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opinion
Policy
takes away graduation rites
The aim is to encourage students to think about their futures;
what's missed, however, is the freedom of choice.
Seniors at eight San Fernando Valley high schools will participate
in graduation ceremonies this June only if they have committed
to post-secondary education or training -- whether it's a
university, community college, trade school or the military.
This new and much-debated policy violates the students' rights
to make their own decisions. Although the intention is to
push students to go to college, the reality is that not everybody
can or wants to attend.
Not all people share the same plan or walk the same linear
road from high school to college to career to retirement.
A student who plans to attend college but, let's say, wants
to travel first does not deserve to walk any less than someone
going straight to college after high school.
Covering the southwest valley, Los Angeles Unified School
District C is a mixture of middle-class and low-income communities
and some students who come from working-class families may
not be able to afford higher education. What policies have
been instilled to actually help these students get to college?
Some students may have other obligations like getting a job
and helping ends meet for their families.
Preventing students from walking would affect more than just
the individual student. The graduation ceremony is for the
families of the students as much as the students themselves.
Would it be fair to deprive parents from seeing their children
cross the stage at graduation for the sake of hopeful encouragement
from school officials? It sounds more like prejudiced elitism
to me.
District C officials defend the policy as a way to encourage
more students to consider college or at least get them to
think about the future. There are plenty more ways to do this
than by stripping them of their graduation rites. How about
offering more time with counselors or developing a program
to help them discover different majors or more importantly,
different paths one can take in the course of life?
High school seniors should be eligible to walk if they have
met all the requirements required for the diploma. Period.
Maybe I'm a little bitter because I didn't get to walk in
my high school graduation. Three puny credits held me back
to watch videos in summer school for an elective course, of
all things. My walk was from the classroom to the school secretary
who handed me my late diploma with a solemn, "congratulations,
Christine." But was my ineligibility to participate in
the ceremony with those I had grown up with necessary? Did
I get anything more than just extra sleep in an air-conditioned
room that summer?
The irony is that once students get to college, they can walk
anytime they please. A friend of mine walked just so his parents
would stop nagging him, not because he received his diploma.
Other students choose not to walk because it's just not important
to them. I, however, will definitely walk this May and then
finally, walk away.
Christine Shin is a journalism major at Cal State Long
Beach.
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Christine
Shin
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Jargon Juxtaposed -
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