the best commencement speech ever?

[gh]

Take that, generation E!

<<....It doesn't matter if the world doesn't see them as special. What matters is that they see themselves this way. Move over, Generation X. This is "Generation E," and the "E" stands for "entitlement." And, for many, what they feel entitled to is our undivided attention and constant adoration....>>



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z1xjpb7qwW

[DecFan]

Here's the Youtube link - it's an excellent address.

[Conor Dary]

"This generation doesn't need any more coddling. "

Coddling? Frankly, I can't think of a more horrible time to be a college grad. The job market sucks like nothing seen in decades. Students end up in debt to their eyeballs.

Being a undergrad in the 70's was bliss in comparison. Tuition was low, rents were low. Where you went to college wasn't that big of a deal.

And as far as college students thinking they are special, what else is new? We weren't much different back then.

[DecFan]

Coddling? Frankly, I can't think of a more horrible time to be a college grad.

Note that this is a HS commencement address. . . .

[Conor Dary]

Coddling? Frankly, I can't think of a more horrible time to be a college grad.

Note that this is a HS commencement address. . . .

Actually it wasn't very clear, except for the 18 year old thing, deep in the article.

But wow, even worse. Yea, they were coddled and in the mean time everything was getting screwed up all around them. Frankly, I don't envy this generation at all.

By the way, who ever pays attention to a high school commencement address? No one, unless it is the son of a famous author, who probably had a nice upbringing.

[Daisy]

Note that this is a HS commencement address. . . .

Wow, even worse.

I suspect he knows his audience. The schools has ranked as high as the 70th best public high school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

[Marlow]

If you think this is the 'Entitlememnt Generation' then you can only blame yourself. Either YOU raised them or you raised the kids that raised them. Either way it is YOUR 'nurturing'.

Whenever a parent complains about their own kid, I just remind them that their children are merely a perfect combination of their genes and the way they raised them. They are the ONLY ones to blame.

[Conor Dary]

Note that this is a HS commencement address. . . .

Wow, even worse.

I suspect he knows his audience. The schools has ranked as high as the 70th best public high school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

Yea, I know he is talking to a specific privileged audience. I know all about Wellesley. But he did use the term generation. Which I presume meant about the country as a whole.

If he wants to imply that all the students at his school are a bunch of pampered brats...that is something else.

[Daisy]

I think you have to look at it in the context of the whole speach too. If anything he was trying ot challenge them to go onto great things.

“resist the easy comforts of complacency, the specious glitter of materialism, the narcotic paralysis of self-satisfaction. Be worthy of your advantages.’’

[Conor Dary]

I think you have to look at it in the context of the whole speach too. If anything he was trying ot challenge them to go onto great things.

“ Be worthy of your advantages.’’

So he is meaning this specific school. In others words, you are a bunch of pampered upper class brats, who will want for nothing, so grow up. That is something else, and not a generational thing, and hardly what you would say at a typical inner city school. Or a high school in downstate Illinois, where a large number of students have few options other than the military.

So in summary, a nice lecture for this school, but hardly the best commencement speech ever.

[gh]

not to paint with too wide a brush, but I don't think it's specific to this school at all. The sense of entitlement phenomenon slaps me in the face every day with the teens and 20s.

[Conor Dary]

not to paint with too wide a brush, but I don't think it's specific to this school at all.

I guess, but I doubt he would have given the same speech in this town just a few miles north.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/a- ... wanted=all

[Pego]

It truly amazes me how every generation in history thinks that it is superior in some way to the following one. Totally absurd!

[Conor Dary]

It truly amazes me how every generation in history thinks that it is superior in some way to the following one. Totally absurd!

I blame Facebook. Glad to see their stock still sucks.

[Marlow]

It truly amazes me how every generation in history thinks that it is superior in some way to the following one. Totally absurd!

Totally true. This, of course, means yours and mine just the same (although I rather doubt, given your particular childhood, this applies to YOU!). I'm absolutely positive it applies to the Baby Boom generation, which is far more full of itself than ANY generation is history!!!!!!!!
The kids I teach today have very little of it, because they've spent a significant portion of their sentient years in a Recession.

[lonewolf]

One of the more entertaining commencement speechs I have endured.. perhaps locally pointed but also widely appropriate..

[gh]

It truly amazes me how every generation in history thinks that it is superior in some way to the following one. Totally absurd!

