With the close of last school year, I completed my 30th campaign in education. Each of those years has been filled with joy and sorrow, challenges and successes, ups and downs and a ton of stories worth sharing. My (True) Life in Education Thus Far will detail 30 or so of those stories. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed living (most) of them!
GRADUATIONS
MAY 17, 2023
Part of what I love about the work of the last 30 years is seeing students graduate. People can argue about what are the most important rites of passage in life and I know that different cultures approach rites of passage in different ways, but graduation, for many, is one of the most significant.
As an educator, I take such joy in watching graduates walk the stage, shake a hand or two and receive their diplomas. While I will not suggest that, as a younger teacher who did not know many seniors in my early years in the profession I had such a positive reaction to giving up a few hours on an evening or on a weekend to attend commencement ceremonies, the veteran in me now just loves the day.
Loves the entire day?
Hang on.
I love the fact that graduates get to graduate and all that that represents. But the day itself? The event? As someone who plans it, who helps bring it together and, in my role as principal, who is ultimately responsible for it, I have to admit that the event of graduation can cause me some agitation.
It is the most public gathering of the school year. It represents the mission of the institution. It is carved into posterity.
It can be a stress.
Accounting for the 4 years I spent with the Jesuit Schools Network, Mullen High School’s graduation in May of 2022 was my 26th as an educator, my 14th as an administrator.
Honestly, some of them – most of them – run together but more than a handful stand out. My children’s graduations are all special and I remember them clearly. Beyond those, 3 graduations are at the top of my memory… 2 because they are very recent, 1 because it was my biggest social media splash ever.
When I departed Regis Jesuit, I was an assistant principal in the Girls Division. My principal there had always magnanimously allowed me to speak at graduation. She knew I loved public speaking and I loved to wish the girls well as they walked the stage. In my final year during my final speech, I decided to take a selfie with the class and post it in real time. The Regis Jesuit Girls Division Class of 2014 afforded me the most “liked” social media moment I have ever had. I have thought to recreate this moment with other classes since, but no. This was a pretty special memory. Let us keep that one in amber.
Following the pandemic, we wanted to be sure at Mullen High School that we celebrated the Class of 2020 as best we could. Two things emerged from that planning. The first was that we invited the students to drive through campus, on sidewalks, around the buildings in which they had classes for four years, to commemorate their time at the school while teachers and coaches and moderators and staff lined the route and cheered. That was pretty amazing. This event was held in May on the day they would have graduated. In July, we brought the class together outside for an evening ceremony with masks, with social distance and with only 2 guests allowed per graduate. The faculty processed into our football stadium. The students followed and, as they got to their seats, lightning shattered the evening and we had to send everyone to their cars to avoid the storm. It was an incredible scene and we had a wonderful graduation when we got going again, but I vowed never to have graduation outside in the future.
I was overruled.
We had held a beautiful and all but flawless graduation on campus in 2021 and our president and many in our community loved it. I did, too, but I am a control freak and I did not like that we could not count on the weather when we were outside. But, following that graduation, the choice was made to hold graduation on campus in the stadium for the foreseeable future.
In May of 2022, it snowed overnight before graduation morning. Inches. Inches of snow. It snowed the morning of the event. We were forced to move the event into the gym and, as we knew the storm was coming, we made plans and shifted graduation the night before. The morning of graduation, which was scheduled to start at 9:00am, the power went out. We had no power, no lights, no live stream, no nothing. We pivoted to an afternoon graduation, a 3:00pm graduation, in the hopes that the lights would come on. They did. We had a wonderful ceremony. Families and graduates were appreciative and joyful. I was glad it was over but I will never forget it.
Graduations are incredible events, no matter the circumstances. I have been privileged to take part in so many.
Bring on Graduation 2023 this weekend!