<p>I think it’s absolutely fine for those who have earned honors to display appropriate symbols of their accomplishments. And “at risk” students who graduate are THERE graduating! That is of course a huge reason to celebrate.</p>
<p>When my youngest D graduated, she was in the top 10% of her class, NHS, etc. and wore special stoles and cords. We also had taken in (a couple years before) an “at risk” young man who just barely managed to graduate, but HE DID IT. Believe me, we celebrated both accomplishments with great pride and joy.</p>
<p>At my school, there are various sets of cords for different things. Honor societies like NHS or language honor societies have them, some other groups maybe, and I know debate, for students that achieve at least 150 National Forensic League points.</p>
<p>I think gold robes is a little overboard, haha.</p>
<p>Back in the day, when I graduated as a member of NHS I got gold cords and a gold tassel. We wore the gold tassel instead of the blue and gold one that the rest our the students wore. It was subtle.</p>
<p>When S and D graduated, they also got gold NHS tassels - and they wore BOTH the gold tassel and the blue & white tassel from our hs. I thought that was ridiculous, but that’s what all the kids did. This year they added a music honor society, and gave them pink cords and a pink tassel (I kid you not). So some kids had 3 tassels. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>LOL–I wore a gold robe for my graduation. Our school colors were black and gold–boys wore black, girls wore gold. Yeah, they looked like choir robes. And no one looked good in that color.</p>
<p>When I graduated from high school (a private co-ordinate independent day and boarding prep school) in the 1970s … we wore white dresses and the guys wore jacket and tie, with preferably light colored pants. </p>
<p>I was reading the origin of this tradition, which has its roots in class status and economics, in the most recent alumni bulletin. As the school was founded for the education of all children, and not just the rich, it was felt that academic regalia would place, or could place, an unwarranted burden on the less affluent families. Therefore, the students would graduate in dressy street clothes. </p>
<p>I’m sure that the cap and gown thing popular at high schools today is actually supposed to blend the economic strata – my son just graduated from an independent school in cap and gown, and they claim economics as the reason for their tradition – so I thought it was interesting that at my school they chose not to do caps/gowns for the very same reason!</p>
<p>At my high school, we all wore green robes (school color). Summa cum laude (top 5%) wore gold sashes, magna cum laude (top 10%) wore silver sahes, and cum laude (top 15%) wore red sashes. There were a variety of cords and tassels for various honor societies.</p>
<p>At my college graduation, everyone wore black robes (except for those who opted for traditional Native American dress). High honors grads wore gold cords, and honors grads wore silver cords (we only had two levels of graduation “honors” for some reason, so there was no “highest honors”). People who completed the university’s honors program wore red cords. There were also cords for various honor societies, purple sashes for Phi Kappa Phi (I think) , and medals for the top one to four-ish students for each department (as decided by the individual departments). Some people also decorated their mortar boards for the fun of it.</p>
<p>But really the most interesting part about college graduation, dress-wise, IMO, was seeing all my professors in full academic regalia, with hoods that corresponded to their PhD-granting institutions.</p>
<p>If you got above a 3.0, you got a gold tassel. If you got above a 3.5, you got a gold tassel and a gold stole. If you got a 4.0, you wore a gold robe, gold tassel, gold stole.</p>
<p>Everyone walked in at the same time.</p>
<p>NHS, CSF, AP, etc. were all either cords or stoles.</p>
<p>“Graduation should be a time to celebrate all those who graduate and not a time to make certain people stand out.”</p>
<p>I know at least one girl at our school who said the main reason she took IB was so she could wear the fancy red graduation robes that the full IB kids get to wear. Hey, if standing out at graduation is enough to motivate a kid to take a highly-rigorous course of study for four years, I’m for it.</p>
<p>Graduation IS a time to celebrate all those who graduate and our local high school certainly does a great job in celebrating everyone’s success. But why can’t it also honor those kids who really put in a lot of effort in different areas?</p>
<p>At our school girls wear white and the boys wear black. They are given different color sashes and cords for their academic awards. For example the IB student wore a blue sash, the AICE student were red. They were then given cords, for NHS, magna and summa. </p>
<p>It’s funny because you need to read the program to figure out what it means for every child. </p>
<p>At our hs, there is an award ceremony the week prior to graduation and that is where they honor all of the kids who have excelled in different areas. For example, if the child received a scholarship. Not every kid gets a scholarship because of academic reasons, and I am not talking about a recruited athlete. Some of our students got scholarships for going to technical schools. They also have the military present to announce students that will be enlisting and serving our country.</p>
<p>The home page on the net makes a big fanfare over this. Plus, the school hallways are filled with their graduation picture and what they were awarded with.</p>
<p>The gradation ceremony is just that a ceremony, besides wearing a sash or a cord, there is no other recognition at all…it goes girl boy alphabetically, graduate number 1 in the class and your last name starts with a Z you are still going to be one of the lasts to be called upon.</p>