By Will Portman, ’10, Editor-in-Chief
“Remember that line in your yearbook? Seniors rule! And they rule not because they’ve accomplished much, necessarily (aside from surviving to age 18 or so and not dropping out or running away from home), but because it’s tradition, and seniors crave tradition. They crave it because they know, deep down, they’re lost, and tradition helps them hide this fear. From juniors.”
– Walter Kirn, “Class Dismissed,” The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, February 25, 2010 (link)
With over a dozen events and initiatives designed to celebrate and reward seniors in their final year at Country Day, is it all just too much?
Some in the community have questioned whether there is an inappropriate amount of senior year traditions.
“Traditions have become commas in a run-on sentence, as opposed to an occasional exclamation point,” said English Department Chair Pat Dunn.
Her husband, Science Department Chair Tim Dunn, echoed that sentiment.
“Special moments and memories by definition are few, spontaneous, and not overly orchestrated or documented,” he said. “The larger the number, the more adult involvement, and the more contrived, the less special.”
“I think it’s a high number. It’s on the high side, and I worry about it being too much,” said Upper School Head Stephanie Luebbers.
However, she said, “formally marking the passage is important. We need to note how much work and effort students, families, and the school put forth, in celebratory, fun ways. It takes an awful lot of work to do very well here, and it takes an awful lot of work to do just fine here.”
The last week of the school year is filled with ceremonies: Graduation, the most significant tradition of them all; Awards Day, which seniors always dominate; and the Sports Banquet, during which seniors are honored for their athletic achievements over the past four years.
Surrounding these events are smaller ones, like the senior class picnic following Graduation rehearsal, and dozens of private graduation parties hosted by seniors’ families.
In May, seniors participate in the Clap Out, walking as a class through the three divisions of the school, wearing sweatshirts and T-shirts with their colleges’ names emblazoned across the front and basking in the applause from their teachers and peers from pre-K through 11th grade.
They release (and pop) balloons in the Commons on the last day of senior classes as part of a new tradition called the Balloon Drop. They attend the Senior-Faculty Dinner, held on a weeknight at Kenwood Country Club, and tape posters of the colleges they’ve chosen to attend on their lockers.
Throughout the year, they enjoy the Senior Pit, a lounge area in the Upper School off-limits to other grades; Senior Surprises, monthly or bimonthly treats organized by senior parents; Senior Privileges, which allow them to be off-campus during free periods; and the Senior of the Week program, in which a senior is awarded a prime parking spot each week through an email sent to 12th graders and Upper School faculty by Senior Dean of Students Fred Carey.
Senior events with an athletic flavor include the Senior-Faculty Basketball Game; the Powder Puff football game, in which senior girls face off against their junior counterparts; and senior nights for individual sports.
Additionally, there’s Senior Halloween, when seniors come to school in costume and pass out candy in the Lower School; the Senior Showcase and Thespian Dinner in May; and the Senior Send-Off barbeque in August.
Seniors commemorate their time at the school with a senior memory DVD, and with individual pages in the yearbook filled with baby pictures, senior pictures, and the 200-word senior paragraph, typically written by students’ friends.
The litany of senior-related events continues, but with several that are perhaps more formative than celebratory.
At Senior Seminars, 12th graders attend workshops with recent alumni about college opportunities. In the Senior Project, students spend two weeks at the end of May exploring an area of interest through internships, classes, travel, etc.
CPR certification is a graduation requirement, and it’s a tradition for a graduating class to donate a gift to the school. Further traditions include the Peer Mentoring program and senior English and history electives.
There are even more traditions that are unofficial, and over the years, some passage-marking events have begun and ended with a single class, like special senior claps.
“[These traditions are] about striking a balance, and authentically celebrating the achievement of graduation. Part of the administration’s job is to weigh up these celebrations in an ongoing effort to decide which ones work and which don’t,” said Senior Dean of Students Fred Carey.
Of about ten seniors surveyed, nearly all said they were content with the current level of senior-year traditions.
“I think we deserve them. Because we work really hard,” said Corey Tipton, ’10.
“They’re a reward for all our hard work,” agreed Kaitlyn Morgan, ’10.
“I like to be able to do things other people in high school cannot,” said Nick Bender, ’10.
“I want more,” said Meredith Hritz, ’10.
Micaela Mullee, ’10, had a slightly different perspective.
“As an underclassman, it got really annoying how every five minutes there was a senior something-or-other. As a senior, it still feels, pretty much, like there’s one every five minutes. They’re a lot more fun once you’re actually a senior. We’ve waited a long time to have these, and they’re definitely something you look forward to, but some just feel a little superfluous,” she said.
