I tend to agree; I think an elected speaker, with clear instructions about what they are elected to do (that is, speak for the class) is a much better method.
Understand, I think grades themselves are a meaningless concept, and 9/10 the rank of valedictorian is a result of some combination of pure chance, obsessive focus on grades over learning, and judicious cheating*, along with obsessive, abusive parental pressure and/or a really desparate aching need for external validation. So yes, the idea that that person should be the obe selected to speak at commencement makes no sense.
Y’all aren’t going to believe me about the cheating, but honestly, if you have a school with 10 brilliant, hardworking students who could conceivably be Val, the one that ends up at the top is likely to be the one who, in addition to working hard and being talented also takes steps to make sure they never missed a point. I’d say 50% of the 20 Vals I’ve taught I strongly suspected of at least some academic dishonesty.
I had to give a valedictorian speech at graduation and I wanted to go rogue. But my version of going rogue was to refuse to give a speech. I didn’t want to but was pressured into it. I didn’t like public speaking then and I still don’t. I’m sure the attendees were thankful for a one-minute speech. In the several graduations I’ve gone to, I wanted a fast-forward button for all the platitude induced boredom.
That was my thought too- I can’t recall ANY of the valedictorian speeches from high school, college, or graduate school. They were all bland commentary on memories and challenges, etc…
Just have the principal/superintendent/some local notable give some sort of valedictory speech and have done with it. You’d speed the whole event up, which is never a bad thing.
I would be happy if the student speeches faded away. Perhaps they were relevant back when graduating HS was seen as an important milestone, but now it’s not really all that remarkable. Although #1 is significant, it’s not like the views of that #1 person are really all that significant or important to share. It’s unlikely that person has any great insight to share that isn’t already shared by a good part of the student body. Plus, I’m sure there are lots of introverted valedictorians who would be ecstatic if they could just be #1 without having to give a contrived speech on stage or come up with a excuse as to why they can’t give one.
It’s not necessarily the subject matter that makes people uncomfortable, it’s that going on a political rant, ANY political rant is awkward and inappropriate in the situation.
t doesn’t matter whether it’s voting rights, freedom of speech, LGBTQ rights or 2nd Amendment rights, it’s situational inappropriateness, not content inappropriateness. None of that should be the point of a high school valedictorian speech.
I want to point out that this is a very privileged point of view. Lots of kids’ graduation was never an assumed outcome, for all kinds of reasons, and most kids will never have a college graduation. For those kids and famies, the ceremony is much more meaningful.
Ironically, the Valedictorian is most likely a person for whom HS graduation was always assumed and who anticipates a “real” graduation in the future. But that’s not the case for a lot of families, who have some very strong feelings when their child’s name is called. That emotional momment is what should be the central focus of the event.
We once had a family insist we reprint a special program for them becuase their child was losted as cum laude instead of summa cum laude. People really, really care.
Yeah, I guess I should have said “Back when graduating #1 was an important milestone”. Graduation itself is certainly an important milestone to many students and I had no intention of implying otherwise. But it’s very likely that it’s not really all that important milestone to the top few percent of students. Very likely they are going into other higher education tracks and HS graduation is just one of the minor prereqs they had to satisfy.
Have sat through all sorts of valedictorian and equivalent speeches, many as part of my job. Now has left an impression. The entire graduation procedure certainly has, and my ovwhelming feeling is the message of them is, “we are gathered to recognize that of the thousands of people here today, one has been designated to speak to and presumably for all. You are in a system that is a pyramid, and your life energy will be taken and given to those at the top. Get used to.” Or, kick it over.
I don’t understand why graduations have student speakers in the first place. The overwhelming number of people there (including the students themselves) just want to get the diploma and head to celebrate. In each of my graduations I didn’t care very much about what a student I had met a handful of times had to say. Schools should have a fairly quick speaker from the faculty and another from the community, do the presentation of the diplomas and be done. There are plenty of times/places for students to say what they want when they have a voluntary audience.
The main idea is just to honor a high achieving student. That’s it. Nothing more.
Once the student is being honored via them giving a speech, they may as well try to make it a good one. But that’s not the purpose of the speech, let alone what that student’s opinion is about anything.
My valedictorian speech started with “We stand inside the shattered ruins of the society our parents had known.”
That was in 1968. Shortly after the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Also shortly after a teacher confronted me in the hallway and told me he would like to punch me in the face because I had written an editorial for the school newspaper pointing out that what Gov. Ronald Reagan of California had said about the First Amendment was exactly opposite the truth.
I remember my high school one. She went on a bit about being rejected for one of the service academies. Later in life she committed suicide. She wasn’t bullied, she was a cheerleader etc. I wonder if she viewed her accomplishments as a disappointment.
That’s really sad. And I think it’s a big change since I was in high school (the Dark Ages). My older sister was valedictorian, and I know she never cheated. She didn’t even give a valedictory speech either. My memory is that she wasn’t hot on doing it, but the salutatorian (who was one of those “always on” personalities) did it instead.
Heh. I was only 20th in my class (out of 620+), so I was the underachiever.
Like many milestones, it’s not all that remarkable in the grand scheme of things, but that doesn’t make it any less important to the individuals involved. The ceremony is optional, so it’s important to the student either because they care or they want to make their parents happy. (I only attended my college graduation for the benefit of my mother, who had been there to support me my whole life, and without whom my education would have been much more difficult to attain.)
I knew a girl in college like that. She was one of those people who for whatever reason, HAD to get straight-As. It wasn’t some sort of personal achievement thing, it was literally a fear of failure that drove her. She was anxious as all hell, and spent an inordinate amount of time studying and absolutely making sure she made an A in every class. And got really upset when she actually did make a B.
Seemed like a fairly miserable way to live to me. Sure, she’s very successful now, but does that really matter if it’s all been to keep the demons at bay, and not out of a desire for achievement?
Agreed. Honestly, though, I’d find it more acceptable for the students to do so - they earned their right to speak through a specific achievement, whereas the “well-known public figure” was just invited by the power-holders (or even is being paid to do a job, sometimes).
My opinion is a big fat NO. A graduation speech isn’t an open forum for one person with a captive audience to go on a political rant. That’s even if I AGREE with your views on abortion, LGBT rights , climate or whatever.
Those graduates in the audience worked hard for their degrees/diplomas and this is a very special moment for all of them.
Not like they have any say when the speaker doesn’t go rogue, either. At least at my school. Don’t see how being held captive to listen to that one person’s “political rant” is any less special than being held captive to listen to that one person being the administration’s mouthpiece.
I agree. I think all students, not just one per class, should be allowed to express their views, air their grievances, rant, or whatever; but that doesn’t mean that a graduation ceremony is the time or place for that.
The whole thing reminds one of the short Battle Royale from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, where the top students beat each other into a bloody pulp, then one of them reads an uplifting speech of gratitude but still has to be careful not to get one word wrong.
The last line of the chapter uses the “N-word,” but it’s still pretty good advice for grads.
If you don’t trust someone to give an appropriate speech (whatever your standard of “appropriate” is), then you shouldn’t have chosen them as a speaker.