Teacher gives a commensment speech

[Racket_Man]

Teacher give graduating HS'er a reality check:YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL

One GREAT quote from the speech

“None of you is special. You are not special. You are not exceptional.”

The educator called the graduating students “pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble wrapped... nudged, cajoled ... feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie.”

“Contrary to what your U9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card, despite every assurance of a certain corpulent purple dinosaur, that nice Mister Rogers and your batty Aunt Sylvia, no matter how often your maternal caped crusader has swooped in to save you … you’re nothing special,”

Here is the full text of his speech

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

Will it knock the students down a few pegs? Yes.

Is that a good thing? Probably.

It's nice to see a dose of reality in one of these speeches.

[Ginger Tea]

Will this end up as a follow up to Baz Lurmans 99 track everybodys free to wear sunscreen, or whatever it was called.

[Rageaholic]

Before I saw the speech, I was expecting to think this guy was a Bill O'reilly (asshole), but he actually had some good wisdom.

You could tell he was sick of all of the bullshit.

[Greenday]

Pretty impressive speech. At first I thought he was just going to rip on them the entire time which would have been grossly inappropriate. But then he turns into giving advice and it becomes an appropriate speech again.

[tropicsgoddess]

It is a big dose of reality that he injected in the speech and also how people should live and enjoy life and enjoy the simple things and not focus on trivial bullshit.

[Seifer]

Personally, I would have been pissed off to have that speech directed toward me during graduation. I actually gave a shit about school, and was one of the few who prided myself on getting high grades and not acting like a complete asshole to teachers and students alike. I never once thought I was "special" or deserving of something I couldn't earn myself. Are some kids like that? Yes, and those are the ones who could use the reality check speech - not the kids who already know how the world works and are prepared to meet it head on.

Sorry, but the speech came across as a bit condescending and as a sweeping generalization of teenagers today. "What's with all your twittering and duggy-ing? Get off facebook and read a real book! LOL!"

[Rapscallion]

I thought it was aimed at the helicopter parent and the 'every child is special' brigade and not the children themselves. I think he did them a favour by letting them know ahead of time that just because they want something - a job, a good apartment - they aren't going to be granted them without putting in the effort others want.

Rapscallion

[Anthony K. S.]

I have no idea whether or not that speech had any real impact on the students, mainly because I don't know what kind of teacher this man is, or what regard the students hold him in.


Back in 1998, Rudolph Giuliani (who was still mayor of New York City at the time) delivered the keynote speech at the commencement ceremony for a college called Cooper Union ... despite the fact that there was a letter, signed by a majority of the graduating students, asking that he not be the commencement speaker.

From what I've heard about it, the students apparently held Giuliani in such contempt that it probably didn't matter what he said in his speech, whether it was advice, congratulations, or anything else. The audience simply didn't care what he had to say.

On a similar note, I once had a Social Studies teacher who was pretty much universally regarded by his students as a lousy teacher. During class, all he ever did was sit at his desk and repeat all of the information in the textbook, nothing more.

We would have been better off spending the class time just reading the textbook ourselves. At least that would have involved some effort on our part.

If that man had ever given us advice, at our graduation ceremony or anywhere else, nobody would have listened. When your students don't even have any respect for you as a teacher, it's going to be hard for them to care what you have to say about anything else.


A lot of folks believe that the graduating students at Wellesley are better off for having heard Mr. McCullough's speech.

Well, that may or may not be the case. A lot depends on whether or not Mr. McCullough has, over time, earned the respect of his students.

If he has, then his remarks may indeed carry a lot of weight in his students' minds. That's on them.

[fireheart17]

I thought it was aimed at the helicopter parent and the 'every child is special' brigade and not the children themselves. I think he did them a favour by letting them know ahead of time that just because they want something - a job, a good apartment - they aren't going to be granted them without putting in the effort others want.

Rapscallion

I think it was more aimed at the helicopter parent brigade.

I do agree with Seifer, it does come across as more of a sweeping generalization. People don't like generalizations being made about them, so why is it OK to make sweeping generalizations about teenagers?

[Anthony K. S.]

I thought it was aimed at the helicopter parent and the 'every child is special' brigade and not the children themselves.

Honestly, that wasn't how it came across to me. It looked more like he was telling the students, "You all think too much of yourselves. Stop thinking you're so special."

But that's a matter of perception, which is always going to vary with the individual.

I think he did them a favour by letting them know ahead of time that just because they want something - a job, a good apartment - they aren't going to be granted them without putting in the effort others want.

These are high school graduates.

If they've actually reached this point in their lives without learning that they have to work hard for what they want, then no speech is going to help them. Only the real world will give them an awakening now.


If Mr. McCullough has been teaching at this school long enough, then he's probably better able to judge what these particular students are like than we are.

But I do sympathize with the viewpoint that his remarks come across as a rather sweeping (and unfair) generalization of what young people are like.

[Lachrymose]

People don't like generalizations being made about them

Hmm
........

[Amanita]

Yeah, it came across as condescending to me too, and I'm glad that I'm not the only one who feels that way.

[Anthony K. S.]

it came across as condescending to me too

There is, indeed, something rather presumptuous about referencing "corpulent purple dinosaurs" when you're addressing a group of college-bound young adults.

All of that rhetoric about people pampering you, wiping your bottom ... and that bit about your mother swooping in to save you? Wow.


"The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life, is an achievement, not something that will fall into your lap because you’re a nice person or mommy ordered it from the caterer." - David McCullough


If these students worked and studied hard to earn their diplomas and get accepted into colleges, then I'd say they have every right to be unhappy at being lectured about how they need to realize that they aren't special and shouldn't expect to be given things without working for them.

(If they were unhappy, that is.)

And on the day that they're being honored for their achievements, no less.

[Greenday]

I'm honestly kind of surprised that the guy wasn't booed off stage or that there wasn't some sort of walkout. A speech about how life will be hard would be fine but he was pretty disrespectful about it.