Chapter Four Reflection

My junior year of high school, I applied to be apart of our school’s chapter of the National Honor Society.  In order to apply, students needed to achieve a 3.5 GPA or higher and answer several questions regarding character, honesty, and community service.  Luckily, they accepted me into this organization; the only step left was to undergo the infamous induction ceremony.

         One Thursday evening, the National Honor Society had planned to hold its induction.  All the inductees wore nice attire and given a V-neck sash to wear around the neck.  We filed into the auditorium in two lines: each inductee standing next to a senior member.  The inductees branched off onto the stage while the current members sat in the audience.  The president of Geneva High School’s National Honor Society, the teacher sponsor, and the principal made speeches congratulating us on obtaining this prestigious position.  We continued with a candle lighting ceremony where each inductee would light their very own candle by taking the flame from four larger candles at the front of the stage.  Each of the four large candles represented the four characters that NHS emphasizes: scholarship, leadership, service, and character.  After lighting all of our candles, we recited the NHS pledge, and we became official members.

         This “high context” ceremony and ritual was and still is very important to many students.  The accomplishment of acceptance into NHS is not a low achievement, but in fact, one in which to be very proud.  As cliché as the ceremony was, including the candles and the pledge, we all knew and understood the deeper meaning and significance behind this event.  This ritual “made intangible values, beliefs, and attitudes… concrete and visible” (Sims and Stephens 97).  All of our efforts to uphold scholarship, leadership, service, and character were visibly recognized by our parents, the school administration, and our fellow peers.

 

This post is in response to the Chapter Four Reflection Question.