Maryland senior/ "beach" week

Sikorsky
Fri, 11 Oct 2013 16:30:21 +0000

This is what gets me. A lot of parents on CC are dead-set against Senior Week trips but have no compunction whatsoever about sending their kids on gap years halfway across the world in some questionable places. Maybe they are doing educational things or helping the needy, but IHMO they can get in as much or more trouble as they can on a week-long trip in the good old USofA …



I am exactly this parent. Dead set against beach week, but I sent my barely-18-year-old daughter to another continent for 10 months after graduation.

I agree with others who object to the decadence of a senior week at the beach–not just the opportunities for all kinds of moral turpitude, but also the very idea that by graduating from high school, these teens have accomplished something worthy of being celebrated with a week of rowdy hedonism.

Yes, I recognize that many teens work very hard at their academics, and many work very hard at sports, arts or other activities besides. Yes, I recognize that many teens finish high school with accomplishments that are worthy of celebration.

But not in this way. My kids knew from the ninth grade that their parents would be open to a lot of possibilities for celebrating their eventual graduation from high school, but absolutely not open to this one.