<p>@Harvey, cool joke lol</p>
<p>Maybe I could connect her speech to a Newsweek article:</p>
<p>[The</a> Creativity Crisis - Newsweek](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html]The”>The Creativity Crisis)</p>
<p>Absolutely fantastic speech. I figured it would have little effect on the posters here, whose dream is to succeed within a broken system. The reference to “best slave” was especially on the mark, as you’re reminded of all the people that work so hard through school to get to a top college to get to a top law or business school to end up at a top corporation or top law firm to make top dollars. And that’s their life. </p>
<p>School shouldn’t be about getting grades, college shouldn’t be about getting a job and a career shouldn’t be about making money. School should be a foundation for inspiration, college a haven for inquiry and a career the realization of a life-long passion. </p>
<p>And now we await the cries of those who consider such thoughts too “idealistic.” And that’s fine, to each his own. I prefer my idealistic pure truths to your realistic corrupt lies.</p>
<p>It seems that she had a bad high school experience, and now she is taking it out on the school. </p>
<p>She was way overdramatic- the best slave, crushed their potential, etc. This is not Big Brother that we’re talking about.</p>
<p>@Soulandromance, what are you saying?</p>
<p>If school shouldn’t be about getting good grades, what else should it be about?</p>
<p>Passion for learning? learning what? Calculus? Trig? all the useless stuff.</p>
<p>But, I do agree that a career shouldn’t only be about money.</p>
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<p>Lol we talked on aim, remember? I figured that you’d love this speech :D</p>
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<p>When I read that I couldn’t tell which images were more creative in the least. It left me wondering if the creativity experts would find Mondrian’s [later</a> works](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mondrian_Composition_II_in_Red,_Blue,_and_Yellow.jpg]later”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mondrian_Composition_II_in_Red,_Blue,_and_Yellow.jpg) more creative than those of his [earlier</a> years](<a href=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iFBFXAco_B4/SsYOEr7fHRI/AAAAAAAAKpk/dor9HCzTF1A/s400/iet+Mondrian.+Woods++Boslandschap.+1898-1900.jpg]earlier”>http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iFBFXAco_B4/SsYOEr7fHRI/AAAAAAAAKpk/dor9HCzTF1A/s400/iet+Mondrian.+Woods++Boslandschap.+1898-1900.jpg).</p>
![http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mondrian_Composition_II_in_Red,_Blue,_and_Yellow.jpg]later](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mondrian_Composition_II_in_Red,_Blue,_and_Yellow.jpg%5Dlater){kind=link}
![http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iFBFXAco_B4/SsYOEr7fHRI/AAAAAAAAKpk/dor9HCzTF1A/s400/iet+Mondrian.+Woods++Boslandschap.+1898-1900.jpg]earlier](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iFBFXAco_B4/SsYOEr7fHRI/AAAAAAAAKpk/dor9HCzTF1A/s400/iet+Mondrian.+Woods++Boslandschap.+1898-1900.jpg%5Dearlier){kind=link}
<p>I totally agree with everything she says.</p>
<p>Awesome speech.</p>
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<p>Don’t post if you’re going to call simple math subjects “useless”. Nothing in academics is truly useless. I’m sorry the logical thought of mathematics isn’t practical enough for you but many respectable and self-sustaining careers involve what you call “useless stuff”.</p>
<p>Yes lol, I hate it when people say “when are we going to use this in real life” in math class. Math IS real life.</p>
<p>I think she brings up valid points, but she became a bit too over-dramatic towards the end. I think it’s okay for her to criticize and not provide any alternative - it’s only a graduation speech, after all. However, I do agree that she was being rather idealistic. Imo, school is for two types of people: those who predominantly want to learn for the sake of learning and those who predominantly seek a practical application for what they’ve learned. </p>
<p>I think the majority of people will fall into the latter category. Even on CC there are many instances of people suggesting that so-and-so class is useless or unnecessary because it doesn’t teach anything practical or useful for a particular career path. If the majority of people do fall into this category, then the present system of systematic education works. </p>
<p>I do not think, however, that the present system does a very good job of producing creative innovators, capable leaders, or cultured intellectuals. From what I’ve observed, if you want to be more than just a worker ‘slave’ you need to pursue your interests outside of school. Which also makes sense when you consider the fact that a standard education is just that. Standard.</p>
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<p>No she didn’t. That’s a ridiculously poor inference. She made no implication whatsoever that the opposite of being valedictorian meant being the opposite of being the best slave. If you looked at it in context, the real ‘winner’ can be anyone in the ranking system who did not simply “[do] what [he or she] was told to do” for the sake of doing it, and instead pursued what it meant to be “a thinker [and] an adventurer - not a worker.” She claimed that she was valedictorian because she followed the formula “to the extreme” and that she was the “best slave” because she followed the formula to the extreme, not because she was valedictorian.</p>
<p>@Islander4 and philsophydude.</p>
<p>Even my Algebra teacher said stuff like trig and calculus - isn’t really useful in real life. </p>
<p>She said it may only help a little only if your an engineer.</p>
<p>I don’t know what she expects from the educational system. Granted, yes, certainly there are cases where a student’s personal interests have to be put aside in order for them to follow the curriculum, but it IS important to have a standard and focused curriculum.</p>
<p>On top of that, I think she puts far too much weight on the effect of personal initiative on grades. Obviously for most students, working harder correlates to better grades, but she makes it sound like anyone who put enough time and effort in COULD have been valedictorian. There are far more factors than spending more time being a good “slave” for a lot of students.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean one should go around calling subjects “useless”. As much as I dislike excess literature instruction, I’m not going around saying novels are pointless to read. And also, there’s more to school and fields than job preparation. The true purpose of a school is to educate–whatever that means.</p>
<p>I’m not saying its completely useless. Its just not important, I only learn it cause i was told to do so. </p>
<p>What else is more to school other than job preparation?
The things we learn are futile.</p>
<p>Education can mean alot of things.</p>
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<p>^You beat me to it, and you’re exactly right. It’s refreshing to see that some people have basic logical reasoning abilities.</p>
<p>Even though the speech isn’t particularly original, it’s still well laid out until the dramatic last paragraphs. We don’t need to dumb it down by making invalid inferences.</p>
<p>She’s basically blaming the school for not being able to learn for the sake of learning but “be a slave” and become the valedictorian. </p>
<p>She could have done both, but she didn’t. I still stick to my original response</p>
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<p>Simultaneously vague and quixotic.</p>
<p>@RAlec14 </p>
<p>Its not her fault for not finding any interest in her subject. If most of the subjects are meaningless, then how is it her fault? </p>
<p>But, she should of realized that high school is basically like a job. There is nothing spectacular to learn in high school. Its a job.</p>