High school teacher tells graduating students: “You’re not special!” Producing an antidote to 12 yrs of “self-esteem” psychobabble in an hour may be too much to expect, but the reality is if everyone’s special then no one is. Full text of speech here.
This post was last modified on January 26, 2021
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I still think this was the wrong time and place for this sort of editorializing. These graduates actually achieved something and their parents were there to support them.
I tend to agree with the timing being all wrong. In the years toiling through their classes, the teachers had every opportunity to get the impression into the mush heads that they are not exceptional. To besmirch this rite of passage was thoughtless. I agree that coddled whiners teaching mush heads to maintain their coddled, entitled lifestyle is absolutely wrong as well. Congratulations for making the grade should be enough. And like I said before here somewhere, the most truly unexceptional among the graduates could be inspired by a downplaying of their ability as reason to retaliate against the source of the perceived slight. Not suggesting that's right either, but quite possible!
Alan, a first glance at the headlines and one would have to wonder but in the context of the Commencement Speech in its entirity (just went back and re-read) it was given in positive manner. More a message of continuous achievement and hard work in front of you if you want to stand out from the other 6.8 Billion other "special" people.
"If you’ve learned anything in your years here I hope it’s that education should be for, rather than material advantage, the exhilaration of learning. You’ve learned, too, I hope, as Sophocles assured us, that wisdom is the chief element of happiness. (Second is ice cream… just an fyi) I also hope you’ve learned enough to recognize how little you know… how little you know now… at the moment… for today is just the beginning. It’s where you go from here that matters."
http://www.theswellesleyreport.com/2012/06/wellesley-high-grads-told-youre-not-special/
And he does say at the end 'You are all special."
Caught me! I did not give the whole a read. Headlines work to get attention. Oh well.
With every libtard telling everyone how special they are, the country has gone off the rails!
Participation trophys, no letter grading, and telling everyone that they are equal, has been the left's plan for years, now that someone actually tells kids the truth, they're going to go nuts about it? It's exactly what they have been doing all along!
The principal is a genius. Dreams without action are meaningless and rewards without achievement are few and far between in the real world. The sooner kids realize this the better off they'll be. They need to realize if they want to be exceptional, it usually takes a lot of hard work. They don't get that way just because Mommy and Daddy said so.
I am absoluterly in favor of this approach to education. We DO put more emphasis on accolades than accomplishment, and todays yunger generation think if they sort of show up most of the time, they will earn a paycheck, get promotions, and move along in the world, because that is what they are used to in scholol. Guess what? Doesn't happen! No one in the larger world cares about your self esteem. You need to learn to work and do a great job not just for the money, but for the pride of doing so. You need to understand that WORK=REWARDS. No work, no rewards. Bestrong enoughin yourslef toknow that you are a good person regardless of what someone else says. THis is true for jobs, grades, bullying, all of it! Quit being wimps, stnd up for yourself and Work. You CAN achieve anything.
Well said sa_rose!
Thank you. I just feel we have coddled people into helplessness. This Principal has it right. We ALL are special in some way. Find yours, then work your tail off to get what you want! Quit waiting for someone to hand it to you. I think the current issues with bullying are part of this. If the kids didn't collapse under the bullying, it would not reach the levels it has. Teach your kids they are great people,, to consider the source of stupid comments and get on with life. Its the best revenge!
Well said...I really liked the "level field" analogy when he noted:
"And your ceremonial costume… shapeless, uniform, one-size-fits-all. Whether male or female, tall or short, scholar or slacker, spray-tanned prom queen or intergalactic X-Box assassin, each of you is dressed, you’ll notice, exactly the same. And your diploma… but for your name, exactly the same."
The rest is up to you.
Rose - sadly your points are moot if these kids are planning to get jobs in the government. And if this current administration has it's way - that's exactly where they will be "working".
Protecting all powerful corporate america is all the matters anymore and to hell with with working and middle class apparently.
John incoherently stated:
//Protecting all powerful corporate america is all the matters anymore and to hell with with working and middle class apparently.//
You seem to like to speak for people you know nothing about, and you lie your ass off in the process. Let me tell you like it is. Most of middle class America is tired of handing shit to you, they want you compete in the same arena they do and pay for your own way. If you are trying and not making it, most of us will help you privately and discreetly.
