<p>its that time of the year again! Any tips are much appreciated!</p>
<p>Short and sweet! Did I mention short?</p>
<p>Don’t ever quote or try to recite song lyrics…I don’t care if you’ve been in choir your whole life.</p>
<p>You will be mocked mercilessly and people will stop listening to your speech right then and there.</p>
<p>Interestingly, I just heard some h.s. students today making fun of some prior graduation speakers. So take a tip from them, your peers:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Don’t talk about yourself, yourself, and yourself.</p></li>
<li><p>Understand you represent the entire class.</p></li>
<li><p>Be gracious about the advantages you found at your school, but realize not everyone is up there speaking so they may not feel “as” advantaged. You speak for a class with a wide range of experiences, including the top academic experience that elected you to be the speaker. Others might be graduating from different tracks, or special education classrooms…whatever is the full range of your school is what you represent there as their speaker. So try to include mention of some of the offerings of the school that supported ALL the students, not just those going off to colleges. </p></li>
<li><p>Be unusual and thank not only the teachers but the staff of the school, from the lunchladies to the custodians. It takes all ikinds of adults to make a school open up each morning. </p></li>
<li><p>If you thank “parents” remember to also thank grandparents and guardians, because some of them are raising the kids and sending them off to school each day.</p></li>
<li><p>Be excited and enthusiastic but humble and appreciative.
Good luck. That’s not an easy balance.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>One of the best is here: [“Hindsight</a>” Commencement Speech](<a href=“http://www.gallagher.com/hindsight.html]"Hindsight”>http://www.gallagher.com/hindsight.html)
Short and excellent (though most parents won’t appreciate #10).</p>
<p>I wish to do a speech in a humorous light, I am the president of my school one thing I was considering was doing a Bush impersonation, though that may over the edge…</p>
<p>Suggestion: Do not read “In the Night Kitchen” in its entirety, as the speaker at my oldest daughter’s graduation did.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a humorous approach, a Top Ten list is a nice format. If I were attending, I’d wince at a Bush impersonation unless it was spot-on and the material was at least as good as a SNL sketch.</p>
<p>At our hs graduations, the student speakers are the class president and the student with the highest GPA. The class president usually opts for a humorous speech that balances mild irreverence with generosity.</p>
<p>Humor only works if, uh, it’s funny. Can you carry it off? Bush impersonation is dicey. I like the top 10 list idea. Or can you do some kind of funny video instead of a traditional speech? OR maybe a funny PowerPoint?</p>
<p>I think a Bush impersonation would be a seriously bad idea. You are likely to offend many in your audience. Short, sweet, funny.</p>
<p>Do not read Dr. Seuss’s *The Places we Go *either.</p>
<p>THis a graduation, not a political rally or a comedy club. I don’t want to hear someone’s take on anything political, and I know lots of parents don’t either. And please, don’t do what another speaker did and tell everyone why he as val was up there and they weren’t - ie. reading the physics book instead of partying like they did. Have someone else listen to your speech, because you will be too close to it and won’t necessarily interpret things the way someone else would.</p>
<p>I was No. 2 in my 8th grade class and had to do the Welcome. #1 wrote a poem. Here’s the part that I remember (over 30 years later!):</p>
<p>“A little work and a little play
And now it’s graduation day
…
…
And even high school may not be
The end as far as I can see.”</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that’s the rock bottom, so anything you do will be an improvement.</p>
<p>I will say that in my sister’s HS class, all anyone could think about during the Val speech was that the Val’s stoner twin brother had been expelled two weeks before!</p>
<p>Know your audience and try to give them something to connect with in the speech. Something common to the partiers, jocks, brainiacs… One speech I heard was about one aspect of a student’s love of learning and each person there thought it was about them. Speech is still talked about a few years later.</p>
