I am really trying to see her side, but I just can't on this one. The speech is supposed to be inspiring. Speak your mind and be honest but choose your audience.
Where is it written that the speech has to be inspiring? If it's written somewhere, our new superintendent didn't read it. More on that after I respond to the other quoted posts -
Words matter. How & when we say those words matter.
I'm not impressed by this valedictorian at all. And, if I were her parent, I'd be ashamed. She needs to take that "spunk" & go do something that truly inspires instead of just making a spectacle.
She came off as petulant & rude instead of informed & proactive.
Her speech was not inspiring or encouraging or edifying; instead, it was sarcastic & mean-spirited & ill-spoken.
She publicly ridiculed a teacher who had been escorted out of the classroom by the police for his/her substance abuse problem.
The speech she gave was not the speech that was pre-approved by the administration. She was disrespectful to the administration, the teachers, her fellow students, & the audience.
She took her turn on stage & decided to be "shocking" & give a speech she thought was flippantly sarcastic & "cute" as she figuratively gave the middle finger to the school's administration & staff.
One can inspire change w/o ridicule & rude sarcasm. One can point out necessary improvements while still being gracious & respectful. And needed change can be addressed in a valedictorian's speech - but not in the manner of this girl's speech.
And, yes, the "to my parents & I" made me laugh as well. She's obviously not as smart as she thinks she is.
While I pause at the calling out of the drunk teacher, my guess is that the public didn't know of it and they should - that teacher was under the influence and yet responsible for children. Why did it take so long to get that teacher out of there?
But the rest - still wondering why people are stuck on the 'must be inspiring' part? And picking on one grammatical error, when it is a common one?
Paint me cynical but I've been to far too many graduations. The whole "give a speech" tradition (especially in high school) has grown WAY too long in the tooth. The speakers say nothing important or inspiring. It just dragggggggggggggs the ceremony. No one cares who the valedictorian is or what they say except their family.
Frankly if I could, I'd get rid of graduation ceremonies all together. Give them their diplomas the last day of school and let them go. If college, they get their degrees by mail anyway.
The only things I remember from my high school graduation (it was outside on the football field) was some guys passing a bong down the row and me being the only kid in the school that knew the words to the alma mater that they made us sing at the end. Whoopie
This year's valedictorian in our town gave a great speech - it was about how no one would remember what she said, so who cares what she talks about?
There are two sides to every story. Whenever I read a Facebook rant or a bad Yelp review, I wonder what really happened. This girl obviously had quite a bit of success at this high school. I'm sure there were some bumps along the way, but she stands up there and rages about things that were "done to her." Does she share any responsibility? The office staff failed to tell her about scholarship deadlines? Did she not have the resources to look them up and keep track of them herself? Did she expect them to contact her in advance of every deadline to remind her? Sound a bit entitled to me.
I can tell you that not one person at DS's high school had any clue about how to get accepted into his chosen major (musical theater). The drama teacher admitted that he knew nothing about what was required for audition-only programs. We hired a private college audition coach. She helped him choose schools, submit his applications, film his pre-screens, rehearse his in-person auditions and practice interviews. I never expected a public high school to help with such a specialized major. Self-reliance!
So you're saying we should all have to hire private college coaches? What about those who can't afford to, but have as much, if not more talent than your son?
It sounds like she did her part - she went to the office, she tried to follow through, etc. Some local scholarships are not online. We have a huge packet at our school the kids have to fill out for the local ones. We do notify kids for deadlines. There's a system that can be used, and it sounds like this school had no clue.
Now, to the part about inspiring - our superintendent told the kids they were all going to fail. He called out one kid, by name, and told him he wasn't going to get the big benjamins. It was the nicest, most helpful, most amazing kid in our school - and he called him out at graduation. The super then went on to talk about famous people who failed, but it was too late - he'd already lost his audience and insulted an entire class. And the speech sounded a bit plagiarized as well.
