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They stepped up. Welcome to the real world! You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.Chris Selley writes that he has some sympathy for at least some school administrators who cancel proms over the cost. “Proms cost a fortune, like everything else does these days.” Photo by Adobe StockIn October, Brooklin High School in Whitby, Ont. became the latest public school to cancel its prom, along with two others in the same Durham District School Board (DDSB). This is part of an ongoing trendon both sides of the border, and some of the arguments against prom are tremendously depressing if not downright ridiculous: The DDSB cites “safety concerns, the time involved in planning, … the challenges of safe supervision, and the increasing concern about liability and risk to students.” You hear tales of “staff burnout,” because teachers are so famously and tremendously hard done by.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorYou could use those arguments against secondary school itself, surely. Maybe someday soon they will.This newsletter from NP Comment tackles the topics you care about. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays)By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againBut the good news this week is that the students at Brooklin essentially took it upon themselves to organize and fundraise for their own prom, with help from a company that specializes in exactly these situations. (That’s how big the trend is.) So it’s going ahead.“The silver lining in all this,” Whitby Mayor Elizabeth Roy told the Toronto Star, “is how (students) navigated through this collectively and how they got it organized, but they didn’t just organize for their class; they’ve set in place a means for the future.”In many ways, I would say the lining is more valuable than silver. If this pandemic cohort of students hadn’t already sussed out that officialdom will let them down, over and over again, and that they’ll have to mop up the mess themselves now that they’re nearly grownups, graduation is a perfect time for them to clue in.Modern proms have legitimate problems. I have some sympathy for at least some school administrators. They cost a fortune, like everything else does these days. Brooklin High School’s is $115, which is actually $5 less than the previous year’s school-organized affair. And that’s just to get in, never mind the young lady’s dress, the young man’s tuxedo rental, the corsage, the boutonnière, the limo.But of course, that’s me describing my prom, which was sort of a stereotypical wealthy kid’s prom. (Technically it was a “ball,” thank you very much.) That doesn’t mean it has to be everyone’s prom.There’s also a trend toward truly outrageous spending on proms. “The cost of attending prom in 2026 is expected to range between $800 and $1,500 per student, with fully planned experiences potentially exceeding $2,000,” ABC News in Detroit reported in April (all figures in U.S. dollars). This is often cited as a justification to abandon the events for “equity” reasons.Obnoxious as I find that trend, high-school seniors are 17 or 18. They’re about to enter the real world (or worse: university). If they can’t handle someone having a fancier dress than them, if they can’t laugh off prom snobs and tell them to screw off, they’re going to have an awfully hard time wherever they wind up next.I went to a fancy-pants all-boys’ private school. One of the things it did really well was put senior students legitimately in charge of things — not for a course credit or a leadership medal, but simply to accomplish a task.One example: The school bought the yearbook committee state-of-the-art computers and a negative scanner, and a licence to then-cutting edge desktop publishing software QuarkXPress, chucked a manual at us and basically said, “figure it out.” Our “staff adviser” was a wonderful English teacher, a published poet, who I very much suspect had never used a computer in his life. He would drop by every now and again, make some amused and mildly disapproving noises about the filthy state of the office and all the empty Copenhagen tins, read some material we had put together, give some feedback, and then cheerfully potter off.A friend and I organized the annual ski day, which was typically held at one of southern Ontario’s private ski clubs. I remember someone at one of those clubs asking if there wasn’t a grownup she could talk to about this thing I was trying to organize, and I answered, honestly, no. Or at least, I didn’t know who that grownup would be.That all sounds ridiculously posh, I realize. But the principle can and should hold even if a school doesn’t have money to burn, like mine did. The kids in Whitby seem to have proven it in spades. They have organized a great night for themselves and their classmates, and they have developed valuable skills along the way. High-school certificates and medals don’t matter much in the real world. Gumption and perspicacity matter.National Post cselley@postmedia.com Get the latest from Chris Selley straight to your inbox Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.