Jerry Smith

graduation ceremonies outside on their football fields. That is the most feasible place to conduct the event; it makes possible space for all who want to attend.

There is a chance taken in the outside plan: the threat of rain is a constant threat. That threat demands a contingency plan involving setting up facilities inside. That involves work no one sees. I go back in my years of coaching football and opened up with Dalton each year. Dalton was the “boy dog” in North Georgia at that time. One graduation night, the faculty and staff was lined up ready to march into the stadium and there was a grim threat of rain. Dr. Harold Hughes, Calhoun’s Principal at that time, came by me and touched my arm and said, “Coach Smith, this is my Dalton.” I knew what he meant. We did get to conduct the ceremony on the field.

If I am informed correctly, all three schools conducted their graduation exercises on their football fields. There are some distractions often characteristic of graduation that reflects greatly on the refinement of some: The hollering and whooping when a specific name is called is not representative of a cultured audience and casts a negative reflection on the student, the noise maker, and the community. Also, anyone leaving the stands after early names are called and before