Cheering not allowed at Indiana graduation

Article : Cheering not allowed at Indiana graduation
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For me, I can distinctly identify when this change in public behavior started to take place. When I graduated from high school in 1974, the adults sat quietly when they were supposed to sit quietly, stood when they were supposed to stand, applauded when they were supposed to applaud, and generally behaved like (gasp) ADULTS.

And not only that, but so did the kids: they processed with quiet dignity, stood when they were supposed to stand, applauded when they were supposed to applaud, sat quietly when they were supposed to sit quietly, and generally behaved like (gasp) ADULTS.

For me, I can distinctly identify when this change in public behavior started to take place. When I graduated from high school in 1974, the adults sat quietly when they were supposed to sit quietly, stood when they were supposed to stand, applauded when they were supposed to applaud, and generally behaved like (gasp) ADULTS.

And not only that, but so did the kids: they processed with quiet dignity, stood when they were supposed to stand, applauded when they were supposed to applaud, sat quietly when they were supposed to sit quietly, and generally behaved like (gasp) ADULTS.

Two years later, in 1976, when I went back to that same high school to attend my brother and sister's graduation, the kids spent the entire "ceremony" screaming their heads off and generally behaving like they were at a rock concert. And the baffled parents basically just sat there with their thumbs up their butts, while the P.A. system picked up the words of a veteran teacher who was participating in the "ceremony", as she audibly repeated the words, "I never, I never..."

And today, a generation later, those same kids are now going to their kids' graduation "ceremonies" and still behaving like they're at a rock concert, screaming their heads off, rushing the stage, and generally behaving like selfish brats. And they've been doing that for years. And their kids' graduations aren't the only place where they behave that way. They behave that way practically everywhere.

It all started in the late 1970s. The generation that graduated in the late 70s rejected not just the idea of behaving like adults, but the very idea of adulthood itself.

Nobody's a grownup anymore.

Or what? It will go on our permanent records?

Cheer on, families and friends. You and your graduate have earned it.

What a small, bitter decision made by this superintendent.

... again, so glad I am homeschooling!
We are going to have the hugest party ever... FULL of hooting and hollering and CELEBRATING!!!
So, so, sad.

My high school's commencement ceremonies have always included these wild, raucous and absurdly disproportionate outbursts of cheering and applause for certain graduates. I always understood that this occurred because, for these individuals, graduating from high school is their highest triumph.

So, Mr. White want people arrested for cheering -- or will he just have the proud families ejected from the proceedings?

I hope there will be a follow-up story reporting on whether Mr. White succeeds.

Oops... I forgot to add... I got my tongue stuck in my cheek.

This is their day... let them celebrate however they want to.

Wow... so many comments on such a minor subject... so much bureaucracy on such a minor subject.

We live in an impatient world... just look at the other drivers on the commute with you every day (I am one of those other drivers calling you names). Individual cheering will make the ceremony longer. For goodness sakes, it is BORING... lets get it over with as soon as possible.

Cheering is also unfair. The popular kids who have been cheered all their lives will get more cheers than the nerds that nobody likes. Well, I guess the nerds who's families like them will get some cheers. Think of the poor nerds that are so nerdy that even their families don't like them. It is all so unfair.

And the method of cheering can be down right boorish. Some of those trashy people use cow bells and air horns to add to their obnoxious cheering. Makes you want to shake your head and wonder what our world is coming to.

Lets just make this easy... have the principle, guest speaker, student speakers and other notables make a video and email the youtube link to graduates. The graduates can then cheer all they want with their families.

Graduation is a solemn ceremony. In Northwest Indiana it gets extremely obscene the hooting and hollering that goes on during a ceremony of 200 kids or more, in a stuffy gym/auditorium. Save it for the party, think of the pother people, grandparents, parents, young siblings that have to sit through you yelping for you D student. Pas the Istep, get 1000 on the SAT's don't impress me with flowers and gifts for nothing. Kids HAVE TO FINISH HIGH SCHOOL...

I surmise that Mr. White was probably one of those students whose names were not heard at his own graduation... its amazing give someone a lil' power and they get to enforce their own petpeevish ways. I say Praise the graduates with cheers, claps & shouts!!!!

Wow what a douche bag...I find it hilarious that he is trying to regulate the cheering..50 years ago this was formal because not everyone made it to 12th grade..now it's pretty much automatic that you graduate high school no matter how hard you have to work - it's an exciting time that SHOULD be celebrated w/ cheering and applause...I graduated from high school last year (2006) and our ceremony would have SUCKED ROYALLY if it weren't for the parents cheering and the band playing and us throwing our caps....so let loose, let the students live a little..after all they were pretty much Jailed in high school.

Eugene White is a tool and so is anyone who agrees with him... Don't be affraid to smile, it doesn't hurt...

The principal who presided over my sister's graduation tried something like this but instead said that he'd revoke the diploma of anyone who threw their cap in the air. Needless to say he wasn't very successful since the graduating class had some brains and an overwhelming desire to show it was THEIR graduation and not his.

Why is it there is always someone who wants to take the joy away from others? People have the right to be happy and I for one would love to see the school try and implement this come graduation. Remember people not everything has to be like a funeral, people are aloud to be happy once in a while.

Cheers! Screech! Yell! It's not the faculty graduating. How can the school regulate the ceremony that the students earned? If the students want yelling and screaming at their graduation, I say let them scream. If they want a boring and quiet ordeal, fine, they can request that as well. It's bad enough the hell you have to go through to earn a diploma, then they regulate your ceremony too?

Let's hear it for Eugene White and his good sense. It's a pity so many parents had so little self-discipline that this became necessary. Been to a graduation ceremony lately? What's most common isn't polite applause and the occasional cheer, but a contest to see who can shriek the loudest and the longest. After graduation, the parents, grandparents, etc. can take their graduate someplace else and cheer to their heart's content, but what possible reason is there to force every other parent and loved one of every other graduate to be a captive audience to that display? Pathological self-centeredness is the only possible reason, and it's not a good one. We need more superintendents like Eugene White.

In light of all of the severe problems in the IPS, the fact that the superintendent would even attempt to address such a "non-problem" would be very funny if it were not so disappointingly sad.