Tomorrow, my school celebrates another class of graduates graduating from 8th grade. I’ve seen 5 iterations of this celebration, tomorrow being my 6th as a teacher. Each time, I always feel like the students who go actually wanted to go and generally earned the privilege, and the students who don’t go often didn’t merit such a celebration at the moment (with few exceptions, of course). With the usual buzz the adults have created around the graduation, one would assume that the kids are equally as enthusiastic.

Not so.

I don’t know where that lack of energy comes from, but the malaise is palpable with some of my students. Proms and other events have gotten the same treatment this year, and I don’t know where that stems from. I hope by tomorrow, the only clouds I see are in the sky, and not in my graduating students’ eyes.