WORD "GRADUATION" BASTARDISED, FRIVOLITIES TAKE OVER Tope Adaramola

No doubt,  times are changing, and rapidly too. This is affecting every facet of life, including our educational system. This particular period provides a comic relief all over  from almost all operators of schools, with really few or no exception. It is the end of school session when many schools organise end of year ceremonies. Many school operators take the liberty to task parents to celebrate their children or wards,  especially those at the end or at terminal points of their classes.It's a period of remarkable jamboree and excesses. I imagine a child being "graduated" from the Montessori class required to wear a graduation gown and provide food lavishly for people, or a primary school leaver doing same. It's graduation, graduation, everywhere to the extent that I think another word has to be found for those academic categories for which it was originally meant. Whilst I am not averse to celebrating our children because we  live today in "my child's world", but I think many operators of schools are becoming too excessive and self serving in doing this. In our days (pardon me since we belong to the "dark days") we never had this exposure because how do you convince your dad who is eagerly  waiting for you on the farm to muster the time and resources to indulge you in this type of excesses. We served our parents and the close of a term is the beginning of a tedious work for us and help or time of great relieve for them. But these days it is not the case. During the long holidays, many children we have so "over  celebrated" would remain idle, seeking for every opportunity to indulge in  pleasure rather than seek opportunity to assist us as parents. We actually caused it and we ask:how? It starts from consenting to their indulgence under any guise, including all these "graduation frivolities". 

I may be wrong, but I think we are just succeeding everyday to introduce virtues of reveling and unseriousness in our national life and we shall reap it more bountifully as time continues to unfold before us!

Tope is a PR practitioner