Graduation is a time for seniors to be celebrated for their hard work and academic accomplishments during their time at WPHS. Park has many cords, stoles, hoods, and medallions for students to wear. Although students may earn many cords throughout their time at Park, they are limited to wearing only one at graduation. Administration is committed to preserving the tradition of graduation as it has always been.
“I believe we do a good job of recognizing our students and all their academic accomplishments. There are multiple cords, stoles, hoods, and medallions that students could wear at once at graduation,” said Ms. Dailer.
Student council members and seniors are passionate about changing this rule for graduates to be able to wear multiple cords at graduation. Some seniors argue that students should be able to proudly display their cords.
“You earn cords from taking and doing well in classes, and a lot of seniors have the idea that it’s not fair to work that hard only to get to wear one,” said Merritt Delk.
Others argue that allowing graduates to wear multiple cords is a discouraging display of success to other students while also encouraging students to base their self-worth on external motivators. Only allowing students to wear one cord, may prevent any disheartened students by limiting any self comparison among graduates. Simultaneously, it may also lessen the amount of self-value that students put into awards, because everyone has the same amount of cords. It is important to note that regardless, the number of cords students earn is announced at graduation anyway, so they do get their recognition.
“Not only do they have different cords, stoles, hoods, and medallions to wear, those awards are listed in the program and students stand throughout the ceremony to be recognized for them,” said Ms. Dailer.
Students will not be discouraged about the amount of cords they have when they realize that, apart from the individual awards, they are all united under the success of graduating. Not everyone’s high school journey looks the same. Some students get opportunities that others miss. Graduation is a time when students can celebrate a mutual goal that they have met while cords and other awards visually symbolize the different journeys taken by individual students. Graduates wearing multiple cords can be seen as a tacky celebration of individual students, or it can be seen as a chance for the school to display the different paths that Park has to offer.
“I think it’s disappointing that a school that wants to show off their students is unable to make a change for people that have been working hard,” said Merritt Delk.
It does not seem like there are any plans to instate students wearing multiple cords, but in the end, it comes down to what steps graduating students take to convey their message. Students should be able to decide how many cords they wear, as long as they can also realize that their high-school journey and success is more than just a few pieces of rope.
“It is now up to the students and what we decide to do next,” said Merritt Delk.
