Graduation Day


Each year the local Head Start preschool students come to the library once a month during the school year for a story time. The weekday morning they come is always the time when I have to do my payroll and bill paying, so I have never seen very much of them. I’ve delegated the work with them to the capable hands of other staff members.

Most recently that has usually been the library’s other D.L. She has done a great job this past school year. She has tested some of her story time ideas with the Head Start students. They had the honor of being the first children to use the new Story Time room. She knows how to work with them—she has a lot of experience working with children. Her own children went through Head Start some years back.

D.L. had the last Head Start visit of the year all planned out. At the close of it she would hand them each a certificate that they could take home to show their families. Naturally she would also mention our upcoming summer story time program.

It didn’t quite work out as planned. D.L. discovered the week before that Head Start was about to have its graduation on Friday. There would be no final Head Start group at the library. She did not let that stop her. She asked whether she and I could come to the graduation and hand out the certificates there. They agreed to pencil us in. D.L. okayed it with me.

Around mid-morning we got into D.L.’s vehicle (I’m embarrassed to use my dirty little car for anything official-looking) and drove us to the church where the graduation was to take place. Officially it was called “Family Fun and Recognition Day.” We got there a few minutes before everything was to start. I had never been to this church before. It looked like a pretty typical small-town church of the sort I grew up with. The ceremony was to take place in the fellowship hall, which is church-talk for the church cafeteria.

Church ladies and volunteers had already set up tables of refreshments. The place was packed. There were probably seventy to eighty adults—parents, grandparents, Head Start workers, and volunteers. Seats had been set up for the children in an adjoining Sunday school classroom separated from the fellowship hall by a sliding partition.

I could not help feeling a bit self-conscious—first, because I was to speak despite not being on the official program, second because I was one of only about three or four Caucasians in the whole place. A few of the crowd looked like they were ready for Sunday school. Most were more casual, as I was. Some were really rather less than casual. Some had likely just come off from work, or would be going there soon after the event was over. Some had babies and small children with them. Many were fanning themselves. The day was uncommonly cool for a May day outside. Inside the closely-packed bodies overwhelmed the limited air conditioning circulation available.

We took our seats and got ready for the event to begin. We stood as the children filed into the room in a procession. One marched, another waved cheerily at everyone. Most just got there. They were undoubtedly nervous at being up in front of so many adults. The eighteen children who were to graduate sat in front of everyone else. They wore paper hats that more or less reminded one of a graduate’s mortar board cap. The younger children sat over to the side.

The Mistress of Ceremonies welcomed us. She led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance. The students then went through a repertoire of songs that they had learned for the occasion. These included the “Weather Song”, “Hello Neighbor”, “Akka Bakk Soda Cracker”, “Zip-adee-do-dah”, “May is Here”, and others. They sang about like preschoolers usually do, some more in key than others, some more in time than others, some with more command of the lyrics than others. As with any group of singing preschoolers the sweetness of their voices made up for any technical shortcomings. We clapped for them at each number. They concluded with a number called “Kindergarten Here We Come.”

Next the MC announced that they were ready to award certificates and diplomas. But first, they had someone from the public library to give a set of special certificates. That was my cue. I elbowed my way through the tight crowd as politely as possible to approach the podium. D.L. got into place with her camera to get pictures to post at the library. I hoped the stain I had noticed that morning on my outfit did not show.

I introduced myself, talked about how the children had been coming to the library, and explained why they had not seen much of my while they were there. I spoke of how glad I was to be able to be here today. We loved having the students at the library and were very proud of them. Now that the school year was ending, there was no reason to stop coming. We had a summer story time program coming up. I told them the day and time each week and mentioned that we had programs for all ages.

Then I called out names and awarded the certificates. The Head Start volunteers helped hand them out. I stumbled over quite a few of the names. I grew up with lots of black classmates, but over the years the names have changed a lot. One of the ladies corrected each name that I muffed, and I just kept on going. Then I led everybody in a round of applause for the children.

I took my seat and the main awards began. There were recognitions for parents and volunteers. Then each of the students got a certificate or diploma. My hands got numb from clapping for everybody.

Next came the awarding of door prizes. We had each gotten a door prize ticket when we came in. There were prizes for adults, prizes for children, and more prizes for adults. Whoever had set them up with their prizes had been quite generous!

The door prize awarding dragged on for some time. A little boy in front of me became restive. His mother took him out for a while. He came back looking relieved. The place was still hot, despite the opening of some doors and windows to the outside. D.L. whispered that she was ready to go any time. I was as well—I had things to get back to at work--but did not want to be rude. As the door prizes continued to drag on I finally decided that we did indeed need to excuse ourselves. D.L. got a picture of the cake. Then we slipped outside.

She told me I had done a good job of speaking. That was nice to hear. D.L. also asked me when I was going to start dating again. I did not think it would likely be any time too soon. I did appreciate her implicit vote of confidence.

We arrived back at the library and went back to work. It had been a nice morning. I hope we’ll be seeing more of our Head Start graduates this summer.

Excellent day! And maybe you will get some of them while they are in kindergarten and then you can go to their kindergarten graduation...



Everything in its own time...