Teacher Proposed Canceling Graduation Because All of Her Students Graduate No Matter How Low Their Grades Are

Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor

Jun 3, 2026 8:30 PM EDT

Are high school graduations really worth celebrating?

In days of yore, it was more difficult to graduate from high school. Graduating from high school was seen as an actual academic achievement, rather than merely a ceremony that marks your transition from childhood to adulthood. You could argue that a high school diploma serves both purposes, but if a school awards diplomas to kids who never show up or complete their work, you can't deny that the degree itself has lost some of its luster. About 15% of baby boomers dropped out of high school, but for Gen Z, that number has plummeted to 4%. That doesn't mean that Gen Z is smarter than Baby Boomers. The standards for graduation have objectively dropped.

One teacher took to the internet to share a radical concept: graduations should be canceled. If students aren't earning their grades, why should we be celebrating them?

via Vitaly Gariev

_{A model representing high school teacher who doesn't think graduations mean anything anymore because all students at her school graduate, regardless of how they did academically throughout their high school careers.}
We should cancel all graduations, because this generation of students didn't earn such an achievement.

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via Andrej Lišakov (Unsplash+)

_{A representation of a high school student walking across the stage at graduation, accepting her diploma, regardless of whether she earned it or not.}
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via Katelyn Perry (Unsplash+)

_{A hand model holds a small participation trophy, which serves as a way of giving awards to children who didn't accomplish anything, so they feel better about themselves.}
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My hot take is that 99.9% of kids don't feel special at all when they get a participation trophy, and it doesn't make them feel any sense of accomplishment.
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$NaveGCT I've never seen K-12 graduation as a celebration of academic achievement, I've seen it as a celebration of people's lives and the new stage they're beginning Whether or not they succeeded academically, this is still the end to a stage that encompassed their entire life experience for, to them, a huge fraction of their lives.$

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My hot take is that no middle schooler actually takes middle school graduation seriously. Nobody actually thinks it is as significant as graduating from high school, but that doesn't mean it can't be honored! I think it'd be strange to go through 12 years of school and never have any celebrations of moving from one level to the next. High school graduations are always going to be more special, but what's the harm in putting some adorable Kindergarteners in caps and gowns?
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