Teacher Tells the Truth: Kids, You're Not Special

About damn time!  Although I never thought this would happen in Massachusetts.

Teacher David McCullough, Jr. told a high school graduating class that they are not.......special.  They are not.......exceptional.  That they have been coddled and cajoled and counseled and encouraged by adults, and that these young adults will need to realize that nobody else cares how special they think they are.

Wow!  This is a long overdue message to the young people of this country, who are largely a bunch of self-absorbed brats. 

WARNING!  RANT FOLLOWS!

When I graduated from high school over twenty-five years ago, I was under no illusion that I was remarkable in any way, and was quite nervous about the future because I knew that I would be facing competition out in the real world.  (I actually went straight to college, but college was different in 1986.  We were actually expected to learn and demonstrate the level of our learning).  My high school friends and I ventured out on our own, some of us told by parents that we were welcome to visit our old home but not to camp out there.

I look at the young adults I see today and I think to myself, "These punks will never survive the Zombie Apocalypse or any other major change to civilization."  Many have no skills aside from being able to access their Facebook or Myspace account, send texts, or rapidly tap their thumbs on the controller of the latest video game system.

I have personally known 18 to 26 year old young persons who were openly disrespectful of their parents and grandparents, yet could not consistently support themselves and expected their parents and grandparents to provide for them.  These young persons could not hold even the most basic, fast-food, minimum-wage job for more than a few months without major problems, could not consistently maintain a residence, and could not maintain an automobile or insurance.  Yet they were always able to "party", buy alcoholic and "energy" drinks, cigarettes, drugs, and the latest cell phone.  They just can't afford to feed themselves, buy clothes or wash them, or figure out how to get back to their own home at the end of the day.

Either I am joining the ranks of the old people I used to complain about in my youth, or the youth of today are the opposite of what their parents, teachers, and other adults are telling them:  special and worthy of excess insulation from the realities of the world.  At 44, I don't think I am that old.  And I didn't just start noticing how today's youth behaves.

Oh, I could go on and on about how today's young people have no idea what hardship and responsibility are (I actually haven't experienced real hardship myself, although I prepare for it), but I think I'll stop here.  Go read the article about David McCullough, Jr.'s speech to his 2012 high school graduating class.  If you are over 30, you'll be glad you did.

Quote of the Day

"My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!"

Harry S. Truman


By the way, some information about the last arguably honorable Democrat to occupy the White House:

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents preceding him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri . His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired from office in 1952 his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

I have not personally verified this information.  I received it in an email from a family member, and thought it sufficiently interesting to pass along.