For all of you who have ever sat through a HS graduation; how long should the Valedictorian speeches be?
What would you recommend to your Valedictorians? What’s a good length before graduation guests start to wonder “How long will this go on?”
You graduates can weigh in, too, but we know you have other concerns in mind. 
For me it’s less about the length than the message - a strong message with an engaging delivery will stay fresh for as long as it takes to convey but a poor speaker or boring message will feel long no matter what.
Thankfully our school seniors vote for a student speaker rather than having a valedictorian speak.
My kids went to a school which had multiple vals. Each was given three minutes to speak. Perfect length - lol.
I am a class advisor and I think next year every speaker (including myself) will get 5 minutes. There will only be 5 speakers altogether. My mom once told me that if I ever had to speak in public, keep it short because “no one wants to hear what you have to say.”
Can multiple Vals agree on the advice being handed out or is it a hodge-podge?
I would say about 3-5 minutes. My daughter’s speech was about 3 minutes and it felt like a good length. The crowd tends to get very restless if the speech gets much longer than that, especially if there are multiple speakers.
My son was his high school’s valedictorian. He did his speech in under five minutes. There were a couple of other speakers, too. But, he knew that the gym did not have AC, so he kept it short so we did not have to sweat too much.
My son was the speaker at his graduation and his speech was almost exactly 10 minutes (which was the recommended length). He worked very hard on it to make sure it was interesting. We were told by many, many people that it was the best grad speech they had ever heard. The bishop (this was a Catholic high school) even asked for a copy of it, as well as a few teachers.
it was a mix of moving, faith, funny, and inclusive of wide variety of students in the grad class.
(Tip, make sure that your mortarboard is firmly secured…lol…son’s slipped and took it off mid-way).
Our school limits the speeches to five minutes…max. To be honest, most of us are not there to hear these speeches. We are there to see our kids get their diplomas. There were six speakers at our kids’ HS graduations, in addition to the faculty who spoke. In my opinion…too many, and too long.
What happens at the five-minute mark? Does the microphone ‘click’ off?
Are you saying that the Val should be sure to have trusted pals in the AV services department?
JustOneDad. The speakers rehearse their speeches with the graduation coordinator…and more than once. At the first reading, if the speech is too long, they TELL the student to shorten the speech. If it’s still too long at the second run through, they are again told to make it shorter. If it is STILL too long at the third run through (which only happens for those with speeches too long), they are told their speech will not be included and it isn’t.
And they know all of this from the get go.
At our school, the Vals have a specific amount of time for ALL of them to speak, and have to divide up the time accordingly, depending on how many there are . Most years, the kids coordinate on their messages so they don’t repeat each other.
Our high school is unweighted gpa, so anyone with a 4.0 is a Val, the number of Vals ranges from about 6 to 12. One year, I think they each got 90 seconds because there were so many Vals. They were funny and sweet mini messages. It was the outside speaker who went on for 20+ minutes . . . . about themselves.
Son’s graduation had the val and another voted on speaker (a popular athlete). Both were very entertaining and gave personal speeches with very different messages. I was totally impressed with their speaking ability. One spoke about 12-15 minutes and the other about 7-10.
How long are you willing to give someone whose speech isn’t especially interesting in a room where the AC isn’t working well? 3-5 min would be about as long as my patience would last. I realize that for proud parents, their kids’ speech is always moving and powerful and funny…for the rest of us, sometimes yes and sometimes not so much. Assume, as a matter of humility, that what you need to say can generally be done in less than 5 min unless the school faculty who are vetting your speech think it’s so fabulous that it deserves more.
At my daughter’s graduation last Friday, the salutatorian talked for about 10 minutes. It was amazing, upbeat, memorized pretty much (not read), and the audience loved it, especially the graduates. The valedictorian speech, however, while a bit shorter, seemed WAY too long. She was obviously very nervous and she just droned on and on. It was painful to watch and listen to.
One thing I did note with almost all the evening’s speeches was that everyone wasted at least a minute or two thanking the same people - basically everyone…the town council, the faculty, the parents, and on and on…IMO this was all wasted time.
Stand up to be seen, speak up to be heard, and sit down to be appreciated. I think <5 minutes is good. I did note at this year’s graduation the speakers did not list and thank all the usual suspects. I too thought that was boring and redundant. Our school keeps graduation right at an hour, which is good.
This year they changed the backdrop, graduate seating, had them walk in two separate sides instead of in pairs, like it’s been done since 1967. The whole thing was chaotic and disorganized, and made it difficult for parental pictures during the entrance. The school is excellent about the superintendent standing with the kid and smiling cheese as each diploma is given. Kid #3, I am DONE
Graduation is long, and the speeches are best recieved when they are engaging, to the point, and brief. Less is more. I’d recommend a cap of 5 minutes if there is more than 1 speaker. Less than 10 minutes tops.