How were kids seated at Graduation? updated post #86

[barkley]

When DD20 graduated (in 2011, class of about 100), they walked in by height (until they ran out of boys… then just girls paired up). Girls were in the left column, boys in the right, and girls sat stage left, boys stage right. Speakers came out from wherever they happened to be sitting. Everyone wore maroon. The girls were told to bring their "graduation shoes" to practice so they could get the heights correctly, so the diplomas would be in the correct order.

When I graduated from high school in 1974, there were over 1000 in my class! Faculty and school board sat on stage, graduates in chairs facing the stage, parents and friends in the bleachers behind the graduates (it was on the football field). Girls wore white, boys wore blue, and you lined up in any order, in your appropriate column. I can't remember if student speakers were in the first row facing the stage, but I bet they were. We each had a card to hand to the announcer, who read your name as you walked across the stage, shook hands with the principal, and received a BLANK diploma folder. Actual diplomas were received in the mail, about a week after graduation. With that many kids, I don't know how else they could have done it, especially as some of the kids blew off graduation.

we got the blank diploma folders as well, and some grads were VERY surprised to open it and find a letter that told them their diplomas were not going to be issued until they either turned in or paid for missing text books (we were repeatedly warned for 2 full weeks prior to graduation to get them turned in before the ceremony or there would be 'consequences').

 

[smitch425]

For those of you who were lined up by height, how many were in your graduating class? We had about 250-275, and I can't imagine trying to figure out that lineup!

 

[Katelly]

My dd's graduation was last night and they marched out and were seated in the following order: Val/Sal, class officers, student government led the procession and were seated off to the side of the stage.

Next in line were members of the National Honor Society in alphabetical order and they sat in the first six rows, then it was members of the Senior Choir, (as they were going to be singing the National Anthem), in height order and then the rest of the student body in height order. They followed this same order to receive their diplomas.

All the boys were seated on the left and the girls on the right and they gave out diplomas in a boy/girl/boy/girl order. It went pretty quick too considering their were 500 plus students.

Ok, so where's the thread about the bad behavior of some parents at high school graduation. I have stories!

 

[luvsJack]

At dd's high school they sit alphabetically. The Val/Sal are sitting in their spot alphabetically and may or may not give a speech. 2-3 students do give speeches I think the Valedictorian and Salutatoria have first choice and can choose not to speak.

 

[barkley]

I think the school monitored the kids who they knew close. As I recall these are kids who unexpectedly bombed their finals. Finals were Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, graduation on Thursday. I know the school really puts the screws to the teachers to get finals corrected and final grades in by Wednesday afternoon.
But this was private Catholic school. I think in the public schools, everyone walks with their class, then finds out later they didn't graduate.

nope-I have a friend whose a high school counselor somewhat near you, and he hates that his district does final senior grades so late in the game that he has to go and pull kids from the practice to tell them they won't be walking. he feels awful about it, but it's not like it should come as a surprise since the school goes to great lengths to notify in writing parents/students who are close to not meeting the grad requirements several times during senior year.

he says he would love it if their district was set up like ours-seniors take their finals over 3 days 2 weeks prior to graduation, and the teachers have to have final grades submitted for the seniors by the Friday morning the week prior to graduation. by the end of the day on that Friday admin. knows exactly who is/is not graduating.

 

[Hrhpd]

Was it strictly alphabetically or the top 10 or 20 in the front row?

There has been serious drama with my daughters graduation. At practice when it was announced that they would be seated alphabetically I have heard from several kids that a couple of the kids flipped out. Primarily because they are in the top 20 and not being seated in the front row. These kids are always recognized at the ceremony but have not been seated in the front row for several years.

a few parents of these kids went to the school board and caused quite a stink and they have now changed the seating for the ceremony.

Now I am one of those parents who does NOT have a super smart all honors AP child. but she is graduating and quite honestly I am over the moon that she did it. I honestly don't know what my reaction would be if I were in their shoes. But I thought I would ask here and get a feel for how they do it around the country.

Alphabetically.

