presented me their parents this day there

In the United States, the ceremony of diplomas, Commencement Day, has all of the initiatory rite. As its name indicates, this was to celebrate the passage to a new life with its cortege of personal opportunities and responsibilities towards the society.

It is six o'clock in the morning and the sound of bagpipes is sounding in the Court of Lowell House, the House which is mine at Harvard, students and teachers, at the ceremony. With their long robes, whose colours vary depending on titles and universities and their flat black hats, which appear to be out from English or Italian Renaissance paintings, professors and students will take together requires a breakfast, accompanied by, economic crisis, by a simple "sparkling" and not champagne. At 7: 30 am specific to the sound of bells and preceded by players of drums, the procession of the professors, followed by students, will cross the streets of Cambridge to go to the Memorial Church, the Church which is located in the heart of the "Yard", the historic centre of the College for an inter-religious prayer and a collective blessing. Later, teachers will win the platform awaiting them in a long procession, between two rows of students who applaud them and thank them of have "taken them" until that time. More than 20,000 people, teachers, students, parents gathered in the Yard and the rhythm of the songs and hymns, the students of each school, architecture, law, business, and the Faculty of arts and sciences... will be collectively confer their degree by the President of Harvard, sitting on a seat which, by tradition, is the same since the end of the 17th century. Ten personalities also various Nobel Prize Chu, became Minister of energy under Obama, and the Spanish Filmmaker Pedro Almodovar to receive a doctorate "honoris causa" to the applause of the crowd. Later in the day, diplomas will be individually presented each student houses or the departments their.

The rite, the emotion, prayer, respect almost sacred to education and its "vehicle" the educator, this leaves thoughtfully "engaged spectator" I am who teaches at Harvard and children educated in France ignore all or most of what is the ritual of the graduation at a large University American. Certainly, the secular French Republic is hardly a ritual which, mixing so closely the sacred and the profane, gives a such place to the religious experience. Certainly, the "cynical" can denounce a celebration which, in part at least, is to justify the financial sacrifices made by the families to give the best possible education to their children: 50,000 dollars a year, even if the number of Fellows is majority.

And yet, this ceremony that celebrates both respect for higher education, the cult of excellence and the pursuit of the American ideal, not to mention the success of the integration of immigrants is in many ways admirable and full of lessons, in particular for a French that followed, even by far, the "Adventures" of the academic year in France. Two of my students, one Mexican and the other Chinese, presented me their parents this day there, United by their common parental ignorance of the language English. They came from a very modest environment; These two graduates, Mexican and Chinese, were not "heirs", but clear "ancestors", aware of the prodigious leap they had in their lives. The presence of their parents, delighted and still disbelieving in the success of their children, gave this ceremony his true character and its real meaning. Education taken seriously is the key of the individual social elevator and the guarantee of the collective progress of a society. Is it possible to adapt a part at least of these values and this ceremony to the French model How to find this combination of flexibility and openness, and this cult of excellence, which dresses and rituals is the message of the Day beginning