There have been more excruciating 90-minute periods in my life, but there was also something very wrong about that hour and a half spent Monday at the Petrides public school in Staten Island. I was attending a kindergarten graduation ceremony that was longer than my high school graduation in St. Patrick’s Cathedral umpteen years ago – and that one included a Latin high Mass. Why, I thought, all this pomp and circumstance about children being promoted to first grade in the same school?

Call me a crank, but after the children performed song after song and ditty after ditty, a screen came down from the ceiling and I thought, thank God, it’s nearly over. The video, titled “2006 Kindergarten Graduation Class,” showed the children at play, in their classrooms, with their parents, waiting on line, singing “Happy Birthday” and then – groan – each of the 60 children in the three kindergarten classes were shown in a close-up shot. During the video, we were subjected to every tear-inducing song known to man, sung by Bette Midler, Celine Dion and others, including the late Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwoole’s rendition of “Over the Rainbow.”

Those who had family there received loud cheers, those who didn’t received none. If the entire program was produced to inspire self-esteem, it backfired because the children whose on-screen faces were met by stony silence must have lost whatever little they had.

Alas, the video was not the end. There were more ditties and then finally an invitation for the parents and relatives to go to another building for the reception. We clapped prematurely because then we had to wait while the principal and a dozen teachers were presented with flowers. As the minutes ticked by, I couldn’t help but wonder what is the purpose of these forgettable ceremonies? I’ve also wondered about all those certificates of achievement that are routinely given out in schools just for showing up.

In the parochial schools I attended as a child, there was not a lot of gladhanding. The nuns taught and we learned. Our self-esteem was rewarded by the grades we achieved but that in education seems to have disappeared. I suspect that a lot of these children who are patted on the back for mediocre performances are the ones who show up making fools of themselves on “American Idol.” “What do you mean I can’t sing? My teacher gave me a certificate.”

The Michael J. Petrides School is the creme de la creme public school located on the 43-acre former campus of the College of Staten Island. It covers grades K-12, and admission to the kindergarten is strictly by lottery. Parents consider themselves lucky when their children are selected. Petrides is listed as one of New York City’s best elementary and best high schools and it probably is.

But public schools in blue states tend to be “progressive” and frankly, if what happened in Lexington, Mass., is any example, give me a mean old parochial school nun any time.

Parents objected to the homosexual curriculum in the Estabrook Elementary School when a second grade teacher read students a fairy tale called, “King and King.” Superintendent Paul Ash rejected their protests and told them, “Lexington is committed to teaching children about the world they live in, and in Massachusetts same-sex marriage is legal.” One of the parents, David Parker, whose 7-year-old attended first grade at Estabrook, went to Hall’s office to ask that he be notified if homosexuality or transgenderism was going to be discussed in his son’s class. When he refused to leave without being heard by Ash, he was arrested.

The town became bitterly divided over the issue, and Mr. Parker received hate mail from liberal activists when he and another family filed a civil suit against the school. On May 17, his son, Jacob, was dragged behind the school and was beaten, kicked, and punched by classmates and other students.

A local radio personality in Massachusetts, Kevin McCullough, wrote about this incident on Townhall.com and published the telephone numbers and e-mail address of Superintendent Ash. To date, I have not received any response to my request for comment from Mr. Ash.

Sorry to say, I could not get this ugly story out of my mind, and I’m afraid it reaffirmed my distrust of any public school system wedded to a “progressive ideology.” Books like “Heather Has Two Mommies” and “King and King” are driving public school parents who can afford it to home schooling and private schools.

Even though the Petrides ceremony was excruciating, it was still innocent. We can hope parental vigilance will keep it that way.