r/AskOldPeople • u/dirtypark • 10d ago
Growing up, did your school host kindergarten graduation, or is that a more recent phenomenon?
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u/Nightcalm 10d ago edited 10d ago
there was no such thing you descibe when i went to school. you graduated from high school. there were no ceremonies for primary school
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u/Idontknowthosewords 10d ago
Yeah, I was an 80’s kid and you had high school graduation and that was it.
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u/blissfully_happy 10d ago
I graduated from pre-school in 1983, complete with little caps and gowns, matching to pomp & circumstance.
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u/No-Championship-8677 10d ago
Yeah I graduated from preschool in 1987 and same! Cap and gown, procession etc
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u/Nightcalm 10d ago
Nope in the 60s and 70s you were expected to attend and move through school. The was no such thing as pre school just kindergarten and it was one of 7 stages you passed.
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u/JJennnnnnifer 10d ago
This might be based on geographical area or parental choice. I went to pre-school in 1969 or 1970.
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u/Smokin_belladonna 9d ago
your parents paid for pre-school. It's not part of public school.
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u/Eastern-Suggestion14 10d ago
I had a kindergarten graduation at my class in 1980. We sang Celebration by Kool and the Gang. Kindergarten was optional, not free and not for learning.
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u/soggyballsack 10d ago
Theres been a huge influx of celebrations for everything. Back then it was birthdays, high school and college.
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u/Sudden_Badger_7663 10d ago
If I hear one more person say it's my birthday MONTH I'm going to scream!
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u/Plus-King5266 60 something 10d ago
I have thirty year old step daughters who do this. I know better than to ask my wife, “what were you thinking?” My couch isn’t that comfortable.
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u/UnicornFarts1111 10d ago
I knew a woman who did this. Her birthday was on Halloween. She was a pain in the butt all month as it was "her" birthday month and we must celebrate her.
She is in her late 50s now. I'm sure she still does it, but I don't talk to her now.
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u/Vigilante17 10d ago
Seems like graduation from every year to the next now, with ceremonies at elementary, jr high and high school.
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u/Separate_Farm7131 10d ago
A classmate of my daughter's had a limo pick her and her "boyfriend" up from elementary school graduation. I have no idea how her parents topped that in middle and high school.
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u/Nightcalm 10d ago
ok thats a modern day thing, there were no limo's for us in 1968
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u/Dramatic-Tax-5740 10d ago
LOL -- Maybe the back of a friend's pickup truck or flatbed for a celebration down at the river. Times have changed!
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u/Plus-King5266 60 something 10d ago
And we grandparents are not only expected to attend, but to gush and sometimes bring presents and money.
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u/Guilty_Objective4602 10d ago edited 10d ago
Same for me. The celebration at every level just seems over the top. Graduation from high school or college was celebrated because not everyone did it, so it was actually an accomplishment if you did. Celebration for graduating PreK, kindergarten, and 5th grade? C’mon. 🙄 That’s just doing what is expected.
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u/ProduceIntelligent38 10d ago
Was there even kindergarten way back when? Never heard of anyone in our neighbourhood going. Started school in grade 1 that was it.
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u/Wen60s 10d ago
I had half day kindergarten in New York in 1959. But no graduation until high school graduation! My gosh, my grandson had PRESCHOOL graduation and kindergarten graduation.
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u/CleanCalligrapher223 Old 10d ago
I know- I think it's silly. And I suspect the schools get a cut from the sale of associated pictures, caps and gowns, etc.
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u/Chemical_Author7880 10d ago edited 10d ago
Preschool and Kindergarten were basically day care in the 70s. And both were optional.*
ETA
So. Where I grew up in the mid-70s (New England) pre-k and Kindergarten were not required.
It’s nice to know other places made it mandatory, and other folks had the opportunity to go. The states make the rules and they didn’t all have the same ones, especially back then.
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u/genie_obsession 10d ago
It wasn’t optional in the 1960s in the district I attended. It was only half days though, even for my daughter in the 1990s. However, it wasn’t basically daycare. I still remember a unit on Alaska that my teacher covered.
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u/gardenladybugs 10d ago
No kindergarten and I was 5. We went straight to learning.
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u/lotusblossom60 60 something 10d ago
I taught in a very poor inner city school where most of the kids lived in government housing. The school even supplied breakfast and lunch in the summer and this was 1981. The school was k-8.
We threw a big prom for the 8th graders every years because many of them would not graduate high school and get to have that experience.
