Did you happen to catch this item on the news? David McCullough Jr., an English
teacher at Wellesley High School, in a commencement address last week
told graduating seniors they aren’t special. Wellesley is an is an upscale, high achieving school in Wellesley, Mass.
The speech, which has gone viral on You Tube, is almost 13 minutes long; he gets warmed up after
about three minutes. Listen to the entire speech
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, no matter how often your maternal caped
crusader has swooped in to save you … you’re nothing special,” he said in his
speech, which was published in the Boston Herald.
McCullough offered statistics, saying numbers were stacking
up against the graduating class. He said half of the class would be divorced
and life wasn’t going to revolve around their every whim.
"Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors
are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools. That's 37,000
valedictorians ... 37,000 class presidents ... 92,000 harmonizing altos ...
340,000 swaggering jocks ... 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs," McCullough said.
"Even if you're one in a million, on a planet of 6.8
billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you."
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| David McCullough Jr. His father is David McCullough, an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer -- a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award |
“You see, if everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become
meaningless. In our unspoken but not so
subtle Darwinian competition with one another–which springs, I think, from our
fear of our own insignificance, a subset of our dread of mortality — we have of
late, we Americans, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine
achievement. We have come to see them as
the point — and we’re happy to compromise standards, or ignore reality, if we
suspect that’s the quickest way, or only way, to have something to put on the
mantelpiece, something to pose with, crow about, something with which to
leverage ourselves into a better spot on the social totem pole.
No longer is it how you play the game, no
longer is it even whether you win or lose, or learn or grow, or enjoy yourself
doing it… Now it’s, “So what does this
get me?” As a consequence, we cheapen
worthy endeavors, and building a Guatemalan medical clinic becomes more about
the application to Bowdoin (note: I had
to look this up to understand his meaning. Bowdoin is a college in Maine which
is consistently ranked among the top ten liberal arts colleges in the United
States by U.S. News and World Report. In the 2011 edition of the rankings,
Bowdoin ranked sixth) than the well-being of Guatemalans.
"The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you're not special. Because everyone is."
What do you think of this speech? Is he justified in admonishing students for considering themselves special? Or do you believe young people should hear straight talk such as this more often? I'd be interested to know your opinion.
I only read your post and I think that the speech was brilliant.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely not a one you´d expect when graduating, but a down to earth speech.
IMO, more of this should be heard, especially now, when the young generation is awfully pampered ( by us, their parents ).
Am with Mette on this one....students need straight talking in order to cope with problems life will throw at them.
ReplyDeleteExcellent speech.
Do hope your bout of flu is on the mend. Ida
I loved the speech! And agree with both Mette and Ida, in that children are fawned over and spoiled and led to believe they are worthy of special privileges. I was glad to see this speaker address the subject. Ida, I am almost over my flu. I returned to work today.
ReplyDeleteI also loved the speech! I believe straight talk is the communication we need in today's world to encourage the young people.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect to the rest of the comments, I can't agree. I think it is the result of sour grapes from the adult child of a very special man with the accolades that accompany his specialness, but that his son will never achieve. (I would agree if he said that contrary to all you hear, you can't "be anything you can dream".) But unless it was delivered to a Kindergarten class, these young adults have already been introduced to the real world and don't need it thrust meanly on them on a day meant to celebrate them. I am just guessing at the statistics, but I do remember that if they are graduating from high school, they are already doing better than over half of all American 18 year olds, and that does make them special.
ReplyDelete