I've been familiar with the Plato (or one of the other wise Greeks) quote from pre-BC since I was a kid, and have always consciously tried to filter out the going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket analysis that is so easy for old farts to fall into.

However.... at this point I've seen several "generations" of young pups come through the pipe, and while I've always managed to forgive them their "sins" (cuz they invariably turn out just fine), I stick to my analysis that we are now stuck with the worst generation ever; those who because of their hippy-generation parents believe they truly are the chosen ones.

Previous generations (certainly including me to my seniors) were merely "difficult"; these blessed ones truly believe they own the world.

Pego, if your grandchildren have escaped this, my kudos to you and your children for actually passing on some real values.

[Marlow]

I stick to my analysis that we are now stuck with the worst generation ever; those who because of their hippy-generation parents believe they truly are the chosen ones.

Indeed. It is our (Baby Boom) generation that began the entitlement ball rolling with the counter-culture of the 1960s that more-or-less repudiated EVERYTHING that went before. As I look back at my college days in the Bay Area, late 60s/early 70s, I'm very surprised we accomplished anything much at all.

[Pego]

Pego, if your grandchildren have escaped this, my kudos to you and your children for actually passing on some real values.

We shall see in about 10 years or so .

[Cooter Brown]

Coddling? Frankly, I can't think of a more horrible time to be a college grad. The job market sucks like nothing seen in decades. Students end up in debt to their eyeballs..

There are plenty of jobs. Maybe not in some hip, desirable location or in your hometown or near your friends or in your comfort zone or with your worthless art appreciation degree but there are plenty of high paying jobs that can't find applicants. For example, anybody with a pulse and a decent work ethic can go to North Dakota and pull in over $100K in the O&G industry, no degree necessary. If you can't pay for your student loan, it's probably your own fault.

[Conor Dary]

Coddling? Frankly, I can't think of a more horrible time to be a college grad. The job market sucks like nothing seen in decades. Students end up in debt to their eyeballs..

There are plenty of jobs. Maybe not in some hip, desirable location or in your hometown or near your friends or in your comfort zone or with your worthless art appreciation degree but there are plenty of high paying jobs that can't find applicants. For example, anybody with a pulse and a decent work ethic can go to North Dakota and pull in over $100K in the O&G industry, no degree necessary. If you can't pay for your student loan, it's probably your own fault.

I think you spend too much time on Fox News.

North Dakota has had a major employment boom, because 15,000 resource jobs are a big deal in a state with fewer than 700,000 people.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/0 ... continued/

[Cooter Brown]

I think you spend too much time on Fox News.

Actually, I'm really liberal and have never once watched any right wing news show. However, I can't stand the mentality that there are no jobs when there really are plenty of jobs available if you're willing to do the work and go to where the jobs are. People live in a dying state, in a dying town where the dying industry has already left town. No shit there's no jobs. Move where the jobs are. Do jobs that are beneath you. Eventually, if you're worth a shit at that job, you'll have a job that's not beneath you.

[Conor Dary]

I think you spend too much time on Fox News.

Actually, I'm really liberal and have never once watched any right wing news show. However, I can't stand the mentality that there are no jobs when there really are plenty of jobs available if you're willing to do the work and go to where the jobs are. People live in a dying state, in a dying town where the dying industry has already left town. No shit there's no jobs. Move where the jobs are. Do jobs that are beneath you. Eventually, if you're worth a shit at that job, you'll have a job that's not beneath you.

Ok, I am glad you are liberal. Though you echo a right wing talking point. But where exactly are the jobs?

And it’s true that if you look at a map, it seems as if there are large regions with low unemployment. But nobody lives there: the Dakotas and Nebraska combined have only 3.3 million people, around 1 percent of the US total.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0 ... -illusion/

[DrJay]

Sense of entitlement.....the docs I know in C Springs who recently have recruited folks who have just finished radiology residencies or cardiology fellowships are blown away by the sense of entitlement these young grads have. They expect to work less and make as much money as the partners in a group, right out of the gate, with the partners having been at it for fifteen or twenty years. A friend high up in the computer engineering dept of a major credit card company sees the same among computer grads. They're like, "I got my degree from Stanford (or Princeton, or some other high falutin' school)" and my friend is usually like, "So??? Can you do, and have you done, this and this and this??" End of interview.

[DrJay]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 2zjszKUNuQ

Truly nice commencement address from Carolina 2005, worth a read.

