8th Grade Graduation in Ontario

Is a very big deal. I guess we can file this under “Things that have caused me cultural shock” in moving from Ohio to Ontario.

I honestly thought my daughter simply wanted to play dress-up when she insisted she had to have a formal gown for 8^th grade graduation here. (By the way it’s referred to as “grade 8” here and not “8^th grade” as I’m accustomed to. I’ll just say whatever I please.) I called a few people and sure enough, it’s a formal event. (They should include this in a book for Americans who move here.)

8^th grade grad in Ohio is marked by school letting out and all the standard rumours about high school teachers who are either treacherous or drunk or off-the-wall or sitting-in-the-art-room-sink crazy (if you went to high school in Windham, Ohio, you know the story.) Completing 8^th grade was the same as completing any other grade besides 12^th. It was a nonevent. We didn’t get a “certificate of graduation” from 8^th grade. We got our report cards and a boot out the junior-high doors.

Here, they mark 8^th grade graduation with a certificate ceremony, an awards ceremony, speeches, formal dinner, formal dance and if you attend Catholic school, mass. I’m hearing stories of other parents renting limo’s for their kids to go to the graduation ceremony or the formal dinner. I’m also hearing of kids who buy 1 formal for the ceremony and a “party dress” for the dinner & dance. All of this of course, makes me shake my head and wonder what the hell is going on in the world today. Is 8^th grade the end of the schooling for kids in Ontario? Hardly. Ontarians, and Canadians in general, are well educated and have fairly low drop-out rates (though here you can just stop attending at age 16 and there are no consequences other than the real-world ones.)

I think this big grad to-do is more a rite of passage – something I think our Western cultures need more of. These kids are leaving behind their care-free days of elementary school and entering the no-more-recesses arena of hours of homework, university entrance exams, semester finals, and whatever else the cruel gods of high school can come up with to torture their poor souls.

So what’s 8^th grade grad look like?

Isn’t she beautiful?

Don't forget the dance & afterparty:

Congratulations, Marissa! We’re very proud of you.