It’s a relatively new tradition for RFH to have its graduation at Monmouth University.
The venue is large. It’s where many of the high schools with larger graduating classes, by sheer virtue of population, have held graduations — mostly out of a need for more room. Middletown, which has two large public high schools, has held its graduations at Monmouth. And, before that, the PNC Bank Arts Center amphitheater in Holmdel. And some high schools have their graduations at Brookdale.
The size of the graduation classes at RFH, however, have not really grown substantially. In fact, some years they’ve shrunk a bit.
Nonetheless, in favor of graduations on the school’s grounds — either in front, with the school and symbolic tower as the backdrop or in back at the Borden Stadium on the football field, the tower peering up over the stands behind the audience — Monmouth has been the administration’s choice.
There’s been a lot of chatter about that choice. Most don’t seem to like it much. First of all, the talk has been that, while not an encumbering distance away, the location is pretty far off home base.
Other sentiments bandied about have primarily had to do with the simple notion of marking the graduation milestone on the grounds on which the students spent most of their teen years. It’s all about sentimentality — and, yes, tradition.
And, for that matter, why are we now transporting the eighth graders to the high school only to bring them back in Fair Haven to take a traditional trek from one school to the other in town?
OK, so that graduation maneuver may be a little more logical, given that RFH is the high school where most of the students will be spending their next four years. But, have we moved a little too far off the simple tradition marker only to get a grander, but more generic needle-in-a-cap-and-gown-heap graduation? I always thought RFH was more about home-base, stand-out glistening diamond-like purple pride.
The administration has its reasons, I know. And change is inevitable and many times a positive milestone move forward. But, I tend to side with the purple purists in their thinking. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, I’m thinking that if the administration has been looking for what they think is the students’ hearts’ desire on the subject, they won’t have to look any further than their own back (or front) yard.
Personally, I liked the front yard approach. You?
— Elaine Van Develde