<p>Looking for topics for graduation speeches. Do you remember hearing a really good one---what made it memorable? Looking for something non-cliche, non-boring, yet will not get speaker physically removed from the stage......... :)</p>
<p>Short. Definitely short. I gave a commencement address in college that was about five minutes long, and focused on the support necessary to get through college. I practically got a standing ovation.</p>
<p>I gave one where I "graduated" the parents.</p>
<p>The most memorable one I ever heard was when "the good student" (he really was brilliant) at the local boys' school stood up and gave a detailed speech protesting the war... at a school where everyone was a Nixon hawk. It was 1972. Watching the Headmaster turn purple was the best part.</p>
<p>I'd go with WashDad: short is good. The speech is just the gravy: people are really there to applaud their kids.</p>
<p>dmd77....that's why I'm trying to help D come up with some ideas for her speech. She's not real motivated right now about much of anything, and has written so many different essays for all her college apps, that she's all out of ideas, but knows she doesn't want to be "boring". I don't think she would actually stand up in front of everyone and go on a rant about W and Iraq, but she's certainly capable (and I've heard the speech a few hundred times from her!!).</p>
<p>And what could be more important to a new high school graduate in knowing that some of her classmates will be marching off to the desert, and that she and her classmates will be paying the bills for this horror for generations to come?</p>
<p>Astrophysics mom- I was thinking of a speech for an adult to give which explains my PM to you-
But she may want to touch on a common thread or a shared event that happened at school or in the community.</p>
<p>In all due respect, I would NOT discuss the war at graduation. My D was valedictorian and gave the speech and it was appropriate for the occasion and not political in any way. I happen to think it was a great speech. The other speaker, whom she was in charge of selecting and securing, was Bernie Sanders, our Congressman at the time and now Senator. Bernie also gave a good speech that was not for or against war. If you know Bernie Sanders, he is very liberal and an Independent. Yet, he spoke in ways to not ostracize any segment of the community on this special day to honor all graduates and their families.</p>
<p>One year later, a local person was the guest speaker at D2's graduation. He DID give a political speech that was anti-war (trust me, I am also anti-Iraq war and so my point here is not about his politics with which I agree) and people were squirming and it was JUST NOT appropriate for the occasion. This is a rural area where there are many vets and there were kids at graduation being "commissioned" (I don't know the proper word for this but reps from the Army and Navy were there to give them all these honors for entering in front of the audience). I just don't think the graduation should be political. There are many things to talk about appropriate to the occasion. The speech should not be something that would make a segment of the community uncomfortable. I MUCH preferred my older D's graduation speaker (now Senator). It was a classy speech. People were not happy with the political speech of the local person chosen at D2's graduation.</p>
<p>Yikes---I didn't want this to turn political. Sorry I turned it that way! So...back to topic---any catchy, non-boring, non-political ideas??!!!</p>
<p>Having a theme is good. Using anecdotes is good. Humor is good.</p>
<p>Humor, display of personality, brevity within reason is best. Talking about one's childhood, one's family (some speeches I heard) are boring to everyone, but the immediate family.</p>
<p>I think that most of the speeches I have heard through the years have been easily forgotten or worse, but there were two that were memorable. One of the valedictorians in S's class spoke about her love of the choose your own adventure books (the books where you pick between two pages at critical points and the story turns out differently each time) and how high school graduation would be like that and that the class would be choosing many different adventures. The other memorable one was similar and the speaker pulled out a big block of clay and said that the graduates were all like that and that they could be formed into many shapes. I wish I could remember more of it (it was in a1999) as it was really good. The AP English teacher at the high school has told both S and D's classes how awful the speeches generally are, but he always mentions the clay one as being a really good one. The short is good advice can't be stressed enough!</p>
<p>Humor and originality. At one of ours, the val got everyone in the audience involved in a quasi-rap sort of chant, and he had a whole spiel (kind of a rap/class history thing) with a back up track. At another, the val came up and had a smoke bomb go off in back of him while the theme from 2001 Space Oddysey played. The most important thing is to NOT give a dry, boring, vanilla speech. Then people question if you're really smart enough to be val. BE Memorable. Make them proud. Make them hoot and holler at the end. Make them glad you're their val.</p>
<p>Actually, I heard a good one. It was a good speech b/c it was really sincere and spoke to the audience of graduates. This really only works if the hs is a smaller one. The speech was about how the speaker knew each and every graduate personally. How many had gone through several grades before hs together. Little stories about fellow classmates were included. It went on to talk about prospects of future achievement of the graduates. It was very heartfelt, meaningful, short, and not boring!</p>
<p>I've heard a couple of really good ones that were variants on the type of speech that NEmom mentioned: start with some stories, preferably humorous, about personal experiences and/or experiences that the class has shared or remembers. At some point, though, these stories turn out to be not just weepy, nostalgic reminiscences, but illustrations in a little parable for the graduates. The points, as I recall, weren't earthshaking: friendship matters; we did better when we worked together; you can sometimes surprise yourself and succeed when it seems impossible, etc. But they were successful because they invited the audience to identify with both their class and with the theme.</p>
<p>This is an article about the agonies the adults who speak at graduations go through, but it's pretty funny: <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/html/8_3_diarist.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.city-journal.org/html/8_3_diarist.html</a></p>
<p>I have a good idea for your D that wouldn't be too hard to prepare. At my D's high school graduation (four years ago now!) The speaker (student selected by the class) was a talented actor, very charming and personable. He used about ten verses (sometimes just a line or two) from graduation greeting cards as the focus of his speech. The theme was "what can you say to someone who is graduating," more or less. This sounds kind of lame but it was just hilarious while still having some meaning. For each verse or sentiment, he would discuss it and make something humorous of it. I think the last verse was something memorable, and so his speech still had meaning to it. I still remember how pleasant and refreshing he was, by far the best graduation speech I've ever heard, including some by highly educated adults.</p>
<p>Guy Kawasaki (an original Apple programmer) gave a great one: <a href="http://stuff.mit.edu/people/amlau/clarity/kawasaki.htm%5B/url%5D">http://stuff.mit.edu/people/amlau/clarity/kawasaki.htm</a>
My son gave a very popular humorous graduation speech. The jist of it was that for the greatest senior prank ever the class of 2006 was going to refuse to leave. They would just stay around at the high school they loved so much. When in the future freshmen asked who the 20 year olds were roaming around the reply would be "Thats the class of 2006, they never left."</p>
<p>I think the idea in post #17...using the greeting cards...is very clever and is something that a HS speaker should be able to "execute" in a way that could be both funny and sincere.</p>
<p>I feel this needs a bump, because being a teenager, I would love some speech advice from parents other than my own. :)</p>