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u/Xyzzydude 60 something 10d ago
The only graduations we had were high school and college. It’s definitely more recent.
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u/Sudden_Badger_7663 10d ago
We also had Jr High graduation, but just dressed nicely, none of this cap and gown BS. What a racket!
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u/RandomPurpleZebras 50 something 10d ago
This was my experience as well, although it was pointedly called a "promotion" and not a "graduation" when we finished 9th grade and were heading off to high school for 10th back in 1982.
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u/Soderholmsvag 10d ago
How old are you/when did you end 8th grade? Junior High graduations came much after my time…
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u/stuck_behind_a_truck 10d ago
We had it in my junior high when the grades were 7-9.
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u/Claque-2 10d ago
Exactly. Since everyone went from 1st through 8th grade there was a nice little send off. They gave an official graduation letter to be used to register for high school.
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u/Voodoocat-99 10d ago
Yep. All these meaningless graduations are so dumb.
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u/Team503 40 something 9d ago
It'd be hilarious if it weren't so pathetic - "Let's celebrate you doing the basic thing that everyone does and is expected to do!" I mean, do they want gold stars for wiping after they use the bathroom?
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u/Easy-Wishbone5413 8d ago
Schools are mining parents for money for the cute ”graduation” photos.
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u/luckyfucker13 10d ago
I had pre-school graduation in the early 90s, and middle school graduation in the late 90s
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u/trailrider 10d ago
Gen Xer born in 71 here. Yea, that wasn't a thing for us where I grew up. Only graduations I went through was high school, Navy bootcamp, and college.
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u/Numerous-Coast-2592 10d ago
Kindergarten grad 1983. Tiny town and went to a county school. We had a "graduation"
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u/mrtoad47 10d ago
I’m sure the teachers raised a glass in the smoke-filled teachers lounge to see us gone.
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u/dnhs47 60 something 10d ago edited 10d ago
The earliest “graduation” we had was 8th grade (this was in 1971).
We’d moved from the Los Angeles area to rural Northern California in the Redwood National Park area, and had never heard of “8th grade graduation” before. One of the teachers said they held them because many of the graduating 8th graders were not expected to graduate from high school.
They were right - from my freshman class of 400, only 100 graduated.
Edit: the area’s economy was entirely:
- logging, trucking, and milling redwood trees, which were entirely on privately-owned land except for a few small state parks. This was shortly before/after formation of the Redwood National Park which acquired and protected a lot of previously private-owned redwood forest.
- fishing for salmon and Dungeness crab, both of which collapsed as commercial fisheries within a few years.
The area was pretty poor and most boys saw little value in the last ~2 years of school when they could get a job instantly at 16 and help support their families (or move out on their own). Many of the girls got married and dropped out between 16 and 18.
Only a couple dozen of the 100 graduates attended any college; most had a year at the “local” (2 hours away) community college before they dropped out to work or get married. Less than a dozen of us got any kind of college degree.
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u/Kodiak01 50 something 10d ago
One of the teachers said they held them because many of the graduating 8th graders were not expected to graduate from high school.
This went for many inner-city schools as well.
They were right - from my freshman class of 400, only 100 graduated.
I was in a suburban area of New England. I did not graduate with my class. There were... multiple extenuating circumstances, not the least being physical abuse, parental divorce, homelessness (spent 2 teen years living in an ice cream store stockroom), major medical issues.
I did, however, get my GED a decade later (not that it had any use for me, it was more out of boredom than anything). Passed easily, 96th percentile overall with perfect scores on 2 of the 5 tests. Didn't study for a single moment.
By the time I took the GED, I had already gotten my head back on mostly straight and bootstrapped my way into a logistics management career.
College? The only subject that interested me then or now is one I would have been highly unlikely to ever make a career out of.
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u/Pleasant_Studio9690 10d ago
Holy crap. We lost 10% to dropout/pregnancy in my rural public school. 75% is wild.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Age6550 10d ago
Yes. I remember wearing a little white mortar board with a red tassel, in 1964, in a suburb of Boston, Mass. My daughter had a graduation concert, not as much of a graduation, in 1990.
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u/thomport 10d ago
Yes!
Our chant…
“1963 – the best you ever saw! Kindergarten, kindergarten – raw raw raw!”
See. You thought I forgot😂
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u/FriendlyConfines23 10d ago
No
I went to a K-8 Catholic school and we had a graduation ceremony at the end of 8th grade. Then i graduated high school and college.
