High school teacher tells graduating students: you’re not special

cnredd · #1 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 01:19 PM

These are seniors in high school...and are FINALLY getting told the truth...

Quote:

He gets points for being blunt, at least.

A straight-talking English teacher at Wellesley High School set out to take students down a notch in his speech to the class of 2012, by telling them they’re nothing special.

“You are not special. You are not exceptional,” David McCullough Jr. told graduating seniors from the affluent Massachusetts town last weekend.

The teacher's controversial advice caught the nation's eye, in an age where many believe today's youth suffer from a sense of self-importance.

"Yes, you've been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped," McCullough said in his speech. “Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again. You've been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored. You've been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie. ... But do not get the idea you're anything special. Because you're not."

Driving the point home, he added, "Think about this: even if you're one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you."

He continued to tell it like it is. Americans have come to appreciate accolades more than genuine achievement, he said, and will compromise standards in order to secure a higher spot on the social totem pole.

"As a consequence, we cheapen worthy endeavors, and building a Guatemalan medical clinic becomes more about the application to Bowdoin than the well-being of the Guatemalans," he said.

In the quest for accomplishment, everything gets watered down. A 'B' is the new 'C.' Midlevel courses are the new advanced placement, the teacher said.

The reaction to MuCullough’s blunt advice was overwhelmingly positive, both from students at the receiving end of the reality check and people who saw the speech as it circulated the Internet this week.

"For once someone told us what we need to hear and not necessarily what we wanted to hear," said one commenter on The Swellesley Report.

"Undoing all 'they've' done in on 10-minute speech. My faith in the world may have been restored," another commenter said.

McCullough, the son of the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough, explained his provocative words on Fox News Wednesday.

He said kids need independence. They need to struggle and stumble to make it in today's difficult, competitive world. But too often parents are there to throw the pillows on the floor.

"So many of the adults around them — the behavior of the adults around them — gives them this sort of inflated sense of themselves. And I thought they needed a little context, a little perspective," McCullough told Fox News. "To send them off into the world with an inflated sense of themselves is doing them no favors."

Pretty Flamingo · #2 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 01:33 PM

It might have been better to let them find out the hard way in the real world. That would have been more effective, but at least he is preparing them for the bumpy ride ahead of adulthood when they would be brought down a notch or two if they need doing so.

cnredd · #3 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SHOSHANA

It might have been better to let them find out the hard way in the real world.

I disagree...You need to let them know LOOOONG before they enter "the real world"...

Look at little league sports programs where they don't keep score, no one is declared a "winner", and everyone gets a trophy...

That is a recipe for DISASTER when they enter "the real world"...If children have no clue on what "failure" feels like, it's gonna hit them like an iron in the face when they first experience it...You WANT then to experience it early in life so they are prepared for it in "the real world" and learn how to overcome it...

Comet · #4 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 01:49 PM

I told my children all through childhood and their teen years that they are not special and life is not going to hand you what you want on a silver platter. If you want something in life, you have to educate and train yourself and take it.

saltwn · #5 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 01:51 PM

Too bad he couldn't find a way to convey that yes they were special but that if they chose not to work hard to accomplish goals in life, they would soon sink down to the modicum life of one who was not gifted and nurtured.

Pretty Flamingo · #6 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd

I disagree...You need to let them know LOOOONG before they enter "the real world"...

Look at little league sports programs where they don't keep score, no one is declared a "winner", and everyone gets a trophy...

That is a recipe for DISASTER when they enter "the real world"...If children have no clue on what "failure" feels like, it's gonna hit them like an iron in the face when they first experience it...You WANT then to experience it early in life so they are prepared for it in "the real world" and learn how to overcome it...

That means changing the whole system and it would mean children having to toughen up which is not politically correct in this day and age!

He probably didn't make much of an impact on these pampered kids, but hopefully one or two would have taken it on board.

We do have a more down-to-earth education system here, and even fee-paying and boarding schools would let the pupils know that they are not "all that special."

Money and privilege cannot buy common sense though can it.

I had the choice of sending my two daughters to a private fee-paying secondary school (equivalent to your school year grades 6 - 13), but they did fantastically well at a non-fee paying school and are grounded (mostly). I did not like the 'look' of the other pupils and parents and because I didn't want my daughters to change I chose a non fee-paying secondary school. Their grades on leaving at 18 were the same as those that others attained at the fee-paying school, without private home tuition in the evenings too. It boils down to how children are brought up.

PS re your quote, there is nothing wrong with failure hitting them like an iron in the face when it happens. Even well-grounded kids have failures of one sort or another just in their late teens, early 20s. Failure is not something to be avoided at all costs. It is failures and upsets that form a character. Nobody can go through life with total success. People are made better and stronger from failures.

Oftencold · #7 (**permalink**) 06-08-2012, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd

These are seniors in high school...and are FINALLY getting told the truth...

High school teacher tells graduating students: you’re not special

My Parents took a slightly different approach, but no less grounded in reality. That is "You are special! Or else."

We worked very, very hard to never find out what "or else" meant. So we achieved "specialness" though hard work, sacrifice, discipline, and recognizing the the other kids were mostly clueless rubes.

Almost anyone can be special, if they are willing to pay for it.

WallyWager · #8 (**permalink**) 06-12-2012, 09:51 PM

From the wise man.

George Carlin "Every Child Is Special" (Special 3-Minute Edit) - YouTube

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