My daughter (I think) will graduate from high school on May 31. I don’t know if they have scheduled a commencement speaker. I don’t think they give honorary high school diplomas, so this humorous essay is probably not applicable but it is good enough that I included it.
I was once asked to give the commencement address to the graduating class of UC, Irvine medical school. I already had an MD, so no honorary degrees were involved. I also addressed my own graduating class as valedictorian and student body president and I got a degree that time.
I agree with the essayist that honorary degrees have gotten well past the point of becoming ridiculous. Still, at the awarding of my last degree, in 1995, President Clinton gave a nice speech and handed me my degree. That was the occasion for a photo that I brandish at my children from time to time.
Tags: graduation, honorary degrees, universities
The fact that Maya Angelous is an accomplished writer saves her from appearing too presumptuous referring to herself as *Dr.* Angelou. Why not actually do the hard work, earn the degree?
Last year we heard Kareem at the daughter’s UCLA graduation. This year, Bill Clinton is giving the commencement there. So very glad we don’t have to sit through that especially with the campaigning drama…
William McGurnn’s brilliant commencement address:
http://www.benedictine.edu/benedictine.aspx?pgID=1186&newsID=1404&exCompID=358
Say, Dr. K., what degree did you receive in 1995?
The good thing about commencement speakers is that they don’t usually damage the student mind: the students are far too focused on getting out of those robes and into some parties!
At least in college.
Dr. K., do high schools still have “Grad Night”? It was pretty much an excuse to hang out all night and sneak drinks. It was usually held at Disneyland, and the folks running the place were pretty careful about letting folks into the park with bottles.
I remember that some friends of mine snuck into Disneyland with some booze a couple of days before, and tied the bottles to strings and sank them near Tom Sawyer’s Island. On Grad Night, the Disney folk went over each entrant with a fine toothed comb to keep booze and other illicit substances out of the Magic Kingdom.
My friends sashayed over to Tom Sawyer’s Island, very proud of themselves. The grabbed the strings (tied to a nearby bush), and pulled out….
…several bottles of Coca Cola!
It seems that the Elves of the Magic Kingdom got to the booze first!
May your daughter’s graduation be FAR less eventful!
Congratulations!
But your “My daughter (I think) will graduate from high school on May 31.” is a trifle ambiguous. Do you mean you think she’ll graduate, or that you think she’s your daughter?
🙂
We will know about graduation after finals. The rest is not in doubt.
Dear Dr. K.:
Two observations:
1. You weren’t a teenager when you got your M.S., so learning can be (and should be) longterm.
2. Annie has never had to be a true adult…until after graduation. Perhaps she will stumble (most of us did). But I have my fingers crossed that she will make you very proud indeed.
Kids today seem to have a harder time growing up. I left home at 18, was married at 21 and graduated from medical school at 28. I did almost all of that with no help from my parents. I never returned to my parents’ home to live after I left at 18. We want to make it easier for them than it was for us but that doesn’t seem to work. A lot of that is what spoiled the Baby Boom generation.
I was born in the Depression and remember World War II. My mother remembered the Titanic sinking. My grandfather, who died in 1899, was 11 years old when the Civil War began. That’s a lot of history in three generations.