Like a lot of youth pastors, I’ve been to more than my fair share of high school graduations. And right along with that comes the ever present "student speeches." At the ceremony I attended yesterday there were 10 student speeches.
It’s been a long time since I’ve heard a student say something memorable. And yesterday was no exception to that rule. Either they don’t know how to prepare a speech or they aren’t allowed to say anything with any substance. Here is the pattern:
- Thank their parents.
- Give a nod to their school.
- Say to their classmates "We did it!"
- Give a random literary quote.
- Say thank you and walk away.
At the end of the day, the best and brightest of a school district look pretty dumb. (And you know they aren’t… this should be a shining moment for them!) They may be able to score straight A’s for 8 semester of high school but they fail to even understand why they are asked to give a speech. I don’t think it’s their fault they look dumb either.
At the very least, you would think the administration would intervene and say… "Hmmm… maybe this isn’t a time to allow the kid to blab about stupidity, maybe we can help them look good so that we can look good too!" (After all, high school graduation may be the best PR event of the year!) I don’t mean they should write their speech for them, but perhaps they could look at the speeches and work with the students to make the speeches say something? And if there are 10 speeches… perhaps they should assign each student something different to say so all 10 don’t repeat the same speech with different proper nouns inserted?
I think there needs to be a graduation speech website. Give some practical advice to the best and brightest… help them turn high school graduation from something that is completely forgettable to something memorable and unforgettable.
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