Green Robes and Cell Phones

There were roughly 600 seniors in my youngest daughter's graduating class. At the ceremony, they were arranged in two columns: boys on the right and girls on the left. Each column was further divided: a few International Baccalaureate graduates robed in black sitting at the front, followed by honors graduates robed in white, followed by non-honors girls in green and non-honors boys in blue making up approximately the last 60% of each column.

This color and gender sorting method made for at least one interesting observation: The heaviest users of portable telecommunications devices during the ceremony wore green robes. I noticed some blue-robes using these devices as well, but no white or black-robes. I was further away from the blue robed graduates, but could clearly see the female black and white robed students.

By observing frequency of use, I could also determine which speakers the graduates found most interesting. The principal's speech had the fewest number of users and the valedictorians' had the most.