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Good
parental behavior lacking at graduation
Jamie
Rowe
Graduation — a
time to celebrate achievement and rejoice
in the culmination of years of hard work,
perseverance and dedication to education.
However, this momentous occasion is often plagued by a disappointing phenomenon
present at any event where parents proudly gush over their children’s
accomplishments.
Of course, I am talking about the graduates’ supporters’ behavior.
In an effort to watch their progeny walk into the ceremony or cross the stage
and receive his or her degree, family and friends of graduates quickly forget
proper etiquette.
At the College of Liberal Arts graduation Ceremony 1 May 26, a family sitting
a few rows behind me was understandably very excited to see a member of their
family graduate. The trouble began when everyone and their brother (literally,
in this case) were on their cell phones, standing on chairs trying to locate
relatives and friends.
In this instance, this behavior can be condoned because everyone was excited
for the big day. Plus, the ceremony had not officially begun yet.
As the ceremony opened with a speech, ushers told audience members to sit in
their seats so that everyone could see the speaker.
Most guests were respectful until the master’s program graduates, the
first group to receive their degrees, were called to the stage. Friends and
family began standing on chairs and blocking aisles to gain a better view of
their loved ones. The ushers again proceeded to tell them to sit.
The tug-of-war between the various audience members wanting to stand on chairs
and the ushers wanting them to sit down continued throughout the ceremony.
Whole groups of people were completely irreverent and disrespectful to others
who wanted to see their own graduates. While standing on a chair may offer
a better vantage point, it ruins the view for those sitting behind you.
The particular family mentioned above failed to grasp this concept.
When the mother was standing and an usher asked her to sit, the woman petulantly
replied, “Why don’t you make those 10 people standing up there
sit down? I can’t see because of them.”
What a childish reaction. It’s like saying, “He hit me first so
it’s OK if I hit back.” It’s never OK to hit, just like it’s
never OK to disregard an usher’s request to be seated so that other people
can watch the ceremony unobstructed.
When the usher said the people behind the woman couldn’t see either,
she said, “They’re in bleachers, what does it matter?”
It matters because as I said before, they would like to see their family and
friends graduate just as much. Maybe the usher had already told those 10 people
to sit, but they had said there was no need or acted as so many others had
previously — they just stood up again after the usher left.
After the poor usher left and someone said she was just doing her job, the
woman began calling her a “Chair Nazi,” saying, “She just
wants everyone in their chairs right now.”
Well of course she does; it’s her job to make sure everyone is in his
or her chair. She was trusted with the responsibility to maintain order during
the ceremony, which includes making sure the audience can see the graduates
as well as possible.
People, I’m sure your parents taught you better. When a person of authority
politely asks you to sit in your seat, you should oblige them, not label them
as a Nazi and berate them. What ever happened to respecting other people? Don’t
you think they would like to see their child walk across the stage as well?
A little consideration for those around you can go a long way.
As a friend of mine put it, “The graduation ceremony is really for the
friends and the family of the students.” Remember that at the next graduation
you attend. Look around you and think about how some parents are attending
the graduation of the first person in their family to attend college or how
a grandparent has lived to see the day when his grandchild received a higher
education. They do not wait 20-some years to see your backside obstructing
their vision.
Jamie Rowe is a fourth-year print journalism major and the editor in chief
of the Daily Forty-Niner. |