The Valedictorian(s), Class President, speakers and major award winners (not necessarily the top 20) sit on stage with the dignitaries.

For all other honors, different honor cords for NHS, Summa, Magna and Cum Laude. Kids that graduated with honors were announced when they walked the stage, they were also asterisked in the program. Plenty of recognition.

Very stupid thing to throw a fit about. Glad we didn't have such showoff parents when my kid graduated.

Our high school has since dropped class rank, thankfully. So, no top 10 or 20.

 

[njmom47]

Ds's class was girls on one side, boys on the other. Since it was outdoors (on the football field) girls walked around to one side, guys to the other, and the met as pairs and walked up the middle between the rows of chairs. They were seated alphabetically although Val/Sal and (I think) 4 yr 4.0 GPA students were in the front 2 rows as well as the Seniors in the choir so they could jump up and sing. There were many more boys than girls in this class to my surprise. Ds said about 50 kids didn't walk.

ETA If they put the kids by height, ds would be in the first few (if they started with tallest...lol).

 

[dawnhaze]

At my graduation, we sat boys in one section and girls in another, arranged alphabetically within the sections. Our valedictorian and kids receiving special honors sat in the first row of whichever section they were in.

 

[ronandannette]

I assume you're talking about the public schools in your area. I've never heard of "graduates" walking if they're not receiving their diploma, public or private schools, now or even back when I graduated from (private) school way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

For older DD's graduation the val, sal & class president sat in the front row because they were speaking, but all of the rest was alphabetical, including our special ed kids who are cognitively impaired. It was touching to see the typically abled kids reach out to support the impaired kids when their nerves kicked in.

Graduation in Canada typically is equivalent to the ubiquitous American prom. It is a huge event; tuxes, gowns, limos, dinner dance and the whole nine yards. It's very common in our school districts to hold it about a month before the end of the school year so as not to allow the distraction to interfere with final exams. Our graduates must also write Provincial (government) diploma exams and the results are not available for many weeks afterwards. I imagine that there's a good number of on-the-bubble kids who participate in Grad that don't end up actually getting diplomas.

 

[barkley]

Alphabetically.

The Valedictorian(s), Class President, speakers and major award winners (not necessarily the top 20) sit on stage with the dignitaries.

For all other honors, different honor cords for NHS, Summa, Magna and Cum Laude. Kids that graduated with honors were announced when they walked the stage, they were also asterisked in the program. Plenty of recognition.

Very stupid thing to throw a fit about. Glad we didn't have such showoff parents when my kid graduated.

Our high school has since dropped class rank, thankfully. So, no top 10 or 20.

at dd's high school graduation the kid's who graduated with academic honors wore gold cords. as far as awards (scholarships) went, the kids had to fill out a form a couple of weeks prior to graduation and list (1) their post graduation plan (name of college/tech school, military enlistment, job, or field they would be pursuing employment in), and (2) any scholarships they had already been notified they were receiving. this information is printed next to their name in the program. 2 days prior to graduation they can submit any updated info (if they received more scholarships generally) which is noted on a card with their name. at graduation after their name is called and they walk to receive their diploma the moderator says their name, what their plan is and what scholarships/awards they've received EXCEPT-after all grads have walked, the moderator starts calling names and telling grads to stand and announces about 15 scholarships from the school's community foundation that have been held secret until that point.

what I really like is following that; all graduates who have received any scholarships are asked to stand as well, and the moderator announces the grand total for the entire graduating class.

 

[spacemountainmom]

I graduated in 1986 and we were seated alphabetically. My dd graduated in 2013 and they were seated alphabetically.

Neither school had a val/sal. Students had to apply to be graduation speaker. The top 10 percent had gold tassels for their caps. The top 5 percent wore gold cords around their necks. Those honors, over 4.0 gpa, and NHS membership were noted in the program.

In dd's school, the senior finish a week before the other students in order to have time to calculate grades prior to graduation.

My graduating class was 650 and dd's was 450.

