High school graduation is a celebration of 13 years of personal and academic development, and as such, it boasts hundreds of beloved traditions like walking across a stage to receive one’s diploma and adorning oneself with cords and stoles to represent various honors, achievements or awards.
Our school, however, refuses to allow soon-to-be graduates to take part in one of the most popular graduation traditions around: decorating graduation caps.
This tradition came about in the ’90s as a way to promote a more individualized celebration of achievements and reward deserving graduates with a memorable tradition, a permanent keepsake and, in a lot of cases, a chance to display their chosen university with pride.
In a more logistical sense, decorated caps allow viewers of the ceremony to more easily identify their own friend or relative amid the sea of identical heads.
The general theme on graduation day is conformity, as seniors must walk in a straight, alphabetical line in matching outfits to then uniformly move across the stage and sit down.
Personalized caps provide the group a sense of individual importance, which is essential for a graduating class as record-breakingly large as the class of 2019.
While concerns over the potential for profanity or inappropriate designs have merit, preventing obscene words or images is fairly simple.
Administration can either request design plans on a google form or have a cap check at one of the graduation rehearsals.
If a student failed to adhere to the published restrictions then the school will not allow them to walk at graduation.
With strict prevention methods before and after students design their caps, it would be incredibly unlikely for someone to risk their entire graduation ceremony to put a middle finger or a curse word on their cap.
It is sad to think my entire family could come to the ceremony and sit for hours through hundreds of names without ever being able to identify me.
After years of hard work and commitment, I would also like to be able to have my moment to shine as an individual and the chance to share my future university or favorite quote with the community.
Marshall does not have school uniforms but does have a history of promoting originality and self-expression, yet their policies surrounding graduation day reflect the complete opposite of these ideals.
If the administration does not adapt this policy, the unnecessary prohibition of tradition and individualism will overshadow the class of 2019’s final moment as Statesmen.
2019-03-18