The Prom Parade

Last month Kenneth Hoagland, the principal at Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale, New York, cancelled the annual school prom in order to prevent underage drinking and sex at post-event parties. In his announcement suspending the prom, Hoagland denounced the school prom as "an exaggerated rite of passage that verges on decadence" and stated that the school wanted to support a dance, but not an orgy. Principal Hoagland also denounced the "financial decadence" of parents and students who spend up to $1,000 for dresses, tuxedos, limos, flowers, and all of the other extravagant, extraneous items required for the modern prom. In addition, many thousands more are spent by parents and students alike on the post-prom parties. The post-prom parties have reached a level of degeneracy in terms of sex and booze that would make Howard Stern, the founding father of our reigning gross-out culture, very proud. Peter Brown of the Orlando Sentinel has a great op-ed piece that provides the background to what Principal Hoagland has done in the name of common sense: Read this.

Hollywood has definitely not done anything to help curb the excesses of the prom. If anything, Hollywood's films over the past two decades have created the aura of the modern American prom and have fueled the notion that drunken degeneracy and wanton sexual excess are the mandatory raw materials for any successful prom. There are several cinematic culprits that have fueled the "prom as porno fest" theme in our society, but the most enduring one from a popular culture aspect is "Sixteen Candles" (or is it "Sexteen Candles"?). On the one hand, "Sixteen Candles" is a 1984 teenage coming-of-age film that is a hallmark of the John Hughes 1980s teen-angst era (joined by its cousins "Pretty in Pink" and "The Breakfast Club", et. al.). On the other hand, if "Sixteen Candles" was placed in a police line-up of films that have propagated the prom-as-porno image, it would be immediately arrested, booked, and be read its Miranda Rights for crimes against humanity (and then would join a cell with its jail cell pal, the 1999 film "American Pie").

It is sad that our society has nothing more of value to offer its graduating high school students, who are about to join society as adults, other than conspicuous consumption, drinking as the only way to have fun, and a "just do it" mentality regarding reckless sex. When I look at the challenges facing our nation - our budget and trade deficits, our economic competition and challenges from Asia, a permanent underclass - I see nothing of value in the current culture of conspicuous consumption and irresponsibility exhibited by the modern proms. Speaking as a college educator, these problems cascade up the educational food chain as the high school "porno-prom crowd" morphs into the college drinking crowd on undergraduate campuses (characterized by little academic achievement and an "Animal House" vision of what a successful college experience entails). Speaking as a manager, these problems cascade further upstream in the business world as the college drinking crowd becomes the next generation of unmotivated young slackers at companies. At that point, reality sets in and the slackers grow up. But not before tremendous damage is done.

I wish we had more people of integrity like Principal Hoagland that made necessary but unpopular decisions. Until then, I will sadly wait for "Sixteen Candles II" to further fuel the fires of the modern prom parade.