Crossing over

This morning Monkey graduated from nursery school. They had a little ceremony called "crossing over", and each child received a scroll, walked across the symbolic bridge, and shook their teachers' hands. It was adorable.

Monkey gets his certificate

Before, I thought such things were totally ridiculous. Leaving aside the unfortunate name his school gives it, which always makes me think of a classful of unfortunate terminally ill children, or at least those who are leaving us temporarily to visit a higher spiritual plane, the very idea of dressing four- and five-year-olds up in caps and gowns (some do; our school didn't) and making a big deal the fact that they're going from one class to another seemed like overdoing it. In the words of Mr Incredible, isn't it just "finding new ways to celebrate mediocrity"?

On the other hand, my hairdresser this weekend, as we chatted about such things, said that the British (I didn't quibble, it seemed rude) always take things so seriously. It's just for fun. I was trying to remember if we had had any sort of graduation ceremony when we left secondary school (high school), and eventually decided that our official celebration was probably the sixth-year mass. (I had to repeat and clarify to get "mass" across: it's one of those unfortunate words that doesn't travel well in my accent, like ham and tomato and oregano. The number of times I've had to re-order a sandwich or a pizza, and eventually sigh and go all nasal and say "hee-am" (and o-reg-ano instead of ore-ga-no), you wouldn't believe.)

So I don't think they're preparing the little ones for a lifetime of walking across stages, shaking hands, accepting scrolls, and smiling for the cameras, but they are having a little fun and making a big deal out of something that is, in fact, a big deal. Most of these kids have been at the nursery school for three years, and the prospect of going to elementary school in September is a little bit scary and a little bit exciting, and definitely the mark of becoming a big kid. There's no harm in celebrating that.