High school teacher tells graduating students: you’re not special

Parents Forum
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<p>Commencement speech aims to deflate self-important kids </p>

<p>"He gets points for being blunt, at least.</p>

<p>A straight-talking English teacher at Wellesley High School set out to take students down a notch in his speech to the class of 2012, by telling them they’re nothing special.</p>

<p>'You are not special. You are not exceptional,' David McCullough Jr. told graduating seniors from the affluent Massachusetts town last weekend.</p>

<p>The teacher's controversial advice caught the nation's eye, in an age where many believe today's youth suffer from a sense of self-importance.</p>

<p>'Yes, you've been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped,' McCullough said in his speech. 'Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again. You've been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored. You've been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie. ... But do not get the idea you're anything special. Because you're not.' " ...</p>

<p>Tell us how you REALLY feel, Dave.</p>

<p>High</a> school teacher tells graduating students: you?re not special* - NY Daily News</p>

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<p>He also said this: </p>

<p>Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly. Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion–and those who will follow them.</p>

<p>I like it.</p>

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<p>Living here in Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average, I think this is pretty funny.</p>

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<p>Pretty danged special to me to get all that pampering and catering for doing nothing but being born. Lucky and special.</p>

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<p>REad the whole piece - it is great! He is basically saying, do something to do it/enjoy it. Don’t do something just so you can measure yourself against everyone else.</p>

<p>The trip to Paris phrase, above, also is wonderful.</p>

<p>I did read that the kids and parents thought the speech was great.</p>

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<p>"…pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble wrapped…". </p>

<p>Perfect description of every kid in my county.</p>

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<p>David McCullough will win himself some fans on the Chronicle of Higher Education website.</p>

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<p>Full text is at:</p>

<p>[Wellesley</a> High grads told: “You’re not special” | The Swellesley Report](<a href=“http://www.theswellesleyreport.com/2012/06/wellesley-high-grads-told-youre-not-special/]Wellesley”>http://www.theswellesleyreport.com/2012/06/wellesley-high-grads-told-youre-not-special/)</p>

<p>I really enjoyed his message.</p>

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<p>I enjoyed his speech and agree with the message that he is sending out to the graduating class. Nothing negative about what he said.</p>

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<p>Broad generalization. It’s statistically probable that at least one IS special. At least in some way. :)</p>

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<p>In my daughter’s middle school, they were told that they were all special. Half full/half empty - none special. It all depends on your point of view. Shouldn’t we all feel that our uniqueness is special, but that no one really is more special than anyone else. This is a question for philosophers.</p>

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<p>

The point is that it’s no result of them being innately special, but rather for their parents’ bank accounts being special.</p>

<p>

Well, I’m sure that kid doesn’t need a pep rally, then. If this were a lower/working-class high school, it would be a bad message, but for wealthy students who probably have an overinflated sense of self, it’s good that at least one adult around them didn’t play along.</p>

<p>

Theoretically, everyone could be special in a different way. Thus, everyone is special, but being special is not special. So you are not special for being special. And at this point, I realize special sounds weird.</p>

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<p>Perhaps what was being said in your daughter’s middle school, or should have been said, is that all the kids have value. And they do - to someone, for something, it doesn’t really matter who or what. And if it seems like cosseting, I don’t think so. Middle school is where kids really become aware of how they stack up against their peers - are they popular, attractive, athletic, talented, smart. For those kids who realize that they are NOT one or more of those adjectives, they need all the encouragement they can get, particularly those who discover that they are not smart or good at school work.</p>

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<p>I would like to send this to the music teacher at my son’s school who would announce before every class that “You are ALL very talented musicians.” No, the prodigy with perfect pitch who just won the concerto competition might be a very talented musician, but not the kid lip synching along to the radio. </p>

<p>And the number of parents telling their kids “good job” at the gym last night was actually a bit sickening. At some point, your kid has to work hard because he or she wants to, not because of what Mommy thinks.</p>

<p>However, I think it’s too late to be giving kids the message that you are not special when they graduate from high school. Better to give it a bit earlier and often. (One of our favorite movies at my house is “Akeela and the Bee” mostly for the portrayal of the Chinese dad who keeps saying to this son “Do you want to be number two your whole life?” At least he leaves open to his son the possibility that maybe he won’t succeed.) On the video, I enjoyed watching the reactions of the little blonde girl to the left of the speaker. I don’t think she’d ever been told “you’re not special” before.</p>

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<p>

There’s a consensus.</p>

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<p>Honestly, the whole “everyone is special” rhetoric that goes on around schools these days is sickening. Our schools are plagued by over-optimism and hyper-sensitive egos. I applaud this teacher for being blunt and honest. As a student, I can’t tell you how many times people try to do things that are too hard for then because of the indoctrination that “everyone’s special”</p>

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<p>It was a great speech…</p>

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<p>I can’t tell you how many times people try to do things that are too hard for then because of the indoctrination that “everyone’s special” </p>

<p>That is actually a good result. Some of my best successes have come when I wasn’t bright enough to know what I couldn’t do.</p>

<p>I love this speech. There is a fine line between encouraging kids and blowing smoke in their ear. I tended to be an encouraging parent who applied a figurative boot to the rear end when needed.</p>

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<p>If only all those people who stumble into law school every year just because they don’t know what else to do with their lives had heard this before succumbing to the pressure of cultural norms. Might have saved a lot of miserable people ill suited to their chosen profession.</p>

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<p>something about people and teachers in the boston area that rubs me in the wrong way, how many come off extremely condescending compared to other Americans </p>

<p>yet the speech is decent overall, doubt it will change much in higher education or high school education in general</p>