Dinner Dance For 8th Graders

Having grown up in Japan during my middle school years, seeing the way people in other cultures celebrate the completion of elementary school and middle school has been interesting. Japan is quite formal when it comes to anything related to school. They call it graduation at every school in Japan as opposed to ‘promotion’ in the United States. A graduation ceremony for students in Japan is a big deal at every stage. However, there is no dinner dance type of events for students in Japan. There doesn’t exist a culture where schools ask parent volunteers to organize events for children at school, either.

My daughter’s 8th-grade class celebrated the end of middle school with a dinner dance party on a night before the moving on ceremony. There are different opinions out there about how the 8th grade promotion to be celebrated. (Here’s an interesting article about the topic. ‘It’s just 8th grade’ by Chicago Tribune) While I agree with the article, I find it good for children to celebrate their milestone to prepare their minds for the next stage. It doesn’t need to be over the top big celebration like a high school graduation. Celebrating 8th grade promotion gives them a sense of closure. Since my daughter’s school has a big turn over every summer due to catering to an expat community, I find the 8th grade party meaningful for the students to say goodbye to their peers who relocate and the past.

Decoration For Under The Stars Theme

The dinner dance for the 8th graders was all handmade by the parents. The majority of the planning was done by the Grade 8 parent representatives. More parent volunteers joined in at the stage of creating decoration pieces two weeks prior and decorating the room on the day before the event. I volunteered twice in the process because I wanted to be part of my first born’s 8th grade dinner dance. The completed room with the decoration with “dancing under the star” theme looked like a wedding reception. It truly looked amazing.

I have observed parent volunteers at different events at my kids’ schools since my oldest entered kindergarten. It always seems that the same parents show up to volunteer. Volunteering to decorate for the dinner dance was the same. One thing that is different with all my kids’ international schools overseas from our kid’s previous public schools in the U.S. is that I seldom see working parents volunteer at international schools. My guess is that it’s simply hard for expat parents to give time away from work because of their responsibilities overseas. The heavy traffic in Manila probably prohibits many parents from going to school to volunteer as well.

One time I mentioned my astonishment to one mom about how much and frequently our school asks parents to give their time, money and labor even though it’s a private school. She, who works full time, said, “there are stay-at-home parents who want to have something to do, so it’s fine.” I couldn’t help but feel sad about the response. In my eyes, parents who work have an excuse not to volunteer. Those who don’t earn income overseas are left with more pressure to fulfill the requests from schools. It’s hard enough that the majority of expat trailing spouses don’t have a choice but remain unemployed while their employed expat spouses are on assignment overseas. Oh well. It is volunteer work after all. No guilt is necessary even if those who don’t work can’t help out.

The bright side of this situation? You gain friendship through volunteering.

Parenting & A Milestone

It is just 8th grade. I totally agree.

High school will be a serious game for sure. I have continuously instilled the idea and importance of education in my oldest. Of course, my teen daughter never fails to remind me that I preach about it too often.

Most recently I have shown her a video of Michelle Obama’s talk at a Glamour Magazine Event. Former First Lady of the United States spoke about the importance of education for all the girls on the planet in order to have better opportunities and encouraged them to be hungry for it. If you haven’t seen this video, I highly recommend hearing her talk. It’s short, but it is right on the point.

I allowed my daughter to get all dolled up for the special occasion. You may think I’m a strict mom, but I normally discourage her to spend much time on taking care of her appearance. I don’t find it necessary. It’s rather distracting for studying. It’s a constant battle and dilemma as a parent to keep a good balance between being reasonable and not pushing my child away.

On the day of the dinner dance, though, I couldn’t help but admire the youth of the 8th graders and be proud of them.

After the summer, time to focus.