To Bachelor's, or Not to Bachelor's?

This is going to sound really conceited right off the bat.

A couple of weeks ago, I mailed out announcements to family and friends to inform them of my impending (ignore the dooms-day feel of that word) graduation from James Madison University. I was receiving a Bachelor's of Science in "Interdisciplinary Social Science" with minors in Secondary Education and French.

The ceremony was great- excepting an overly-egotistical keynotes speaker whose main focus was his "green" lifestyle, and not the awesomeness of our 2009 graduation. Note to self... keep ridiculous personal information and political statements to a minimum when orating during a celebration of other people's accomplishments.

Now here's my selfish tid-bit: although I have received some excellent gifts, I haven't received the volume of gifts or cards as I did from my high school graduation. At least, I don't think I have. Now, maybe the post office is backed up, or the dog ate my cards, but this phenomenon led me to ask a very important question:

In our society, is high school graduation more celebrated than college graduation?

I find that this question opens up several different cans of worms. For one, I come from a population of students (and families) where college is the norm. The expected. That all-important keg-driven four years where you wind up 15 pounds heavier and much wiser (at least on the topic of mixing drinks). For us, yes, it's a big deal.

But there is a whole other side to the story. For families who don't expect their children to attend college, high school graduation is a huge celebration. Or, for families who have experienced a high degree of chaos, problems, or trauma, graduation from high school could be a true feat.

So now, we have two groups of people: those who expect college and those who don't. But I'm not sure there is always a direct correlation between these groups and their opinions of graduations. I'm in the "expecting college" group, and yet my high school graduation brought me much monetary praise and my college graduation did not. Are we still stuck in a society that treats secondary education as more important?

Hell no. I just am examining the issues.

My last point to make has to do with the educational system. As an up-and-coming teacher (a.k.a. superhero), I hope that I can help children succeed in pursuing post-secondary education. Our job field and society stress higher education. It's my duty to help children thrive (no matter what they choose after school)... but in wanting students to go to college:

Shouldn't we be celebrating college graduations as much as high school graduations?