<p>I second the ‘don’t talk about yourself, yourself, yourself’. It gets tedious FAST. It’s not just your graduation, it’s the classes graduation.</p>
<p>The best graduation speech I ever heard was from a teacher who was retiring (he actually was dying of cancer, but we didn’t all know that at the time). He wove characters from childrens books and books we’d all read in school, which resonated with a lot of kids. </p>
<p>So I’d say if you can find some <em>common experiences</em> to work with, that would be a good jumping off point. Whether it’s the time school was postponed because someone left the doors open all night and the pipes froze, or the time that the softball team won the state championship, try to find something that will connect ALL kids, not just the athletes or the brains or whatever.</p>
<p>And for what it’s worth, my kids school always thanks the custodians. Our school has a great crew, and the kids all know it.</p>
<p>Once a Yale Commencement speaker told his audience “I’m only going to tell you four things today. And I know that you’ll always remember these four things because of what they spell.”</p>
<p>“Y” he said, “is for ‘You.’” He spent 10 minutes telling them the significance of this day to themselves and of themselves to the world.</p>
<p>“A” he said, "is for “Attitude.” He spent another 10 minutes displaying his positive attitude and explaining how it had gotten him where he was today.</p>
<p>“L” he said, is for “Learning.” He went 15 minutes on his most memorable post-graduate experiences and the lessons they had taught him. </p>
<p>. . . and “E” he said, is for Enthusiasm." His enthusiasm knew no bounds - he finished in a burst of enthusiasm that went a full 20 minutes.</p>
<p>At the close of his speech he noticed a graduate in the front row, hands clasped together in prayer, looking up at the heavens with tears running down his face. He found the young man at the end of the ceremony and said “Son, something that I said today apparently affected you very deeply. Would you please tell me what it was?”</p>
<p>“Oh,” said the graduate, “I was just thanking God that I hadn’t chosen to go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology!”</p>
<p>Check out Maria Shriver’s new book, “Just Who Will You Be?”, for inspiration. It’s a quick read and offers personal insight in what is basically a poem she wrote for a commencement speech. Be humble. Be sincere. Be yourself. Good luck!</p>
<p>Don’t do a Bush imitation. Think about how you would feel if you were forced to sit through someone’s imitation of a public figure YOU like. Not nice.</p>
<p>A leavening of humor is always nice. A comedy act is 99.99% certain to fall flat on its face, unless you are as talented as Robin Williams probably was at 18. But he’s a comic genius.</p>
<p>Refrain from making religious statements. See comments re political imitations above. I don’t care if you made through the personal intervention of Jesus or Allah. I don’t want to hear about it.</p>
<p>Don’t read Dr. Seuss. </p>
<p>Don’t speak from your vast experience. You’re too young.</p>
<p>Be modest. Be inclusive. Speak from the heart without making it all about you. Reach out from <em>your</em> experience to that of others.</p>
<p>I’m afraid that my list is mostly don’ts. The reason is probably that I’m dreading having to listen to the egomaniacal val of my son’s class in a few weeks. I’m sure you can do much better.</p>
<p>Focus on the things that mattered to the class of 2008 at your school…the things that you (as a class) will always remember from high school, the things that made '08 special. Kids and those in the audience will esp. appreciate the humorous stuff. Don’t try to get too philosophical. Rememeber it’s a special day for everyone in the class from #1 to #450.</p>
<p>Also remember that no one will remember the content of your speech in the future, maybe not even you. (You might want to keep a copy of it with your grad memorbilia.)</p>
<p>I can’t remember who spoke at my high school graduation and can’t remember a thing he or she said. So don’t stress. Unless you are really really bad or really really good (both of which are unlikely unless you do the Bush imitation), your words like be forgotten before you know it.</p>
<p>I remember our principal, who was a former Latin teacher and was retiring, speaking endlessly about puberty rites.</p>
<p>I also remember that when they announced that the “Outstanding Senior” was our val, who was a notorious grind, there was a deafening silence.</p>
<p>Remember that it is likely that no one will remember you or your speech. That puts it into perspective, yes?</p>