I saw a (fictional) TV show recently where a high school graduation was depicted. All the students waited for the individual diplomas to be handed out, and then turned their tassels together. I also saw a commercial for a technical school on TV where there was a shot of a graduation ceremony, and the whole class turned their tassels together.
When I graduated HS in 1985, we each turned our tassel individually, right after we were handed our diploma. I didn’t go to my college graduation (didn’t want to, but at any rate, it was an outdoor ceremony, and was raining in sheets all day); however, I interpreted at on about two years after mine (1991, or so) and the students turned tassels individually. At by brother’s HS graduation in 1990, they turned individually. He graduated college in 1994, and I honestly don’t remember what they did. The last graduation I attended was a cousin’s, in, IIRC, 1997, and I’m pretty sure they turned tassels individually, but I wouldn’t swear to it.
It turning as a group the normal thing now, or were the two things I saw on TV just dramatizations meant to be eye-catching? or was my graduation an aberration, and I’m misremembering the others because of my experience?
What did other people do, and when did you do it? also, where? is there a US/non-US difference?
I don’t recall any of my graduations, but I annually attend a graduation for university (BA and masters level) and at this institution, they all turn their tassel at the end when the President “confers” their respective degrees. Getting handed the diploma is not the “event,” but the magic words from the stage.
Ah. Well, that may explain my high school. My high school had a rule that anyone who was just one or two credits shy of graduating, and was taking a correspondence course, but hadn’t finished, or was enrolled in summer school, and would have their credits by September (assuming they passed) could participate in the ceremony, but, was not supposed to turn their tassel. They received a blank frame with no diploma in it, and they shook the principal’s hand, but he didn’t say “Congratulations, you are a high school graduate,” or whatever he said (I made that up-- it started with “congratulations,” but I don’t remember the rest).
I am very sure of this, because I took a class by correspondence (biology, because it was the only way to get out of dissecting the fetal pig), and had my exam the weekend before the ceremony. I had been sent to the same meeting with everyone enrolled in summer school RE: tassels, and returning for your diploma, because they won’t mail it. The Thursday before the Saturday evening ceremony, my guidance counselor called me in to say they had not received my grade, and she wanted to make sure I’d taken the test. My stomach fell into the floor, because my parents were flying in from NY for this, and were going to be furious if I “didn’t graduate.” (And they had not been on board with the correspondence course thing.)
So there was lots of phone calling, and reassurance that I had passed, and my grade “was in the mail.” The school decided to award me the diploma, but told me that the fact of my graduation wouldn’t appear on my transcript until they got the actual paperwork.
So, I guess the schools have a choice to “confer” individually, or as a group. I suppose even people short one credit don’t go through exercises at the university level.
I just graduated from community college, and this is what we did. After all the graduates had crossed the stage, the President made some announcement to the effect of “now that you all have received your diplomas and earned your degrees, you may move your tassel and be recognized as college graduates.”
When I graduated from high school in 1986 we moved tassels together at the end of the ceremony. I’m pretty sure it was the same in college. I honestly thought this was the tradition everywhere.
This last May I attended a graduation at a private college in Virginia. Somewhere near the end of the extremely long and boring ceremony the grads were instructed to move their tassels together.
In the 70’s it was more like a rumor that went though the crowd if I remember correctly. Certainly nothing official.
At my high school graduation (1994), we all turned our tassel together. It was a performing arts school, and that was considered one of the highlights of the “show”. We practiced it many times to be sure we were all in sync.
I didn’t walk for college and they don’t do tassels for grad school, so I can’t comment on that.
I vaguely remember turning it together when I graduated from college, but it was a long time ago. At MIT you turn something else. Before you graduate your class ring, which has a beaver on it, is supposed to be worn with the head facing away from you. After you graduate you turn it so the head faces you. The explanation: before you graduate, MIT shits on you, after it shits on the world.
When my kid graduated from Maryland there were smaller departmental ceremonies and larger ceremonies for everyone. Diplomas were handed out at the department one. The big one got the commencement speaker, but there were way too many people to have them handed out there. I’m not sure if the tassels were turned at the big ceremony - they weren’t at the small one.
At my HS graduation in 1979, my kids’ HS graduations in 2011 and 2013 and at a college graduation in 2014 everyone moved their tassels in unison near the end of the ceremony. I’ve never seen a ceremony where it was done individually. I’m guessing it’s a regional thing, as I’ve never heard of the individual thing.
Here is a photo from Wikipedia of the scientist Linus Pauling wearing a mortarboard. You’ll notice a tassel on one side, connected at the center of the mortarboard. At some graduation ceremonies, it’s moved from the right side to the left side, or vice versa. (Also, I think nowadays the tassel hangs down more than in the photo.)
At the start of the graduation ceremony, everyone has their tassels on the right* side of the cap. Sometime during the ceremony, they move the tassel to the left side to indicate they have graduated.
*The starting side varies, although I think starting on the right is more common.
My daughter has just graduated here in England and there was definitely some business about turning the tassle. I didn’t go to my own graduation ceremony so I couldn’t tell you if this happened back in the 1970s.