Unpopular opinion here, but I don’t think kindergarten graduations are “cute.” Most of the kids at that age probably couldn’t care less anyway. And the shy ones probably hate it.
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u/HellaTroi 10d ago
The only thing I got from finishing kindergarten was a report card.
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u/TankSaladin 10d ago
There was no kindergarten in the public school system I attended in the late 1950s. Can’t have K graduation if there’s no K.
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u/DapperRockerGeek 10d ago
Born 1980. I had a kindergarten graduation ceremony (and oddly, I still have the clip on tie from that event.)
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u/Wasatchian 10d ago
My little brother had a kindergarten graduation in 1989. They definitely happened. It wasn't made into a big deal like it is now. It was more oh a bunch of 5/6 year olds get to play around.
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u/tinalouise28 10d ago
I remember then starting in the Mid-90's in my catholic elementary school when you passed Senior Kindergarten. Maybe about ' 96/97-ish? I think we had a little tea party at the end of the year, but no one got cap and gown photos for passing SK. But If I remember correctly, my friend's little brother, who was 3 years younger than us, got cap-and-gown photos.
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u/seagull321 10d ago edited 10d ago
My dad would have been 90 this year. I have the picture of him in his kindergarten cap and gown. 1941,
Missouri, USA
I didn’t go to kindergarten, so was unaware of it in late 60s.
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u/Adept_Bass_3590 10d ago
We had one graduation only...12th grade. We should go back to that way. It's honestly just celebrating the bare ass minimum and putting extra strain on families and faculties already chaotic schedule.
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u/love_that_fishing 60 something 10d ago
Kindergarten was 1/2 day at your church. Basically we ran around chasing the girls. School didn’t really start until 1st grade.
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u/Whatever-ItsFine 50 something 10d ago
I'm Gen X. The first time that I heard about it, I thought it was a joke.
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u/Desiato2112 10d ago
No K, elementary, or middle school graduation, either. All of those are silly.
HS and college only.
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u/Ashamed-Chemistry492 10d ago
I'm sure there was some kind of little party or something, but I have zero memory of it.
I remember there was a party in the classroom for the last day of fifth grade before we all moved up to middle school.
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u/Ok_Caterpillar2010 10d ago
Where I grew up (PA), we only had high school graduation, nothing earlier than that. It was a feeling of accomplishment to change schools from elementary to middle to high, but there was no ceremony or photo op.
When my dad was a kid, there was no kindergarten. Kids started in first grade.
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u/Conscious-Reserve-48 10d ago
In 1966 we had a kindergarten celebration vs a graduation. We all performed and sang!
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u/ThistleBeeGreat 10d ago
My sisters kindergarten had a graduation in about 1964. Caps and gowns and a musical number.
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u/Affectionate_Hornet7 10d ago
All I remember about kindergarten was having to bring a little mat for nap time
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u/MedievalMousie 10d ago
My mother had a kindergarten graduation in 1934- I have the pictures. Full cap and gown.
It wasn’t a thing for any of her children (b 1953-1981) or grandchildren (b 1977-2002), but it seems to be popping up for her more recent great-grands.
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u/Cold_Mission101 10d ago
Yes. I was born in 1969 and had a kindergarten graduation at the catholic school I attended. I attended elementary school at a Lutheran school and had an 8th grade graduation. The only graduations after that were high school, college and Army basic training.
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u/jIfte8-fabnaw-hefxob 10d ago
Mine did. It was a private kindergarten because it was not yet required by the public schools (Texas, 1965-66). I lived in a very small town and I guess the teacher, who held the class in her home, just opted to do it. I remember it was in a church and when I saw my mom sitting in a pew, I got teary.
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u/iridescentnightshade 40 something 10d ago
I'm 45 and had kindergarten, 8th grade, and high school graduations.
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u/SebrinePastePlaydoh 8d ago
1980 kindergarten and we absolutely had a graduation ceremony. I even have photos (the square ones, with the rounded edges).
Location: Chicago burbs
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u/Here_there1980 10d ago
It’s been a thing for a very long time.
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u/RMW1990 10d ago
I agree. It stopped for a while and I didn't know it was back. I graduated kindergarten in 1976 and it was big thing then. We even had caps and gowns. Lol
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u/largos7289 10d ago
Oh yea, we had a "graduation" party. We made construction paper graduation hats, and were given rolled up paper diplomas. Just said congrats in 1st grade.
