Homeschool ceremonies on the rise. Is graduating without a class sad for students?

Home-schooled kids don't get a standard senior prom, a homecoming, or a yearbook picture. But as the number of kids educated outside of the traditional high school setting swells to 2 million, they are getting a group graduation ceremony.

In the past few weeks, the home-school class of 2011 has been walking down the aisle to pomp and circumstance in larger numbers, according to the The New York Times. 26 students gathered at the Miami Zoo recently, for what's been called the first official homeschool graduation ceremony in South Florida. In Oregon, Missouri, New York and Oklahoma events were also organized to celebrate the pockets of students who completed their high school experience with few or no fellow classmates. They can even now buy "home-schooling class of 2011" banners and t-shirts online.

It's not always for the sake of the kids, though. "My daughter, Vanessa, really didn't want to do it, because it was all strangers, and she didn't think it was a big deal," Brenda Orr, a mom at the Miami graduation ceremony, told the Times. "But I thought she was incorrect, so I convinced her. I imagined her walking across the stage just like I did at my graduation, and I didn't want her to feel she'd missed out on something."

Every student deserves to be celebrated for their accomplishments. But could graduating with a group of strangers make students feel like they did miss out on something?

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