Welcome! A blog, run by Jennifer Abell, Vice Chair of the Charles County Board of Education, involving topics and issues on education and children. Comments are not official communications of the Charles County School Board but are a personal effort to be more transparent. Both complimentary comments and constructive criticism are not only appreciated but encouraged. Student participation is also encouraged and therefore the use of proper language and decorum is requested at all times.
Board members participate in graduations as part of the academic procession, and along with the Superintendent confer diplomas to the graduating class. If anyone has a particular board member whom you would like to personally present the diploma to your student, please send your request to that board member by May 14th.
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"I will serve as an educational advocate on behalf of our community in order to advance the educational vision for our schools, pursue its goals, and encourage progress as we work together in a diverse society."
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I have attended many Charles County Graduation ceremonies over the years. Most of the printed programs contain descriptions of academic regalia such as the meaning of the various robes and the colors used to signify the discipline of study. At each of the ceremonies I have personally attended members of the Board of Education along with other Starkey Building level administrators have worn robes with three velvet stripes in the color blue indicating a Doctoral degree in Education. While I do not personally know the educational back ground of any of the Board members I find it difficult to believe they could all poses PhD's of Doctorates in Education. Members of the Board of Education (and the previously mentioned administrators) should only be permitted to wear robes that designate their true academic achievements. To do otherwise is to perpetrate a lie on the public and to violate the sanctity of the ceremony. It is also a slap in the face to those individuals who have actually earned a Doctoral level degree. This is the academic equivalent of a high ranking general wearing medals he didn't actually earn. All members of the Board of Education who do not possess Doctoral level degrees should refuse to wear the Doctoral robes. To wear them in the ceremony is to lie to the public and to set a very poor example for the members of the graduating class.
Anonymous,
Okay, I'm about to show my ignorance here. I have never really paid attention to them other that the color thingy that hangs down the back, I believe it's called a hood? I was told those were suppose to match your school. I only have an Associates Degree from CSM and therefore wouldn't have a hood (as well as some other board members). The decision was made years ago (prior to my being on the board)that board members such as myself would have a "hood" with Charles County colors just to make us more uniform. Is this what you are referring to? I will pick up my robe tonight and take a look at it but would like some further feedback. It is certainly not my intention to portray to be something I am not.
Jennifer:
We wouldn't think that you'd intentionally mislead the public, but many of the politicians around hear would.
I think a memo should go out to CSM as well as CCBOE that anyone caught wearing anything that they were not qualified to wear would be immediately removed from the ceremony begins and paraded in front of all the college graduates.
I'm not an expert by any means, but here's my take on the regalia. I admit upfront I could be misinformed.
Starting with the hat - Bachelor and Master prepared candidates/graduates should wear a flat top hat (like the hs students do). Doctorate prepared candidates/graduates wear a soft rounded hat. Like our students, he tassle is worn on one side of the head before they receive their diploma and they flip it to the other side of the head once they have officially graduated.
The robe - Bachelor and I think masters prepared candidates/graduates wear a robe similar to the students. Doctorate prepared candidates/graduates do too but they have 3 (?) velvet stripes on the sleeves.
Speaking of the sleeves - I THINK that the length of the sleeve also indicates the level of degree, with shorter sleeves indicating bachelor level and the longest sleeves indicating doctorate level preparation.
The hood - that colorful thing that is worn around the neck and hangs down the back, indicates three things (as far as I know, possibly more). The length symbolizes the degree, bachelor degree being shortest and doctorate the longest. There are several colors on the hood. One, two or three of them indicate the alma mater's colors. The color that is most prominant around the neck indicates the academic area. No matter what school one graduated from, if they received a teaching degree, their neck color would be light blue. Business would be tan, science gold, peach may mean something like psychology, but don't quote me on that one. History may be silver? And so on.
Anonymous may be referring to a type of hood thing that previous board members concocted several years back. Apparently a majority of the members of the board of education were not college prepared in any field. An oxymoron perhaps. Some of those members felt "left out" not having all that fancy stuff so they decided to have someone make a type of hood especially for the board members. It contained one particular color stripe for each of our 5 high schools. We were told we were a board and we should all dress alike. Since there are many people on stage, the public would be able to easily recognize the board members by this unique piece of cloth. We were strongly discouraged from personalizing our outfit with the traditionally recognized hoods we'd earned. Personally, I never cared for that and thought as anonymous does - it is deceptive. I pushed for members to wear what was true to their degree. If they didn't have a degree, then so be it. They graduated from high school so they should look like the high schoolers look, except their tassle would be on the "graduated" side all the time. As time went on, more members were college graduates and desired to wear their hoods. We decided we could either wear our school's hood or we could wear the concocted thing.
As far as the hats go. Several years back all board members wore the flat top hat. Several board members claimed it messed up their hair (it did)and was hard to keep straight on the head (it was) as wind blew down that long tunnel we waiten in. It often gave people the Flying Nun effect. (showing my age). Between ceremonies we often complained about the negative consequences of those hats so Mr. Richmond offered to get us each the doctorate level hats for more comfort. A majority of the board members liked that idea. My position with "honesty" did not change.
As far as community college graduates go. I don't think there is any specific regalia, hoods particularly, for that level of education, which really is too bad. The fact that a person has been academically prepared beyond the high school level should be recognized, but certainly not by wearing doctorate level regalia.
Margaret Young
What is your take on this Jennifer?
A direct reflection upon the CCBOE, administration, and total lack of discipline and control, was written to the editor this week of the Independent:
http://www.somdnews.com/stories/06182008/indylet181511_32180.shtml
How can these administrators stand the total "egg on their faces" along with the scam of total disregard of decorum at a formal ceremony?
The students and their families should be ashamed of themselves, hooting and holaring.
Security should remove these miscreants and hand them their "diplomas" out in the parking lot in a bucket.
I hope that Wayne Cooper, et. al, are proud of this disgusting behaviour.
Could we possibly restore order and decency to a civilized graduation ceremony?
I'm afraid that if parents were allowed to observe the schools at anytime, this is the type of behaviour that they'd observe on any normal "day".
Shame on the CCBOE for putting up with this crap, cowtowing to the least common denominator.
Anonymous,
The offenders were the adults in the audience, not the graduates. Proper decorum was requested through all the ceremonies and all of hem had a few that didn't conform to the guidelines. Their were police and staff on hand to escort those offenders from the facilites. I do believe this years attendees were better behaved than years past. I'm not sure what else CCPS could do to curtail the rowdiness of the few. Suggestions?
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