Surrounded in glory Angelou says, “it didn’t worry me that I was only twelve years old and merely graduating”. (Angelou, 2014,p179-180) In Graduation Day, Angelou and her peers fall under an illusion of success given to them by the academic agenda stressed in the poor school of Stamps. The community of Stamps would host a ceremony recognizing the graduates of both middle and high school. The overwhelming celebration of graduating overemphasized the importance of maintaining a realistic mindset of who and where the students were. Overly naïve aspirations were conditioned into the students through rewards presented to them, growing up, by the adults of the Stamps community.
During the ceremony marking their transitioning into the larger world a elevated status of honor in school held by the graduates began with the teachers. The teachers held the graduate students at a nearly equal status and any …show more content…
In speaking of the way the parents treated the event Angelou tells us, “ Parents who could afford it had ordered new shoes and ready-made clothes for themselves from Sears and Roebuck or Montgomery Ward. They also engaged the best seamstresses to make the floating graduating dresses”. (Angelou, 2014,p179) These families overall were poor as demonstrated by the school’s facilities and this was a significant, but short-term investment. Even the climax of the week, Sunday, the day of rest, was held in no more esteem as confirmed by Angelou herself. She reflects, “Momma made a Sunday breakfast although it was only Friday”. (Angelou, 2014,p181) No focus on self-confidence seemed to have been trained into the youth, merely a self-value defined by the level of reward they could achieve in
During the ceremony marking their transitioning into the larger world a elevated status of honor in school held by the graduates began with the teachers. The teachers held the graduate students at a nearly equal status and any …show more content…
In speaking of the way the parents treated the event Angelou tells us, “ Parents who could afford it had ordered new shoes and ready-made clothes for themselves from Sears and Roebuck or Montgomery Ward. They also engaged the best seamstresses to make the floating graduating dresses”. (Angelou, 2014,p179) These families overall were poor as demonstrated by the school’s facilities and this was a significant, but short-term investment. Even the climax of the week, Sunday, the day of rest, was held in no more esteem as confirmed by Angelou herself. She reflects, “Momma made a Sunday breakfast although it was only Friday”. (Angelou, 2014,p181) No focus on self-confidence seemed to have been trained into the youth, merely a self-value defined by the level of reward they could achieve in