We can’t wait to see the high-spirited photos from this weekend’s high school graduations. The trends this year on TikTok and Instagram call for all kinds of colorful and creative amendments to the regular commencement regalia: bedazzled mortarboards, flower leis, money leis, and “senior sunset” social-media reels.
If the weatherman is correct, clouds early tomorrow will clear by 6 p.m. and the graduates of the East Hampton High School class of 2026 should step across the lawn in their caps and gowns to accept their diplomas at the golden hour: The sun may even break through and, we hope, a mild evening will provide a beautiful backdrop for family photos and celebratory barbecues. Pierson High School’s graduates will follow at 5 p.m. on Saturday. We never quite trust a weather forecast for Sag Harbor — because, as we all know, that village is its own special microclimate — but it looks like umbrellas will be the fashion accessory of the evening.
It’s a cliché of June, up there with “moon” and “spoon,” to editorialize that the adults have left the latest class of high school graduates with a mess to clean up, but, well . . . the year 2026 is one for the record books in matters of mess and disorder. It’s not just the intense and bizarre political milieu they are graduating into (in which, just for example, the United States government, according to reporting this week, has prepared welcome goodie bags with a white-nationalist theme for arriving immigrants from South Africa). It’s not just the state of the climate, and the mysterious “cold blob” the size of Greenland in the North Atlantic that scientists say may herald a catastrophic breakdown of the ocean circulation system. Throw the world-shaking uncertainty of the artificial intelligence revolution on top of all that, give it all a mighty shake, and the class of 2026 is stepping out with bright smiles and high into the complete unknown.
Higher education, notably for the graduates, is in a period of unprecedented upheaval — what with A.I. cheating scandals from Princeton to Berkeley, ChatGPT writing students’ (and professors’) essays for them, attacks on Black history and diversity standards, defunding of university research, and admissions standards in tumult. The silver lining to all that is that the class of 2026 may have more options and broader horizons in terms of career paths and educational alternatives: We’re not fans of the ongoing attacks on academic independence, but we all cheer America’s cultural rethink of non-college pathways and the diversity of options that may lead today’s seniors not just to college but to an array of trades trainings and apprenticeships.
Also notable is that this year’s class sits at the edge of a so-called “demographic cliff” that projects a decline in youth populations going forward indefinitely. This class is the last “big” class, viewed from the national-census lens. They are a pivotal generation, the Big Generation. They are at the peak and pinnacle of — well, so much. In this way, the class of 2026 will have great sway. Whither the class of 2026, whither the nation. We wish them peace, we wish them joy, and we wish them clear skies at dawn for those up-all-night, down-at-the-beach sunrise TikTok videos.
They give us hope, and we believe in them.