Editorial: Childcare, not children, needed at graduation

by Christian Bell, Editor in Chief

With only two months to go, preparations for graduation are fully underway. Oral comps are wrapping up, cap and gown orders have been put in, and the president has sent his annual invitations for dinner at the parsonage to students and their spouses.

But one area of planning has surely been overlooked, as it has been at all previous CTS graduations I’ve attended: childcare.

The first time that I attended a CTS graduation several years ago, my wife and I took my father, who was visiting from out of town. We sat in the balcony because we thought the main level would be full. This proved to be a major mistake.

Children were literally running around the Fine Arts Center auditorium and balcony, talking, crying, screaming, and creating a significant distraction that was apparent throughout the entire auditorium. At many points, the word of the speaker or the names of the graduates could barely be heard above the ruckus caused by the children.

We looked around for the children’s parents, assuming that they would be chasing and quieting down the children. However, many of the parents were distracted photographing or videotaping the event.

The result was a graduation ceremony full of noise and distractions that significantly detracted from the proud moment of the students who were graduating.

I don’t mind young children at all; my mother has been a preschool teacher for nearly as long as I can remember. But let’s be very clear: young children – especially those under the age of 5 – do not belong at graduation. They are too young to appreciate what is going on, and their presence creates a significant distraction for the students and their families who have waited many years for the special occasion.

So what should be done?

Parents need to do the right thing and keep their young children at home. But childcare can be expensive. Therefore, the seminary administration (and perhaps the Student Senate together with them) should make childcare available for free to seminary families during the relatively short graduation ceremony. Surely there are families from the CTS community and surrounding churches that would willingly volunteer a few hours of their time to watch the children. Thus, while the cost and logistics involved in providing childcare should be minimal, the benefit of a peaceful Saturday morning to graduating students will be great.

We can delight that children are a part of our families, but part of being a good parent is recognizing what are and aren’t appropriate places for young children to be. The CTS graduation ceremony isn’t a place for young children.

On behalf of other graduates, I ask seminary families to please keep their young children out of the auditorium at graduation, and I ask the seminary administration and Student Senate to provide childcare that makes that decision free and easy for the parents.

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