I see even five-year-olds these days being inducted to the fame of special gowns and hats typical for academic degree and diploma graduations.  

Though not with degrees or diplomas, there is great excitement around graduation for kindergarten school children between ages five and six ready to transition to primary school class one.

Whatever the explanation, school authorities are giving us; they have succeeded in creating excitement around kindergarten graduation, not only for the children but also for parents.

My five-year granddaughter reminded me, having proudly invited me to her graduation ceremony when she came visiting the other day. I was taken aback by the spell of that moment because she had just turned five years so graduation for what?

Then the following Sunday, at Church, a friend’s granddaughter joined us in our pew. In a chat, she told me she will soon be graduating from her preschool. With my own granddaughter’s invitation in my mind, I asked her age and she responded she was five.   

With the excitement in their voices, I was gathering from these two five-year-olds that they have been made to know and understand by their school authorities that the graduation ahead of them was an ascend to something greater.

Progressive

It is progressive for schools to throw in this idea of graduation which possibly is an encouragement to the soon-to-be and future “graduands” of the school. Certainly, my granddaughter felt very proud talking to me about her school and her upcoming graduation.  Dare I miss it?  No, not for anything.

Indeed, the move from where they are now as preschool children to mainstream class one make the children feel good, believing in themselves as grown-up children. 

I had a chat with someone who is into education and runs a private school in the Western Region to find out why schools are fixated on graduation for those children transiting from pre-school to primary school class one. I played the devil’s advocate insisting that it was bothersome for the children. Her answer humbled me.

She told me that at age five, those schools holding graduation want the children to know and live with the fact that where they had got to, they were no longer seen as “grown-up toddlers”. Graduation is meant to show them that they had “graduated” from that super child-like stage to big children.

Independence

It is a time for them to learn to wean themselves off from “Mum and Dad” virtually spoon-feeding them in everything. They should learn to be independent and do certain basic things at home and at school, for themselves.

It is time for them to learn to know how to be tidy and clean and to put things in their proper places. A time when they learn to speak politely and present themselves as ladies and gentlemen of the future.

It all reminds me of a younger brother who, at five years, was sent to the then St. John’s Grammar Boarding school at Achimota in the early 1960s. At the time, we as siblings found Achimota too far from home in Awudome Estates, Kaneshie and therefore too callous of our parents to “dump” our five-year-old brother that far. 

Now thinking back, my parents saw something that we were oblivious to. We thought it was too much for an overactive five-year-old. He used to come home at the end of every term with an empty trunk and at other times with loads of dirty stained clothes meant only for the garbage bin. 

We never thought beyond boarding school at that age was a form of transformation period for our brother. It was the stage for him to learn to be independent, settle down and get focused. He was too super active and carefree.

Even though not surprisingly, he did not survive for long in a boarding school, the fact could not be ruled out that it was the early days of shaping his life.

So yes, I have accepted my granddaughter’s graduation invitation with pride. I will steal an opportunity to congratulate her teachers and school authorities when I go and thank them for this early childhood pride instilled in my beautiful five-year-old and her colleagues.

The world of our third generation these days definitely will not be an easy one. They will face a very tough environment. Preparation for them to face this toughness must have already started from the womb with the instant world their parents are in today.

With the third generation, their first graduation day was the day they entered the world and cried out their first cry at birth. Now they will probably go through many more realistic graduations by the time they clock their professional qualifications to enter the world of work.

Theirs is going to be an even tougher world. Their graduation at age five, therefore, is hopefully preparing them ahead. The empathy has already started and I certainly will be there to applaud the bravery embarked on by my granddaughter and her peers.