[lonewolf]

The professor was right.. I do not remember a single word from the commencement speech at my graduation.. I do not even know who the speaker was.. I had already reported for duty with the US Army...there was this "police action" going on in Korea...

[Marlow]

They're like, "I got my degree from Stanford."

Well, to be honest, I seriously have gotten every job I've ever asked for, just with that statement.

[Conor Dary]

Sense of entitlement.....the docs I know in C Springs who recently have recruited folks who have just finished radiology residencies or cardiology fellowships are blown away by the sense of entitlement these young grads have. They expect to work less and make as much money as the partners in a group, right out of the gate, with the partners having been at it for fifteen or twenty years. A friend high up in the computer engineering dept of a major credit card company sees the same among computer grads. They're like, "I got my degree from Stanford (or Princeton, or some other high falutin' school)" and my friend is usually like, "So??? Can you do, and have you done, this and this and this??" End of interview.

I agree with that sentiment. You read the NYTimes business section and the numbers of grads from hot shot law school or business schools who expect big payoffs right off. But sometimes reality hits.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/busin ... wanted=all

[bambam]

Sense of entitlement.....the docs I know in C Springs who recently have recruited folks who have just finished radiology residencies or cardiology fellowships are blown away by the sense of entitlement these young grads have. They expect to work less and make as much money as the partners in a group, right out of the gate, with the partners having been at it for fifteen or twenty years. A friend high up in the computer engineering dept of a major credit card company sees the same among computer grads. They're like, "I got my degree from Stanford (or Princeton, or some other high falutin' school)" and my friend is usually like, "So??? Can you do, and have you done, this and this and this??" End of interview.

We get the same thing in our orthopaedic group, talking to residents and fellows coming out and looking for jobs. They want a lot of money to start, and don't want to take general orthopaedic call, as we have all done for years. And with the limits on work hours among residents, which is so different from my residency in the 80s, these new orthopaedists will end up having to work more hours than they did as residents. With us, we felt like we had retired when we finished our residency and started practice - it was so much easier. Going to be interesting in the next few years. We'll see what happens.

[bambam]

The professor was right.. I do not remember a single word from the commencement speech at my graduation.. I do not even know who the speaker was.. I had already reported for duty with the US Army...there was this "police action" going on in Korea...

I skipped my college graduation to play in a golf tournament that weekend. Priorities. I was getting the diploma one way or the other.

[bambam]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=peter%20gomes%20unc%20commencement%20address%20&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CGgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.unc.edu%2Fnews%2Farchives%2Fmay05%2Fcommaddress051605.html&ei=GFbdT4iDJMn86gHlpZStCw&usg=AFQjCNHqA0T4AGWXiGH4e9z32zjszKUNuQ

Truly nice commencement address from Carolina 2005, worth a read.

That is good, even for the wrong color Blue.

The part about the sexual peak reminds me of a Johnny Carson line when he said that women reach their sexual peak in the 30s or 40s. For men's its a Thursday afternoon in August when you're 18.

[DrJay]

Local cardiology group here hired a guy just out of fellowship four or five years ago and he asked for a salary for a month or two before he even started work, i.e. a month or two of paid vacation before he saw his first patient. I don't know the final terms, but they apparently met him halfway or something.

[Daisy]

But sometimes reality hits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/busin ... wanted=all

Good link. Love this from the article:

Most firms have an inflated opinion of themselves, as do most lawyers. If last fall you offered a job to John Smith from Harvard, and he said, ‘No thanks, I’m going to Dewey,’ your reaction might be, ‘Why the hell did he go to that firm? He must be an idiot.’ ”

In Britain there was little coddling. For one, there was no graduation from high school at all. Possibly this has changed in the 20 years since I left.

[trevorp]

In Britain there was little coddling. For one, there was no graduation from high school at all. Possibly this has changed in the 20 years since I left.

Oh, Daisy, it's changed more than you could imagine - and had probably started even before you left. Coddling is rampant and has had the predictable results. Every real or imagined achievement, no matter how trivial or undesirable, is certificated and celebrated. And we've even started calling them High Schools!

[Daisy]

Every real or imagined achievement, no matter how trivial or undesirable, is certificated and celebrated.

I guess I'm not surprised.

And we've even started calling them High Schools!

I sounds like 'English' is becoming more and more Americanized. Next you'll be adopting the American spellings as the standard!