BelM:
Here are the definitions for the verb graduate (I have reordered them to put the transitive verbs at the top):
5. transitive verb sort things by differences: to sort things into groups according to quality, size, or type
2. transitive verb give a certificate: to give a diploma or degree to a student completing a course of study
4. transitive verb mark something with degrees or levels: to mark something with units of measurement
1. intransitive verb finish school or college: to receive a diploma or degree after completing a course of study in a school, college, or university
We both graduated from high school in 1996.
3. intransitive verb move up: to move upward from one level or activity to another
I've graduated from skiing to snowboarding.
The usage I find abominable is:
I graduated high school. Even worse is I graduated college because there's more education wasted there.
Insert the transitive definition of your choice and see why I feel the sentence is just plain wrong:
I sorted high school by some criterion.
I drew evenly spaced lines up the side of the high school.
I gave the high school a certificate or diploma.
But it is OK to say the high school graduated me, giving me a diploma.
You could say the high school graduated the students by GPAs.
And I guess in a pinch you could say the high school drew lines on the student, but I wonder why they'd do that.
And those people on the dark side can call me a prescriptivist all they darned want to. A person who doesn't use good grammar is, in my book, sloppy, uneducated, lazy, or a combination thereof. And this is particularly true of those people who are raising children. If you want them to go through life grammatically challenged, then let them say Can I have a cookie instead of May I have a cookie.
TEd [/rant]