 

[Piper]

I graduated in 1963. We all lined up alphabetically. I was in the top 10 and Honor Society, but we received no stoles or cords or even got any kind of verbal recognition!

 

[SC Minnie]

When DD graduated 2 years ago. Top 20 were seated in the front and received their diplomas first, by rank in the class. The rest of the class as seated alphabetically.

 

[Southernmiss]

When DD graduated 2 years ago. Top 20 were seated in the front and received their diplomas first, by rank in the class. The rest of the class as seated alphabetically.

This how it was for ds 2 years ago also.

 

[LBIJim]

20 years ago... Valedictorian and salutatorian on the stage. The rest of the ~700 person class signed up for seating so that people could sit with friends. Once the seating was determined, there was no changing (due to needing to read all ~700 names correctly)!

That's pretty much how my HS graduation was in 1977. Val and Sal were on the stage; the class officers, the girl who gave a general address, and a handful of others were in a small section off to the side of the stage. The rest of the graduates were seated randomly, girls on one side, boys on the other. We had graduation practice earlier in the day, and some teachers and administrators made a list of the seating order so that the names could be announced in correct order during the ceremony.

The 4 class officers took turns reading the names, alternating girl, boy, girl, boy. There were about 20 more girls than boys, so those marched in single file up to the stage. No marching partner for them.

The top 20 or 25 were listed in the program, but other than the Val and Sal, they were not acknowledged in any way during the ceremony. They didn't wear any special tassels or sashes either.

We received a blank folder, then went to the cafeteria afterwards where you received your diploma from your guidance counsellor.

Both DD's graduations were in alphabetical order. The top ranking graduates were acknowledged from the stage, but were not seated there.

The entire class lined up according to their grades? Sucks to be the last kid in that group I bet. Let's just say we (and our DS) are glad his school is doing it alphabetically. In fact I think there's no way he would even go to the ceremony if he were to be the last in a lineup like that announcing that he was the "dumbest kid in the school". Hopefully there's some consideration given for the LD and special-needs kids; they have often put in massive amounts of effort to get that far.

I wonder if that school announced the GPAs of the graduates when the names were announced. "And lastly we have Donnie Dumbo, who barely made it with a 1.99999997 GPA."

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Daughter's graduation:

Top then percent, then the senior class president (who wasn't in the top 10 percent), and then alphabetically by boy-girl. That was pretty odd, because we ended up with one row of entirely boys because we ran out of girls. They all fit on the stage.

Gotta say how frustrating it is when there is 178 students in the graduating class and your class rank is 19. *sigh*

Gold tassles for top 10%, NHS students had a white sash around the neck.

Individual awards were recognized in the program and also in a ceremony held the week before. Individuals who received awards were asked to stand, but were not named individually.

All 178 students were listed in the program.



My graduation:

Valedictorian and class officers on stage, everyone else (all roughly 400 of us) on folding cheers on the floor (this was in a local area arena), alphabetically. Tassles for top 10%. Don't remember if NHS had other things. Don't remember awards being mentioned.

 

[cfriend416]

For those of you who were lined up by height, how many were in your graduating class? We had about 250-275, and I can't imagine trying to figure out that lineup!

We had about 180.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Was it strictly alphabetically or the top 10 or 20 in the front row?

Do you mean number, or percent?

 

[Nancy]

When my last child graduated 3 years ago they had the top 25 sitting on stage in order of ranking. They got their diplomas first. The rest of the kids went alphabetical order.

2 of my 3 kids were on the stage but it meant more to them to me. The other kid would not have cared if she got a diploma or not..hated school.

They both worked their rears off to be in the top 25 for that honor. To me it was just "get me in the auditorium, hand out the diplomas and let me go home". Yeah, I am the parent who just goes with the flow and really doesn't care about all that stuff...never did. I don't do drama. LOL.


I could not even tell you how it was when I graduated...I was the same way, just give me my diploma and let me go home..I have parties to attend.

 

[Meriweather]

My was alphabetically

My kids.....were top 10 in front row because they gave speeches. The rest was alphabetically.