Meaning of diploma lies with investment

Pomp and Circumstance is again drifting through gymnasiums, theaters and sports complexes across the Valley. Over the next few days, high school seniors, decked out in traditional caps and gowns, will stride down aisles and across elevated stages. As their hands reach to grasp long-awaited diplomas - we pause.

What does the calligraphy-typed paper represent? It certainly required many years of education, 21 earned credits and successful completion of the state-mandated High School Graduation Qualifying Exam.

Beyond that, however, each diploma is quite different.

The Mat-Su Borough School Board acknowledges that families are crucial to a child's education. Most students can manage to breeze through school, eke out passing grades and grab a diploma on the run - the depth and rigor of their education, however, depends largely on their parent's involvement.

Today, we should honor families who required their children to respect teachers and complete homework, who spent countless hours with their kids at home to master concepts and ideas. We also need to acknowledge parents who met with teachers, volunteered in classrooms, and actively took part in their child's academic discoveries and challenges. These adults enriched the value of their child's diploma in untold ways.

While some parents choose to home-school children and thus play a primary role in teaching the curriculum, many more moms and dads rely on professional classroom educators. Much depends on these teachers. Those who rise above their minimal duties to ignite a fire in the minds of their students deserve our gratitude. Teachers who combine academic passion and rigor with expertise and creativity do much to instill a lifelong love for learning. The difference between memorizing terms and definitions and entering the great discussions and dramas of human history depends on the men and women who spend their days teaching our students. We ought to thank the ones who continue to learn and explore. Their passions and discoveries rub off.

The same is true for individual principals, administrators and school board members who support classroom education. When these education leaders posses a vision for the true and beautiful aspects of education, teachers and students excel. Those who recognize that academics are intended to liberate the mind and inspire the human spirit deserve our gratitude. Now, we can return to the graduates with their hands reaching for diplomas. All the educational investment can't liberate their minds if they are personally unwilling. The final responsibility rests with them. Those who took advantage of quality teachers, buckled down in their studies and pursued academic opportunities as they arose will reap great benefits. As these dedicated students take their diplomas, let us cheer them, while also remembering everyone who sacrificed to lead and inspire them along the way.