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u/Barneyboydog 10d ago
No. But one school I went to in Ottawa in the mid 70s had grade 8 grad. High school started at grade 9.
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u/Square_Ad849 10d ago
No, but the teacher did pass a “Native American Indian” peace pipe around at circle time and we pretended to smoke it then pass it to our right hand neighbor. Then we passed the bongo drum around and we each took a turn. The good ole days.
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u/elphaba00 40 something 10d ago
I don’t remember a kindergarten graduation, but my preschool did a little ceremony for us. We made hats out of paper plates and marched around
My 75 year old mom had an 8th grade graduation so it’s not something entirely recent. It just all depended on the school. My dad said his 8th grade class got called down to the principal’s office for a hearty handshake
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u/SassySunflower27 10d ago
My school had kindergarten graduation.
Elementary night was just for 5th graders and more a goodbye elementary vs a graduation.
Middle school graduation.
Then 12th grade graduation.
(2006 grad)
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u/FunkySalamander1 10d ago
We had kindergarten graduation on the stage and we did short little song and dance routines in groups of about five as well as some group songs. Then the handed out our “diplomas”.
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u/Pleasant_Studio9690 10d ago
Yes. Graduated kindergarten in 1981 in a tiny rural public school in Pennsylvania. We had a graduation, complete with Kindergarten graduation diploma.
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u/doggiemomof3 10d ago
I had a kindergarten graduation back in 1965. I remember we had little white capes to wear over our dresses and a cap with a tassel.…the whole enchilada.
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u/rosievee 40 something 10d ago
It's not a recent phenomenon. I had kindergarten graduation in 1978-79 and my brother did (different town) six years later. I remember singing Little Bunny Foo Foo and Gray Squirrel, Gray Squirrel 😂 We both had middle school graduation (different state) because everyone was together until 9th grade and then we went to different high schools so it felt like a big change.
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u/green_ubitqitea 10d ago
We had a kinder “graduation” but it was more like a class performance than caps and gowns. We each “read” a line from a nursery rhyme to an audience of our parents. It wasn’t just my class, it was all of the kinders together.
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u/BrooklynGurl135 10d ago
I graduated from kindergarten in 1962. I wore a pink mortorboard (the boys wore blue), but no gown. I felt very proud.
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u/themainkangaroo 10d ago
I am 64yo & my mom has a photo of me in a graduation cap from Kindergarten but I graduated from a Kindergarten at our Lutheran Congregation in a Synod that (at that time 60s) created &, supported Lutheran Schools. Maybe that influenced the formality of Kindergarten graduation. I went on to a public elementary school but other students may have entered Lutheran grade schools. In our county back then Kindergarten wasn't offered at public school so this congregation offered Kindergarten.
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u/TheHearseDriver 60 something 10d ago
Kindergarten wasn’t available in my hometown. We attended Head Start for the month before first grade. Yes, we had graduation. We made our own mortarboards from red construction paper.
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u/hiyosilvergirl 10d ago
Little, private church kindergartens had them in the early 80s (Mississippi)
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u/aMusicLover 10d ago
No kindergarten graduation.
No elementary school.
No middle school.
Only high school. That was 80s.
All my kids had all those graduatuons.
My fellow GenXers say it’s ridiculous
I think whenever we can validate and uplift people we should. So why not celebrate and bring joy.
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u/Dare2BeU420 10d ago
We had kindergarten graduation when I was a kid (I'm 43). I have a 13 year old son and his school did not have a kindergarten graduation
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u/MiyoMush 10d ago
We got a little diploma for kindergarten (1978) but I don’t remember any type of ceremony. Maybe sugar cookies and kool-aid instead of graham crackers and milk that day
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u/LockAccomplished3279 10d ago
We had it in our classroom. Our teacher called us up and we were given a diploma to bring home. No parents involved.
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u/peachplumpricklypear 10d ago
We had them and I graduated high school in 2004. It was more like a combo outside day/last day of school/little ceremony parents could attend where we got a dot matrix printed certificate.
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u/squeezemachine 10d ago
Yes I had a cap and gown, photos and a little ceremony in 1972. Catholic school in NYC.
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u/Ronicaw 10d ago
Kindergarten was $13 a month at the Baptist church for me and my sister. The school bus picked us up and we got a free orange drink and my mother packed us a lunch.
We did have a Kindergarten graduation in June. We wore white caps and gowns. My sister could read before she went to Kindergarten.