Cam June, ’10, proposed condensing senior traditions into a shorter time span.
“I think all the traditions are a good fit, and as seniors, we’ve kind of earned them. I guess there is a little too much congratulations. It feels like they spread it out over the entire year, and it feels like it should mostly be the end of the year,” he said.
Upper School Administrative Assistant Andi Mapes, who plays a key role in organizing many senior events, urged students not to take their final year of high school for granted.
“I don’t think there’s too many traditions, because this is your year, and it’s our time to celebrate you. I like the diversity – one week it’s a picnic and it’s casual, and it follows the senior-faculty dinner,” she said. “My hope is that the senior class will take each one and enjoy it for what it is, realizing that there’s never a time in your life that is like this one, and if you’re not paying attention, it will pass you by.”
Several juniors said they would be upset if any senior traditions were removed.
“If they got rid of any, it would be unfair,” said Jamie Fisher, ’11.
“We need to keep the senior traditions, and all the other CCDS traditions too. I was upset when they tried to cut down Spirit Week. Although you don’t want to over-praise the seniors,” said Alexis Victor, ’11.
“You do want to over-praise the seniors,” replied Will Fritz, ’11, facetiously. “You want to elevate them to the status of gods!”
“I think there’s some fatigue among teachers by the end,” said Luebbers. “Some pieces of this disrupt the normal academic routine.”
“Every effort is made to schedule these events so they have minimal or no impact [on the school day],” said Carey.
“In the past, senior surprise has been a problem,” said Upper School Science Teacher Brock Miller. “Occasionally, the seniors got things that end up being disruptive in the classroom. It’s been very unobtrusive in recent years.”
“The one thing I’m not a fan of is senior privileges. I wish it started later. My real, deep-down reasoning is, I don’t think it makes sense that we tell students that their reward for doing a great job here is to be able to leave here,” continued Miller.
This fall, Senior Snooze, an extension of senior privileges, was implemented. Senior Snooze enabled seniors to arrive on campus after 8:15 a.m. if they were free first period or both first and second period.
About a month into the program, the name of this initiative was changed to the less-alliterative “senior morning privileges” after several faculty members complained.
“It was not a reflection of too much celebration of seniors, but specific to this one issue,” said Carey. “There were members of the faculty who thought this was sending the wrong message about the educational priority – learning, not snoozing. Semantics became important.”
Another tradition some faculty members haven’t been keen on is the Balloon Drop.
“I don’t really care about the Balloon Drop,” said Luebbers.
“I don’t know where the Balloon Drop came from. The Balloon Drop doesn’t do much for me, and people have to pick up after it right away,” said Miller.
However, there was lots of positivity about other traditions.
“I really do like the Clap Out, and I like the Senior-Faculty Dinner. Perhaps in some ways the Senior-Faculty Dinner is my favorite because it really does involve just the faculty and the seniors,” said Carey.
“I think Graduation is a lovely, lovely evening for families, graduates, and faculty, and the Clap Out has all the enthusiasm and ‘ra-ra’ that it needs to,” said Luebbers.
“I’m pretty happy to celebrate what seniors have done. I’m more concerned about what seniors don’t do fourth quarter, but I understand they’ve earned these celebrations,” said Miller.
“Different groups need their own sort of closure,” said Luebbers. “I think [all the traditions] individually make sense.”
“It’s important to recognize that we have invested a lot of time in each other,” said Carey. “That time is not so much in the process of ending, but rather it is in the process of changing. The immediacy, frequency, and intimacy of our contact will soon be far less than it was, and many people are saddened by that fact. It’s natural that people should look for ways to savor the time that’s left.”
Carey said the amount of senior year traditions has increased greatly since he graduated in 1980.
“There was no Clap Out, Balloon Drop, Senior Surprise, Senior of the Week, Senior-Faculty Dinner, etc., etc., etc.,” he said. “I’m not saying one era is any better or any worse than the other. I’m simply saying they were different.”
Miller suggested that senior-year traditions, and the increase in traditions over the last several decades, serve a long-term purpose.
“Some of it is to have seniors leaving here knowing they’re appreciated, knowing the school says they’ve done good things, and the reason is, ultimately, we want seniors to become engaged alumni,” he said. “We want them to send their kids here. We want them to send us donations. We want them to come back and help us govern the school and celebrate the school.”
Graduation photo courtesy of Ralph Javens. Balloon Drop and Clap Out photos courtesy of Ilana Habib, ’11.