Tags
faith, high school graduation, hope and love, no one owes you anything, put down the smart phone, read, the Golden Rule, the greatest of these is love
credit: mothenaturenetwork
I’ve always sort of wanted to deliver a graduation speech. I’ll never be asked to do that, certainly not where I teach. One can’t be a prophet in one’s hometown, so to speak. While I routinely receive sincere praise from kids and parents for my teaching efforts, I’m not the sort of popular that is usually chosen for such things. I’m fine with that. But if, by some bizarre stroke of fate I were invited to deliver a commencement address, this is what I might say:
credit: mcckc.edu
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, graduates, and people who just wandered in wondering what all the noise was about. It has been an honor to teach here, lo these many years. I have tried to interest you in learning, to convince you there is more to life than smart phones, social media, video games and less savory means of wasting time and lives. I have, every day, given you bite-sized glimpses of the reality of life in our daily sayings. And I have loved you, and cared about you, and spent tens of thousands of dollars of my own money, and innumerable hours of my own time to ensure you had the learning opportunity you deserved.
Some of you have taken full advantage of that opportunity. Others have taken partial advantage, others have not managed even that. Some just took advantage, yet here you all sit.
At the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, the most renowned speaker of his time, Edward Everett was the featured speaker. He spoke for two hours. Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in less than three minutes. No one remembers what Everett said, but Lincoln’s speech will live as long as man endures. I doubt that will be true of what I say here today, but I’ll follow Lincoln’s model, at least in terms of time.
High school is only a form of reality. When your hats fly, real reality descends with them.
Life is hard–it has always been hard–and no one owes you anything. Get used to it. Suck it up and drive on.
When you were born in America, you won the lottery. There is no place on Earth where you have a greater chance of overcoming the difficulties of life and prospering. The only thing holding you back is you.
The only reliable measure of character is not how you behave when things are easy, but when they aren’t.
You are responsible for how you feel, for how much and how hard you work, for your failure or success, no one else.
If you attend a real college, no one will care about your political leanings and your tender sensibilities. You’re going to have to perform, or you’re going to fail and waste a huge amount of money.
If you go to college, chose a major that will help you make a living. Remember: no one owes you anything!
If you go out into the world of work, your employers are going to demand you be reliable, on time, make customers want to come back, and do the job well. That’s real reality. Why should they settle for less?
When you accept a job, shut up, pay attention, learn what is appreciated and rewarded, and do that and more. Always be willing to do what’s necessary to get the job done.
Do your best to make others glad to see you rather than doing their best to avoid you.
There are few things more important, memorable and meaningful you can give others than your time and undivided attention.
Gentlemen, when a young lady is speaking to you, shut up, look her in the eye, and actually pay attention to what she is saying. Make her feel there is nothing more important to you than hearing what she has to say that moment. Women like that, they need it and you’ll probably learn something.
The sign above the blackboard in my classroom applies, there and in life: be kind, thoughtful and helpful.
Live the golden Rule, but supercharge it: be better to others than you expect them to be to you.
We talked about learning to pay attention. You’re better at it, but you have a long way to go: a lifetime. So get your face out of your smart phone and take the damned earbuds out of your ears.
Mark Twain was right: never let your schooling get in the way of your education. You educate you, no one else. Teachers only provide the opportunity. Now that you have the rudimentary tools–that’s what the last 12 years have been about; didn’t you know that?–your education is just beginning.
Want to be smarter, regardless of whether you go to college? READ! Read and think about what you’ve read. Books are helpful in this endeavor.
Be a part of something bigger than yourself. Everyone, particularly if you have no idea what comes next, should consider serving your country in our military. If you embrace it, it will make you better.
Finally–I told you I’d keep it short–remember 1 Corinthians 13:13: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
That’s it. Choose to be positive every day. Greet everyone with a smile and a kind word. Look both ways when crossing the street. Put that down; you’ll put someone’s eye out. Don’t run with scissors, and when out there in the big, wide world, hold hands and stick together.
The future is yours–if you you’ll just put down the damned smart phone!
Stately McDaniel Manor 
I’m going to “ Joe Biden” about half of this for my class and department next year. ( not really, I’ll at least cite my source. And I’ll provide the link for those smart enough to ask for it.)
Dear wardallanm:
Jo Biden away, and I hope it’s useful.
No, only as long as the U.S.A. endures. How do I know? Quite simply, just about all that the rest of us know about it now is that he said it – which is more than we know of Everett, but not much.
Um… from what I have seen of recent findings about social mobility and such, that was true as recently as the ’70s, but these days people have a far better chance of doing that in northern Europe, Canada, Australia and even New Zealand, and those who fail there still wind up better off than those who fail in the U.S.A. Now if you had said “a greater chance of overcoming the difficulties of life and prospering exceedingly” … but that’s not quite the same thing. You can’t average the occasional Bill Gates with the rest very meaningfully.
Dear P.M.Lawrence:
As long as man endures. Americans remember and celebrate the words of Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, and many other non-American speeches and speakers, just at non-Americans have at least some reverence for Lincoln. I write this not as a matter of thoughtless nationalism, but as an example of a speech that was precisely right for the time and occasion, and which speaks to universal ideals.
I’d argue that for all its problems, America remains the most free nation in history, though some are working assiduously to change that.
Mike, I went out of my way to tell you that so long as you do not correct
my spelling or grammar, we would get along. You have not crossed the
line, but you missed a very important point. Your blurb at the beginning
caused a lightbulb to go off above my head. I flunked every English
test I ever I took, and I just now realized that you were asking the wrong
question.
The best questions I ever answer are the ones I ask myself. My first
question was who are we going to direct these questions to? If I were
to guess, the vast majority of the last 2+ generations cannot get their
faces out of their iPhones long enough to avoid being crushed by
a bus.
The question now becomes, how do we address those who are not
yet zombies? I went straight to the how do you do it mode. How do we
appeal to the moderate segments of the Mellinneal, X,Y,Z generations?
Have clue will travel:
There is a 14-year-old kid in the Bay Area who is tearing a hole in the
fabric of the universe. Meet Soph:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/OdaUDeAGIck/
Dear Leonard Jones:
My favorite college English prof taught me that the fastest way to end any conversation is to say: “You know, what you just said has fascinating grammatical possibilities!” I got the point, and never correct anyone outside the classroom unless they ask, and then, gently.
Unfortunately, human nature dictates that many people have to make their own mistakes before they can learn–if they survive. However, some listen, and it is to them I speak.
Thanks for the link!
That’s not really the point. Outsiders will remember Lincoln for those reasons, but definitely not that particular speech of his, not in that detail – which I know because we already don’t. If you were to quote to me various lines from his speeches, I would be able to identify only a very few that came from the Gettysburg Address, though I would probably get some – and, false modesty aside, I’m probably wider read than many.