Pre-school Graduation

Yes, that’s right. Pre-school graduation. For the kindergarten-aged kids, this is a pretty significant event. They’ve been preparing for it for a while now, practicing where to walk and what to do, learning a song, and memorizing “messages” for each other. This is the event for which we bought suits for Ridge and Holt. Yesterday, the special day finally arrived. What’s funny to me is that for the most part, all the elements of the pre-school graduation ceremony are the same as those of the elementary and middle school ceremonies, just on a smaller scale.

The pre-school has a large multi-purpose room that is sort of the heart of the building. At the front of this room was a curtain with decorations on it, and a small stage. The floor in front of this was decorated with tissue paper flowers, arranged in a square. This also served as a guideline for where the kids should walk. On the far side of the room, to the right of the stage, were ten chairs, one for each graduating student. Opposite these chairs, on the left side of the stage, were chairs for the parents. The mothers sat facing their children, and the fathers sat behind the mothers. Completing the square, sitting across from the stage, were chairs for all the other kids and their mothers.

The ceremony began with everyone being seated in their designated spot. The ten graduating students then entered ceremoniously to the sound of some very engergetic Japanese children’s music. The students entered opposite the mothers, then walked all the way around the square of paper flowers before finally taking their seats. Oh…I forgot to mention that even this ceremony had some Important People: the mayor, the head of the pre-school, the Nishiokoppe Elementary School vice-principal, and the Kamiokoppe Elementary School principal. Once everyone was seated, we made the same super-formal bow that we make at all other important ceremonies. The head of the pre-school then assumed his position on the stage and, assisted by one teacher, began to award the students their certificates. Each student’s name was called, they stood and said, “Hai!” and then walked to the stage. They then stopped about two or three feet away from the adult, who bent down and read the certificated. Both of them bowed as the child took the certificate. The student then turned to face the audience, bowed, and walked down from the stage. Up to this point, it could have been a graduation ceremony at any other level of school. But, here, there was a very smart deviation: after leaving the stage, each student turned and walked to their mother, to whom they then gave their certificate. I thought this was a good idea, because it seems that asking a six-year old to keep track of a paper during a ceremony is asking too much. So, after giving their certificate to their mom, they returned to their seat. Ridge did all of this, except you can tell he hates bowing. He did it, but it was more like a “suggestion” of a bow rather than a typical Japanese one. He was very cute.

After all of the kids had gotten their certificates, the man and teacher then walked along the back of the room to deliver certificates to all the other kids. With a little prodding from the mother sitting behind him, Holt also stood to receive his certificate. He was so proud of his suit! Once all the certificates had been passed out, the mayor and head of the pre-school both made very short speeches. Again, this is just like in the ceremonies for the older kids.

The next part of the ceremony required the kids to recite messages they had memorized. So, the older students stood in front of the audience and recited a message to the other students. Parts of the message were delivered individually, but most of the messages were delivered in unison. I think they said things to the effect of, “thank you for being our friend …etc…we are going to work hard when we go to the elementary school...etc.” It was amazing to watch Ridge recite all this along with the other kids.

After the message part came the song. All the kids in the school learned to sing this “Sayonara” song. Ridge told me that since I didn’t know the words that I should just watch his mouth and sing what he is singing. I wish it were that easy!

Finally, after the song, the ceremony was declared to be officially over, and we all bowed formally again. But, we were not done yet! Now we had moved from the graduation ceremony to the “good-bye” ceremony. Apparently, each year the graduating students put together a big photo album to present to their mothers. So, now, each student rose and proceeded to shake hands with everyone, moving around the room in a circle. After shaking hands with the Important People, they crossed the room to where their teachers were positioned next to the mothers. The teachers handed each kid their photo album, which the children then gave to their mother, and continued shaking hands with all the moms and all the other pre-school students. As they moved in a circle around the room, they made their way back to the entry point, and left the room. This was the official, “we are leaving” part.

Once all the kids had left the room, everyone clapped and the ceremony was over. The kids were all given gifts and loads of pictures were taken. I’d say all in all, the event lasted about an hour. It seems like quite the event, doesn’t it? Especially for six-year olds!

Hopefully I’ll have some photos to post for you soon.