One of the things I love about working in schools is the annual school calendar.  It has a clear beginning and a clear finish.  You move from grade level to grade level, with predictable start and end dates.  Thanks to the education system, you might think that life always has a nice rythym and sense of progression. Young people the world over probably get the wrong idea from school about how things work, assuming real life will always provide clear progress milestones.  

This past weekend, I participated in my first graduation ceremony with Lincoln School.  We actually had to divide the graduating class into 3 smaller groups to meet all of the COVID related restrictions and protocols that have been mandated across Costa Rica.  Given the madness of the past 2 months with the spike in COVID cases in the country, I was just grateful to be able to celebrate our students with an in-person ceremony.  It was absolutely beautiful.

As I told parents in the audience, graduation is one of those few times as a parent when you can actually see and measure the impact of years of sacrifice, hard work, and encouragement.  For the student, graduation similarly marks a discreet moment in time with a clear and potentially dramatic difference in day-to-day life before and after.  It’s a true milestone.  You even get a diploma, which serves as tangible evidence and formal documentation of your growth and achievement.  For many families, high school graduation is the rite of passage that officially moves a person from childhood to adulthood.  

For the school and the faculty, graduation is no less exciting.  In some ways, the entire institution is aligned to this final moment of student promotion.  In addition to the quantifiable element of graduation – how many and what percentage of our students met the requirements and are moving on – we ask lots of questions about the qualitative outcomes.  Do our graduates possess the skills and abilities that we say they do as a result of their time with us?  Do our graduates’ college choices and next steps in life reflect their true potential as developing and maturing young adults.  Perhaps most importantly, are our graduates the type of people we hoped they would become? 

I was struck during the senior video to see the pictures of our graduating seniors back when they were in preschool.  Many of them spent 15 years at Lincoln.  That’s a long time and a lot of interaction with our school and faculty.  It’s humbling to think of how much of an impact we can have in shaping each students’ childhood and trajectory into adulthood.  

Eventually, we all find ourselves sitting together in an auditorium to watch students as they walk across a stage, and then, ultimately, out the exit.  When the auditorium empties out, we still find ourselves there as educators.  Yes, we feel a sense of accomplishment and a certain degree of closure.  But we know that our work is as much at a beginning as it is at an end.  We have a fresh group of students, excited to take on the mantle of the senior year.  We welcome a new class of preschool students coming to school for the very first time.  For our students, the finish line is clear.  For us as educators, our work is again just beginning.