, counselor, student gov leader, and one more. Why oh why?

Ceremonies have speeches. I would expect people who have reached adulthood to know this.

And someone who has actually reached adulthood knows better than to expect that many speeches.

On the contrary, someone who has actually reached adulthood expects that many speeches.

No they don't. That many speeches is not needed.

That's a different issue. Will there be that many speeches? Yes. Do you want there to be that many speeches? No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why don’t all schools just use their football field? If Blair, the biggest HS in the county can manage, so can others.

It's more $ to hold it at the school field.

Source?

DP, but that's what I heard, too. Because of the equipment rental.

[Anonymous]

Unless it has changed they are limited to two hours. Between the procession and calling all the names..how long could the speeches be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a morning slot of UMBC and the grads had to leave our house by 6:30 to get there, so it was a little exhausting. They were told they couldn't use the bathrooms between 7:30 and when it finished at noon, which I thought was ridiculous, but may not have been fully enforced (I did see 1-2 sneak out). It wasn't great and I agree that the crowd control coming out was not great, but I didn't see anyone getting body-checked. Agree it's a little bit of a bummer that there's not someplace nice to gather as we came out. The next HS was already coming in as we were leaving, so it really was crowded and no place to really gather/celebrate (small grassy area to the left of the entrance, but it was pretty crowded). File this all under "MCPS is an enormous system with HSs that are way too big so there are some issues that flow from that."

Also, do they have to let the BOE people speak? That was the worst part. No one wanted to hear her, and her speech was bad. I would say the high points for us were the orchestra, chorus and the principal's speech. The orchestra really did very well.

Ours was the board member with the short hair. Her speech was horrible and thinly vailed virtue signaling but I think she was also the one reading the names and was going way to fast and not pausing when people cheered so you couldn't hear the next name. If they had cut one of the other miserable speeches maybe they would have had time to allow a beat between the names. It was disgracefully rude to the graduates imo.

Exactly. No one cares about a Board Member's speech. And there is no need to have more than one speech in addition to the Principal's. Everyone wants to hear their graduate's name so allow for time between names for people to cheer/celebrate. Do we parents have to come up with every idea in the largest school district in MD. Sheesh 🙄

Know talking about HS graduation here but at a MS promotion ceremony, there were even more speeches: assistant principal, principal of HS majority of students were going to attend, counselor, student gov leader, and one more. Why oh why?

Ceremonies have speeches. I would expect people who have reached adulthood to know this.

And someone who has actually reached adulthood knows better than to expect that many speeches.

On the contrary, someone who has actually reached adulthood expects that many speeches.

No they don't. That many speeches is not needed.

That's a different issue. Will there be that many speeches? Yes. Do you want there to be that many speeches? No.

Exactly. Everyone wishing to attend should expect to be uncomfortable and bored stiff. Anything more positive than that should be a pleasant surprise. This is why we don't invite anyone to our kids' graduations. We sent my parents a link to the live feed, which they watched religiously, and for friends, other relatives and my elderly MIL, we just sent a short clip of the senior in question walking on stage and receiving the diploma. This is the MO for all graduations in the family.

And yes, I loathe speeches. But they're part of the ritual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless it has changed they are limited to two hours. Between the procession and calling all the names..how long could the speeches be?

Always too long, my friend

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless it has changed they are limited to two hours. Between the procession and calling all the names..how long could the speeches be?

Always too long, my friend

Rarely are any of the graduation speeches good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why don’t all schools just use their football field? If Blair, the biggest HS in the county can manage, so can others.

It's more $ to hold it at the school field.

Not all high schools have the # of parking spaces Blair does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why don’t all schools just use their football field? If Blair, the biggest HS in the county can manage, so can others.

It's more $ to hold it at the school field.

Not all high schools have the # of parking spaces Blair does.

They don't need the parking necessarily. If the graduation is at the HS, closer to get to ceremony in other ways. Some folks live within walking, biking, scooting distance. And for others who live further away, it is still closer than UMBC or DAR.

[Anonymous]

All high schools had the option to have it at their home field. Only Blair and Damascus chose that option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a morning slot of UMBC and the grads had to leave our house by 6:30 to get there, so it was a little exhausting. They were told they couldn't use the bathrooms between 7:30 and when it finished at noon, which I thought was ridiculous, but may not have been fully enforced (I did see 1-2 sneak out). It wasn't great and I agree that the crowd control coming out was not great, but I didn't see anyone getting body-checked. Agree it's a little bit of a bummer that there's not someplace nice to gather as we came out. The next HS was already coming in as we were leaving, so it really was crowded and no place to really gather/celebrate (small grassy area to the left of the entrance, but it was pretty crowded). File this all under "MCPS is an enormous system with HSs that are way too big so there are some issues that flow from that."

Also, do they have to let the BOE people speak? That was the worst part. No one wanted to hear her, and her speech was bad. I would say the high points for us were the orchestra, chorus and the principal's speech. The orchestra really did very well.

Ours was the board member with the short hair. Her speech was horrible and thinly vailed virtue signaling but I think she was also the one reading the names and was going way to fast and not pausing when people cheered so you couldn't hear the next name. If they had cut one of the other miserable speeches maybe they would have had time to allow a beat between the names. It was disgracefully rude to the graduates imo.

Exactly. No one cares about a Board Member's speech. And there is no need to have more than one speech in addition to the Principal's. Everyone wants to hear their graduate's name so allow for time between names for people to cheer/celebrate. Do we parents have to come up with every idea in the largest school district in MD. Sheesh 🙄

Know talking about HS graduation here but at a MS promotion ceremony, there were even more speeches: assistant principal, principal of HS majority of students were going to attend, counselor, student gov leader, and one more. Why oh why?

Ceremonies have speeches. I would expect people who have reached adulthood to know this.

And someone who has actually reached adulthood knows better than to expect that many speeches.

On the contrary, someone who has actually reached adulthood expects that many speeches.

No they don't. That many speeches is not needed.

That's a different issue. Will there be that many speeches? Yes. Do you want there to be that many speeches? No.

No not separate issue. Same issue. Do you remember any speeches from your HS? I don't but I still remember that songs played by the students. It was beautiful.