This is one of the best high school graduation speeches ever given.
Some of the ideas may be controversial but they are true and I loved it. Worth watching.
Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email
2 Responses
Normally I don’t comment, but…
Thank you for sharing. It’s Refreshing to hear an Intelligent Discourse on Thinking/Value/Purpose. I would not have had this experience, had you not shared it with us. For that I thank you. QUALITY content is Much Appreciated.
I have to admit, the only true criticism I can come up with about this speech is that it might have been a little ambitious when you consider the audience. There was always going to be a knee-jerk reaction to telling graduates “You’re not special”.
I do have to confess, that’s the immediate reaction I had. I thought that this was going to be some doddering old teacher ranting and raving about a culture of entitlement, whether or not the students in front of him were examples of it or not. Don’t get me wrong; I’m no fan of a culture of entitlement, but I’m also no fan of treating all students as though they expect graduate jobs, huge salaries and everything else in life to be just handed to them.
Then I listened to the entire speech and read a transcript too, and I can see that this speech isn’t about crushing dreams or about despising the graduates in front of him. Nowhere in this speech does he say “You’re not special and you never will be”. To me, he seems to be saying “You’re not special yet, there’s a lot of hard work involved before you become special.” And then he’s saying that special shouldn’t be the end goal, it should be a by-product of your aspirations in life. I can definitely get behind that idea.
2 Responses
Normally I don’t comment, but…
Thank you for sharing. It’s Refreshing to hear an Intelligent Discourse on Thinking/Value/Purpose. I would not have had this experience, had you not shared it with us. For that I thank you. QUALITY content is Much Appreciated.
Have a Outstanding Day
I have to admit, the only true criticism I can come up with about this speech is that it might have been a little ambitious when you consider the audience. There was always going to be a knee-jerk reaction to telling graduates “You’re not special”.
I do have to confess, that’s the immediate reaction I had. I thought that this was going to be some doddering old teacher ranting and raving about a culture of entitlement, whether or not the students in front of him were examples of it or not. Don’t get me wrong; I’m no fan of a culture of entitlement, but I’m also no fan of treating all students as though they expect graduate jobs, huge salaries and everything else in life to be just handed to them.
Then I listened to the entire speech and read a transcript too, and I can see that this speech isn’t about crushing dreams or about despising the graduates in front of him. Nowhere in this speech does he say “You’re not special and you never will be”. To me, he seems to be saying “You’re not special yet, there’s a lot of hard work involved before you become special.” And then he’s saying that special shouldn’t be the end goal, it should be a by-product of your aspirations in life. I can definitely get behind that idea.