Did you have a middle-school (or Jr. High) graduation?

[Kathryn Merteuil]

No I don't think I did.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I don't remember. My kids did, and I thought it was dumb.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I think I might have but it was like a school thing done during school hours. I remember one for sure done when I was in 6th grade (elementary school then was k-6, middle was 7-8)

 

[allison443]

I graduated from a Catholic elementary school (grades 1-8) in NYC in the mid-1970s. We had a graduation mass and ceremony with cap and gowns, diplomas, awards. All of the Catholic elementary schools did back then, and they still do. The students go to various high schools so it’s the end of their time together as a class. My kids went to Catholic elementary school in NJ, in the 2000s, same thing. The 8th grade graduation ceremony didn’t hinder any of us from going on to higher education or valuing our later ceremonies.

 

[KristaZ]

I had an 8th grade graduation - but I also grew up in NYC, where schools don't necessarily feed into each other, so students from my middle school were split off into different high schools.

I live upstate now and teach 5th grade - we have a graduation and parents go straight up crazy about it - kids come in really dressed up, hair and nails professionally done, given flowers and balloons, screaming and shouting out when their kids come up for "diplomas" (despite our reminders to please hold all applause until all students have been called). One year, a family showed up in a limo. We're astounded every year that parents do this for kids who are all going to stay together and move literally across a football field to the middle school (we share a campus).

 

[kanerf]

Nope, only High School.

 

[low-key]

Of course not, I grew up when you kept working until you got the big one, and I walked to school uphill both ways

 

[AppleDumpling]

Yes, public school in the 1970’s. Junior High was grades 7-9 and we had a “moving up” ceremony at the end of 9th grade. Elementary school had a ceremony at the end of 6th grade. No caps and gowns, but kids got dressed up.

DS also had Elementary (end of 5th grade) and Middle School (end of 8th grade) ceremonies. Very similar to mine, except the 8th graders had a semi-formal dance immediately following their ceremony, in the school gym.

 

[Kittyblue]

I had one in the 80s. It was held at an auditorium in town. My oldest also had one, but it was at the school gym.

 

[Kittyblue]

Of course not, I grew up when you kept working until you got the big one, and I walked to school uphill both ways

But was there snow?

 

[amcnj]

Elementary school was K-6 and we had a graduation from there. Then it was on to the Jr-Sr High school for 7-12, and only had a graduation after 12 th grade. But this is a long time ago now.

 

[disykat]

No graduation until high school for me or for my kids. The kids did have "promotion" events when they left elementary and junior high though.

 

[MamaMermaid]

I had an 8th grade "graduation." It was a very big deal at my school - parents came, etc. For the record, I'm 30 so I guess you could say this was fairly (?) recent?

 

[DisneyHardin]

I finished middle school in the early 90's and we did not have any sort of graduation.

 

[mrodgers]

I did. I grew up in small town pretty much in the middle of nowhere that only has a K-8 school. After that, my class of 16 went to 5 different high schools in other towns.

I had a graduation from Kindergarten. Not between schools.

I was the complete opposite of the quote. We were elementary schools all over the place and all gathered together for Jr. High School. We had 7-8, 9-10, 11-12 in separate schools.

 

[RedAngie]

Yes, my school had an 8th grade graduation ceremony. No caps and gowns, no suits or dresses, just regular school clothes, no entrance processional, no marching up to get a diploma. Kids and parents just gathered in the gym bleachers.

A few speeches, a few musical selections from the choir, a slideshow with an actual carousel slide projector shown on a screen. Whole thing took about an hour.

We received our graduation certificates back in our homerooms.

Henry C. Beck Middle School, Cherry Hill, NJ. June 1975. I remember being dumbfounded when the principal told us we’d be the HS class of 1979. Seemed like 100 years in the future.

 

[SC Minnie]

We had Jr HS that was 7-9th grade. There were 2 JHS in our town and 1 HS. There was no ceremony or anything after 9th grade. Everyone was going to the same school the next year.

DD had one at the end of 8th grade.

 

[monsterkitty]

No. I have also been a middle school teacher for now 33 years and we've never had an 8th grade graduation. In all the years I've been here there have only been a few parents who complained about no 8th grade "graduation".

We do have 8th grade activities, such as a Six Flags day. We also do a "moving on up" ceremony the last day of school in normal times. It's basically an assembly where the 8th graders sit in the 8th grade section of the bleachers. Then the high school principal and teachers take them to our lower gym for ice cream. The 7th graders then move to the 8th grade section and the 6th graders move to the 7th grade. That's all we do.

 

[soccerdad72]

Yes, we did have an 8th grade ceremony. Like others have mentioned, I went to a Catholic K-8 school, so we were all scattering to different high schools, so in some ways, it was the last time we'd be together with many of these classmates.

 

[jen7233]

Yes, a 9th grade junior high ceremony and a big event from what I recall most of the girls dressing up, wore dresses, got flowers, etc. It was outdoors in the raised bleachers with a stage area of the school, this was in SoCal. It's now a charter middle school, at some point the area I no longer live in and haven't since 93 switched to the middle school concept and put 9th grade back in high school.

One of my kids has an informal 8th grade graduation next month drive-thru event to get a wave goodbye and probably turn in things in a lane while driving through.