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The Why Factor: School Reunions

School Reunions

16/07/2018 GMT

BBC World Service - The Why Factor, School Reunions

Caz Graham finds out why people go to their school reunion.

What is the appeal of the high school reunion?  Caz Graham attends a 50th reunion and asks those at the reunion why they wanted to go to it.

Why do people go to their school reunion?  Caz Graham goes to a 50th anniversary school reunion in the North of England where she meets people who are encountering friends who have not seen each other for years.   She hears how the event prompts their memories of school days from the 1960s and also what they have done in the years since leaving school.

Caz explores the strength of feelings that school day memories produce and finds out from experts why these enduring memories draw people back to reunions.  She hears from Professor Vered Vinitsky Seroussi about the importance of being able to recount what has happened in our lives to those who were our first friends during school days.   The benefits of attending a school reunion are explained by Professor Jerome Short.   

School reunions happen around the world and can start just a few years after leaving school – Jen Bilik has attended four reunions, starting with the tenth anniversary and explains how her attitude towards them changed over the subsequent years.  She explains how attending a school reunion is a way of taking part in a longitudinal study of our lives.

(Image: School Reunion. Credit: Shutterstock)

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