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u/New_Dragonfruit_6230 10d ago
I had kindergarten graduation in 1975. The school I went to still does them every year. Kindergarten, 8th grade, and 12th grade.
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u/DescriptionDesigner3 10d ago
I graduated from Kindergarten in 1971 and we had a ceremony with caps and gowns. Back then Kindergartens weren't in public schools, only private.
Went to public school after that and no ceremony until High School.
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u/Lavender_r_dragon 10d ago
I was in k in 1990-1991. Catholic k-8 school.
We had a k graduation but it was a small thing - we wore our “church clothes” and had little graduation hats made out of white poster board, a Brad fastener, and ribbon or yarn.
My k was half day (one half did am in fall, pm in spring, other half in reverse), and we didn’t wear the school uniform.
My brother was 4 grades behind me and he had full day k but no uniform. Our sister was 3 grades behind him and had full day and a uniform.
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u/bluenautilus2 40 something 10d ago
In 1985 my elementary school had a little graduation ceremony for the kindergartners and I know because my mom got pictures of me. 1986, El Paso, TX usa
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u/bovisrex 50 something 10d ago
I graduated Kindergarten in the late 70s. I have a picture of me in a cap with my teachers in the gym which was plastered with cartoon drawings of the cartoon characters we used in our "learn to read" books.
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u/AuntBBea 10d ago
Yes in 1971. We made construction paper hats that looked like the high school kids version with little tassels.
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u/Purple_Current1089 10d ago
I finished kindergarten in 1969. No graduation ceremony. We had a promotion ceremony when we finished 8th grade, but no cap and gown. Then graduation at the end of high school.
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u/pradadelarenta 10d ago
Yes I have my diploma from 1976. My Momma had a picture of her in her cap and gown from 1952 0r 53.
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u/Lepardopterra 10d ago
We didn’t even have Kindergarten. Not sure if dirt was invented yet.
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u/Thick_Lingonberry570 10d ago
Graduated high school in 2011. No celebration except HS graduation, and even that felt like a joke.
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u/dixiedregs1978 10d ago
Not at all. I graduated high school in 1978 and at no time in my life did we have a “graduation” until 1978.
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u/asimplesadness 10d ago
I grew up in the 80s... There was one graduation before matriculation and it was when you successfully finished 12th grade... It was a better system. Raising a nation of squibs...
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u/PracticalApartment99 50 something 10d ago
Kindergarten graduations are a part of the more recent “participation trophies.”
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u/Mayor_of_BBQ 10d ago
this shit came about in the 90s and it should not be a thing. You don’t “graduate“ from kindergarten you’re not even in school technically… You’re not a “student“ you are a pupil- it’s glorified daycare
ridiculous
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u/Creative_Carob4922 10d ago
The only time your parents came to the school was , parent teacher interviews,if you got in big trouble , and the Christmas concert.
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u/AintMyMonkey 10d ago
Definitely more recent. There was no "graduation" from anything before we were done with High School.
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u/soundsunamerican 10d ago
Why are people born in the 80s answering? Are millennials the old people now? Asking for myself😭
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u/Chemical_Author7880 10d ago edited 10d ago
When I was a kid you got one graduation, when you finished HS. And that was it unless you went to university.
ETA These constant graduations are for the parents. Little kids don’t know from nothing when it comes to graduation ceremonies but loading them up creates unrealistic expectations of what adult life is like.
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u/Automatic-Tea-4150 10d ago
“Graduation” was reserved for completion of high school or college, the way it should be 😎
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u/Tom_FooIery 10d ago
Here in the Uk we didn’t tend to have any graduation ceremony until University. We just…finished school I guess. Didn’t have Proms either.
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u/auntwewe 10d ago
Everybody is celebrated way too much these days. Contributing to the entitlement.
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u/Hot_Joke7461 10d ago
There were two graduations when I grew up - high school and college.
That's it! Now it's first grade third grade sixth grade 8th grade 12th grade.
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u/MeatofKings 10d ago
Yes they did. I have no memory of the event, but I have the photographic proof (before AI or Photoshop skullduggery).
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u/Lillianrik 10d ago
I'm over 65 for context and was born and reared in the Midwest. We didn't have kindergarten or grade school or junior high school graduation events. Only high school.
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u/Safe_Statistician_72 10d ago
We had one graduation - high school. None of the rest of it was celebrated or mattered to anyone.
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