High School Graduation Ceremony: from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

High School Graduation Ceremony: From Adolescence to Young Adulthood

In societies, when an individual shift from one social category to another, a ritual is used to distinguish this change. It is commonly known as a rite of passage, and its main purpose is to assuage the unease and risks associated in the alteration of categories.

An excellent example of a rite of passage is a High School Graduation Ceremony – it is one that most people who have completed their secondary education can identify with. This rite of passage involves mostly adolescents, and even though on the surface this ritual is used to signify the end of secondary schooling – underlying it is a recognition of teenagers becoming young adults.

In October 2005, Mt Lawley Senior High School held a Graduation in honour of their Year Twelve students. Logically, the ceremony began with the preliminal phase, with the students seated in a group, apart from teachers and families – effectively separating them symbolically, so that the participants of the ceremony recognized the discarded status of adolescence and high school students.

As the ceremony proceeded, the students entered what van Gennep called the ‘liminal rites ' (van Gennep 1960, p.11). During this ‘period of transition ' (Schultz & Lavenda 2005, p.167) outstanding students were presented certificates in recognition of their hard work, and then one by one in an ordered fashion, students receive their graduation certificate – symbolizing their transition from adolescence to adult, or from secondary student to any other category beyond.

Finally, the students are reunited with families and allowed to mingle with their teachers. Reaggregation takes place, and former adolescents and high school students are reintroduced to their new positions as young adults and as graduates of their secondary school (Schultz & Lavenda 2005, p. 167). The sharing of food and drink with the rest of the social group affirms and welcomes them to their new status, and the rite of passage is completed.

As van Gennep pointed out, however, for each ‘complete scheme of rites of passage … are not always equally important or equally elaborated. ' – is certainly applicable in this particular rite of passage. Notably, the duration of transition is longer then the other phases. It can be explained that between the numerous certificates awarded, speeches had been made to prepare and impart knowledge to the students concerning their new role and status that they would soon achieve.

However, a young girl in !Kung society is acknowledged as an adult when she gives birth to her first child, whereas for young boys, it is when they have killed their first large, and dangerous animal (Shostak 1981). Even though the rites of passage that mark adulthood is different between the !Kung and a Graduation Ceremony, they both include preliminal, liminal and postlimnal rites.

Graduation ceremonies ease teenagers into the gradual change to adulthood and depending on the secondary education institution, these ceremonies will differ slightly. This rite of passage is important to society, as it aids in the more complex and elaborate transition of childhood to adulthood – as adolescence is between the two. Thus, it is enlightening to remember that a Graduation is a special series of rites, within a transitional period of adolescence, as Arnold van Gennep elaborated (van Gennep 1960, p. 11).

Bibliography

Shostak, M. 1981, Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass, USA

Schultz, E A & Lavenda R H 2005, Cultural Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human Condition, 6th edn, Oxford University Press, New York

van Gennep, A. 1960, The Rites of Passage (S T Kimball, trans), University of Chicago Press, Chicago

Bibliography: Shostak, M. 1981, Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass, USA Schultz, E A & Lavenda R H 2005, Cultural Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human Condition, 6th edn, Oxford University Press, New York van Gennep, A. 1960, The Rites of Passage (S T Kimball, trans), University of Chicago Press, Chicago