Teacher David McCullough Jr. delivered the commencement address, “You’re Not Special”, at Wellesley High School. Not only did he say the graduates weren’t special, he told them that they’ve “been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped.” McCullough stressed that no matter what achievements the graduates have already achieved, after commencement, the slate is clean and they must travel a new path. That path, he suggested should be one in which they go after what they love and believe in—one in which they work hard and dream big. Graduates shouldn’t go out thinking everything will fall in place for them, but instead that they must make things happen.
According to McCullough, they’ve probably been told they are one in a million, and therefore, very special. However, “on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like” these graduates. The speech, as you can imagine, garnered an abundance of attention. Newsweek’s Periscope, “Generation ‘Special’" tells us that of the 700 emails McCullough received after the speech, only four were critical of his words. Does the speech inspire us educators to reconsider how we are educating our students? American companies often have to locate their operations overseas because they cannot locate enough qualified workers in the U.S. Think about how difficult it is for us to encourage students to take the most difficult courses in the STEM subjects and continue on with them in college. Do our students know how to write well, solve problems, and use tech as an assistant in their learning? Do they know how to learn without us (educators and parents) pushing them? Are we heading many of our graduates toward inevitable difficulty in finding jobs after high school and college?
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