To me high school graduations are alien ceremonies; we didn't have any such thing where I grew up. I have now attended two. From these two data points, I pontificate that such events seem to be power struggles; interrupting the ceremony is part of the ceremony. Last Thursday I was surrounded by twenty Koreans, who divided their attention three ways: reading bibles, following the Laker game on the cell phones, randomly shouting out the names of Koreans who were graduating. At one point two of them ran down the aisle in the middle of the ceremony and embraced a chum. When one of their own walked across the stage, they screamed and applauded; then then returned to reading the bible or talking about the Lakers score. Freedom for the yobs means death for all the rest, was my view, but maybe I misunderstood. Maybe the whole deal is meant to resemble the coliseum in Rome? It was certainly circus-like: the principal wore Ph.D. robes even though he had not yet walked in a Ph.D. ceremony, the speaker explained that "it is not what you do or say in life that counts, but how you make people feel," I.B. candidates were given the front seats because they had *taken* the exam (results will not be out for several more weeks), everyone--every graduate-- was given a medal. You finished high school; you deserve a medal. When they were announcing that the school had a half dozen National Merit Finalists, the teacher sitting beside my daughter asked a colleague, "What's National Merit?"
David Ritchie, Portland, Oregon ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