Powerful corporate America has given me and many others the ability to earn enough from the 1% so I don't have to stand out in the elements with a bunch of classless idiots (who have been educated to believe that they are special and people like me owe them something) making a fool of myself.
I am self sufficient, I need nothing from you or anyone else. And the day I do will be the day those who I have helped privately over the years will likely help me.
But you and others like you have failed to get the message this teacher was communicating. You are so enraptured with idiocy and denial, you cannot understand simple truths that have been made available to you.
Hey LA! Good to see you back!
Thank you very much.
It's nice to be missed. But as you know, real life must take priority over blogging. :)
He sounds like one of those Dilbert-ian jargon generators!
http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_feb2001/AutoMSG.htm
(Needs pop-up blocker unblocked.)
Just plug in vapid left wing catchphrases instead and you've got an IHTM autotroll!
John, Go back to bitching about the free phones, your better at that.
Maybe she could enlist in the Navy. At least she could try. That experience could help the resume.
First 1/2 hour of Boot Camp and that would change it's mind real quick.
Aren't you special
Yes he is, he even got to ride the special short bus!
My high school graduation was set to be held outdoors on the football field. Unfortunately, a heavy thunderstorm rolled in before the ceremony began, so we all moved to the gym. We had to take chairs from the cafeteria for the graduates to sit on while the parents sat in the stands. During the principal's speech a lightning bolt knocked out the power. The ceremony was necesarily brief. As I left my high school for the last time, I passed the sodden football field where a rain soaked piano was sitting.
Ah, the predictably unpredictable weather of Wisconsin! I miss that. I lived only a couple hundred yards from the big lake for most of my life. Lake effect snow, lake effect squalls and everything about it, I miss! Cooler near the lake. Stand by the lake. What do you see? Looks like the ocean up close. Don't like the weather? Wait a few minutes, it will change.
Too bad about the piano though!
"Don't like the weather? Wait a few minutes, it will change."
Hey Formerly, it's funny but I've heard this same thing uttered by natives in all the states I've been a resident- Nebraska (grew up there), Montana, Iowa, Tennessee, New York.
I will give you the lake effect... that's all yours pal. :) Did you say in a recent comment that you are living in FL now? Bad as that lake effect snow can be, I can still understand why you miss home. I love having my seasons, and you don't get that in FL... plus, I hate hurricanes! Hated Tornadoes growing up in NE too. Best climate I lived in over the years, I'd have to say, is East TN. Seasons are great - it does get cold and it does get hot, but otherwise it's pretty grand.
Sorry, this was off topic, but your comment struck a chord.
Take care, R
All true. Tennessee is real pretty country. One of my favorite stops crossing the states is Chattanooga, ever since the first time I drove through and saw the postcard picture of the choo choo cruising along the side of the bluff from across the river, only in real life! The neighborhood has changed quite a bit in the ensuing decades, but it is beautiful to look at. I'm looking forward to leaving the Sunshine state when my lease is up. It might have been easier to appreciate Tampa if the economy hadn't done what it did as I got here.
I don't think belittling the graduating class is appropriate. Perhaps he likes the occupant's approach to belittling American exceptionalism so much that he figured he should take as much wind out of their sails as he could. Leaving that whole thing out of his speech would have been the wiser move. Whether any of these kids are ever going to do anything exceptional or not, telling them ALL that they aren't was ignorant. I hope none of the students or their parents throw anything through his windows or flip his car over or anything like that, but you know how the less than exceptional high school kids can get!
What a jerkoff! Your parents were related, right?!?
Life is going to hand the same lesson, but with a severe bitch slap along with it. They aren't special, the sooner they learn to get a spine and get on with things, the better.
Sure thing, dickless.
Well, there goes HIS tenure.
But kudos on a teacher, in this day and age, for finally telling his students the truth. Who knows, it might actually catch on.
Finally!
Our high school graduation speaker droned on (I kid you not) for nearly 90 minutes. Graduation marked the end of her first school year as head of the district and I guess she wanted to make her mark.
Well, she did - painfully - and here's the video evidence...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2hULhXf04&feature=related