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May 19, 2009
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Common cement
All the commencement speech drama this year centered on Obama's appearance at Notre Dame. And the drama made the whole affair so overburdened--it was politicized and over-intellectualized and contested and protested and the whole bit, to the point where it felt less like a graduation ceremony than an episode in the culture wars. I don't think graduation speeches should be occasions for intense controversy--it always feels to me as though the ceremony has been hijacked when that happens, which is often. And that always seems like such a shame to me. Sure, the genre of commencement speech is hackneyed and seemingly worn out. And yes, the temptation on the part of organizers and speakers alike seems often to be to combat the cliched character of it all by layering onto it a heavy dose of controversy--which appears to function as a proxy for meaningfulness. Organizers choose controversial speakers guaranteed to cause an outcry (Obama at Notre Dame is a classic example); speakers arrive in pomp and circumstance, surrounded by political contention, and deliver their remarks in a charged context that renders anything they say--even the most innocuous things--electric, even explosive.
It's tiring.
But every now and then someone comes along with a marvelously light touch. And they manage to say so much more. A classic instance is Dr. Seuss' 1977 anti-commencement speech for Lake Forest College. This year, the standard was set by Ellen Degeneres, who delivered an absolute gem at Tulane. Check it out.
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Comments:
I attended my daughter's graduation on the 9th. The commencement speaker was awful. AWFUL. With 30 minute's warning I could come up with a commencement speech that would have run that one off the stage. And I haven't ever "done" anything. (To be precise, neither had she, apparently.)
My daughter showed me this speech today, and I was surprised at how good it was. One of the best I've heard . . .
Roll Wave! :-) Tulane Law Class of 2001 here, and I certainly wish I'd had Ellen for my commencement instead of Marian Wright Edelman curing insomnia with yet another condescending laundry list of left-wing cliches.
I couldn't agree more. Who decided that commencement speeches should be about the speaker rather than about the people graduating? I remember the speaker from college graduation way back in 1993. She was some professor/researcher of native Americans and spent the time talking about how all her research showed how racist Americans are - what did this have to do with me working my *** off to earn a BS in biology? It's not like our school had anything to do with Native Americans or that was in any way an issue of interest at the school. Just dumb.
Commencement speakers are usually chosen by student leaders in dialogue with administrators.
I wonder how many of the students and alumni complaining about their commencement speakers actually pursued student leadership positions, attended the meetings of the student government or similar groups, or otherwise DID anything to help shape their graduation ceremonies?
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