Cheery giggles erupt from the boys and girls as they are lined up. Of course, girls are paired with girls and boys with boys, and their seats are separated accordingly. Parents proudly grin and wave. A teacher hushes the students to calm the chatter. There is an air of excitement, and the boys and girls are obviously having trouble controlling themselves.

No, this is not the first day of kindergarten. It is, in fact, Central York High School's Commencement ceremony.

For the high school seniors, graduation symbolizes independence. We finally escape the restrictions of a household with unavoidable supervision or a high school with a few too many hallway freezes.

Graduation is ingrained in our minds as the ultimate goal for high school, as the prideful moment when we finally unify with our classmates as a single group of cheering, excited graduates who can start autonomous lives. It is so normalized in American culture that we anticipate the chance we get to wear those unflattering gowns and pieces of cardboard for a cap. Suddenly, a tassel is not just a tacky furniture decoration; it is our transformation into a fresh adulthood.

In origin, Middle Age scholars wore graduation gowns to reflect the dress of their monastic peers, and thus, gowns serve to remind modern high school students of the academic excellence that early scholars strived for. Likewise, graduation caps were modeled after birettas, traditionally worn by the Roman Catholic clergy.


Indubitably, the dress code is symbolically strict and significant for the graduation ceremony with traditions that have been held for centuries.

However, this analysis leads to a more personal inquiry: what is the symbolism behind the segregation by gender at Central's graduation?

Indeed, in years past, the awkward separation of the males and females, reminiscent of the times those same boys and girls lined up for lunch in elementary school, struck me as odd. Surely, in a ceremony dedicated to unifying a class in closure of a high school career, the genders should not be so divided, not only in the color of their gowns, but also in their seating.

Anthropologist Arnold van Gennep, author of "The Rites of Passage," studied a variety of cultural rites of passage from all over the world, and while the subjects dramatically differed on surface level, they all shared common elements, according to Gennep's conclusions:

--- Separation from society.

--- Inculcation-transformation.

--- Return to society in a new status.

The key word in this research is "status." As evidenced, every aspect of graduation -- from the walk to the cut of our sleeves -- is significant, including our gown colors. So how does the color of our gowns pertain to our status? As a class, we are isolating ourselves from society to go through a transformation, and as a class, we are supposed to return as equals.

Yet, our gowns and seating chart tell a different story. We are forced to dress, walk and sit categorized by our gender. The students of the graduating class are not divided, rated or defined by our gender, but it is certainly organized that way.

If some call this issue petty, why not allow students to wear a single, unifying graduation robe color? Because it's not a "big deal," it would be easy to order all gowns of one color. At the very least, it would be easier for the office to order one color of gowns, as opposed to two.

Furthermore, should the administration so deeply desire to integrate both school colors into graduation, why not let students choose the color they want? One classmate of mine even suggested that the graduates be assigned a specific gown color by alphabetical order. Any of these options would be better than dividing the class using a blatant line of division that already plagues the world.

This unabashed separation is supposedly in the name of school spirit, but that justifies nothing. History has proven that separate can never be equal, and it's time for the school to acknowledge that blunder by changing our seating chart and dress code to something that conveys the essential significance behind graduation: unifying at the same benchmark before making a mark on the world, not fostering a sense of inequality.

Amanda Chan is a senior at Central York High School.