Graduation

Graduation went reasonably well last night. Arrived early so we'd get a good seat with an unobstructed view of the podium. The kiddie did phenomenal with her speech. She spoke loudly and clearly, plus made lots of eye contact with the audience. Many students broke into tears as she read it and a lot of them were asking her or the English teachers if they could get a copy afterwards.

The one thing that bothered me most about the graduation was that they had asked that all applause and cheers be held until all the kids in a specific row had been recognized. Most everyone adhered to that rule with the exception of one group. The same group that didn't adhere to the rules the time I was chaperone for a class trip. Not only did the kids cheer, their families did too. One family even went so far as to not only cheer, but to also blow horns when their child's name was read. I just don't understand why they felt the rules didn't apply to them. I think it was rude as hell. All of us were proud to see our kids graduate, and I know many would have loved to cheer when their son or daughter's name was called, but instead we followed the rules which were in place for a reason. It just really irked me.

There were approximately 370 students graduating, so to keep the ceremony short, they gave away academic awards at an assembly held during the day. The kiddie received awards for excellence in math and orchestra. She also received the President's Award for Educational Excellence, given to students that maintain a 3.5 or above grade point average. Both her and I, along with everyone that knows her, were shocked that she didn't received an award for English. She's more known for her outstanding writing skills than she is for her orchestra skills.

The kiddie's first order of business today, being newly graduated and off for the summer? She's fucking grounded for the next week, maybe two. Depends on how much she bitches the first week. I noticed yesterday that my lighter was missing. I then found pictures of the kiddie on her camera playing with a red lighter, the same color as the one I couldn't find. When I confronted her, she swore on her life she didn't take it and that the lighter in the pictures belonged to her friend. I told her to go to bed and think about it.

I then asked her today if she wanted to stick with the story she had given me yesterday. Knowing full well she was caught in a big lie, she fessed up. That's twice in one month she's done something and blamed her friends for it. I was so angry and so incredibly disappointed in her. Not only is she being disrespectful to me by lying to my face, she's disrespecting her friends by trying to place the blame on them.

This is not how I taught her to be. I've always told her she'd be in twice as much trouble if she lied than if she just came out and accepted responsibility for her actions. Plus she's a horrible fucking liar and gets caught at least 99% of the time (I'm sure she's gotten away with it once or twice). I told her she should be thankful she's academically intelligent cuz she'd suck as a con artist.

I hope this is a VERY short phase she's going thru or she may just end up spending the entire summer and possibly her entire high school years being grounded. She's never done this kind of thing before and I plan to do everything in my power to nip it in the bud now before it becomes habit. So much for all the boasting I've done.