John M. Setzler, Jr. Life in Black and White

Graduation 2009

This time of year is always a challenge. I have photographed six graduation ceremonies in the last four days.  The best thing about this year's graduation ceremonies is that I only had to listen to excerpts from Dr. Seuss' Oh! The Places You'll Go! at one event.  I suppose some of the valedictorian and salutatorian speeches that quote "Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" from Ralph Waldo Emerson may be starting to filter backwards into the ranks of the underclassmen.  That quote, in itself, is almost as stereotypical as the readings from Seuss for a high school graduation ceremony. 

I'm all for the idea of free thinking, but it's definitely a concept that I was not taught in high school or college.  All the graduates I witnessed this week haven't learned it , and those who are off to college in a few months won't learn it there either.  It is, however, a concept that is discussed at length and frequently in many classrooms.  These students are yearning for the opportunity to think and speak freely, but there are a lot of roadblocks in their way.  Hickory High School, my own alma mater, graduated their first class of seniors who were forced to comply to a standardized dress code this year.  I'm sure the dress code concept has some merits like squelching class envy and removing suggestive content from tee shirts in the classroom.  In the process of teaching those lessons, students miss out on the opportunity to learn how to understand those very concepts and deal with them in their own way.  In other words, their ability to think freely becomes limited.  At the graduation ceremony, everyone dresses the same as well with the shiny caps and gowns, but you can tell who the smart kids are by how many laniards they have draped across their gowns, so maybe there is some balance left somewhere.

I don't know of too many colleges that enforce dress codes, but the ideas of free thinking are going to be discussed once again upon arrival.  It's going to come from history, sociology, economics, political science, and english professors for the most part.  My personal best successes in college were a result of me showing agreement with the free thinking of a professor rather than going with my own ideas.  It's a difficult path to be quite honest.  I only had one professor in college that appreciated that my ideas were in disagreement with his most of the time.  I was usually penalized in some way or another by others when my answers to the "What do you think about..." questions weren't in agreement with those of the professor.  Such is life...