Graduation Overkill

It's that time of year, where kids become older kids, some kids graduate and move on to bigger, better things, and some kids just keep on being kids. But lately it seems that every kid graduates. Not just the seniors from high school, I'm talking about every age.

A lot of my friends have been posting stuff on Facebook about how their kid is graduating from the 5th grade and kindergarten and ad nauseum. Last time I checked, graduating the 5th grade wasn't seen as some big accomplishment, or major age milestone, like turning 16 or something.

My son graduated preschool yesterday, but the song and dance was more of a picture opportunity for the parents than anything else. Sure, he's proud to know his ABC's and he can count to whatever number they ask him to. Truth be told though, he knew his ABC's months ago, can count as high as he wants to, and knows almost all the sight words he'll need for kindergarten already.

I don't say that to brag. We haven't put any kind of pressure on him to know those things. He simply has a desire to learn and we help him learn. We read to both of our kids on a regular basis and encourage them to do things that help them learn.

Enough about my kids, though.

Who thought every kid moving up a grade has to have a graduation ceremony? I'm assuming that kids "graduating" from the 5th grade are moving up to a middle school that is grades 6-8. Sure, my kids might be in that same situation some day, and might have to go to another school to start the 6th grade. But shouldn't every parent assume their child is going to get to the 6th grade? It's not like they've graduated college and might finally leave the house.

Do we put such low expectations on our kids for them to really think moving up to the 6th grade is some major accomplishment, or even graduating high school. They don't announce your GPA when you're walking across the stage. Sure, some kids have the honors slashes, ropes, or what have you, but there isn't anything else to distinguish those that passed with all A's versus those that barely met the state mandated requirements.

Let kids be kids. Sure, it's nice to acknowledge they are growing up, but let's not worship every milestone, OK? But at the same time, let's not set such expectations that doing something we fully expect them to do is a major cause for celebration. If that were the case, I'd have a party every morning I walked into work.