Having read about this “controversial” graduation speech at an American high school commencement, I’d meant to hunt down the video and got distracted. However my cousin posted today in Facebook (thanks Jimmy!) and I’m glad I took the 12 minutes to view it
How anyone could view this as less than warm, humourous and inspiring–based on how the text was delivered, rather than on the static text itself–escapes me. We had a few teachers like David McCullough Jr. at Nanuet Senior High School. They were rigorous, they were at times relentless, and at times most of their students resented them deeply for the standards they set and how hard they pushed us. Dr. Demarest, Dr. Dillon, Mrs. Walber (all English teachers; go figure), Mrs. Marshall, Mr. Nissel (yes even you Norman)–thank you again.
Classrooms are like firearms: no one has a right to them and in the wrong hands they destroy lives. We need more David McCulloughs in our classrooms.
