High school graduation is a meaningful milestone. There are the beaming students, dressed smartly in their caps and gowns, and their proud parents and family members, clicking away with the cameras and waving from the audience. Excitement and anticipation fill the air.
Except for the teachers.
As Erica Jacobs of Teacher Talk points out, graduation loses some of its luster when you sit through it every single year:
The speeches, always cliché-ridden, are rarely memorable. This year, on a scale of one to ten, I’d rate them a four. Usually the speeches are about a two, so this was above average.
My favorite graduation speech was delivered by a Virginia congressman. Twice. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that politicians don’t compose new speeches for each graduation, but when we heard the exact same speech two years apart, the teachers were rolling their eyes, and grateful that the students and parents had no clue.
After all, for the teachers, graduation is just a speed bump on the road to summer:
Just as the speeches are always a ten for parents, the year looks better and better to teachers in hindsight. Yesterday the year was an eight. Today a nine. And tomorrow?
