<p>Don’t try to thank members of the staff. You are bound to leave someone out.</p>
<p>Another list of DON’T’s: [CBS</a> | Late Show with David Letterman : Video](<a href=“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on CBS”>The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on CBS)</p>
<p>Hi, guys! Your advice has all been so great! I’m a valedictorian giving a speech at my high school, and I’ve been working on it for the past few days, and I was wondering if maybe you guys could give some honest feedback–it seems like the teacher in charge of “OK-ing” the speeches at my school doesn’t really care at all since she is retiring and I don’t want to go into this without some feedback.</p>
<p>Idea #1 was to give a short little statement about experiences that we’ve all gone through growing up in our school district and then playing a beautiful version of our alma mater on the piano as a PowerPoint was presented contrasting world events since kindergarten with class pictures. Teacher didn’t love this, thought it would be too long.</p>
<p>Idea #2 is a speech starting with kindergarten talking about what we were all doing in roughly every other grade contrasting with world events. For example, our sophomore year of high school, we all cheered on our football team to a win over our rival, watched the Academic Challenge Team go to state, etc. while Hurricane Katrina ravaged the South. Concludes with a “how will you impact the world in the next 13 years” kind of a thing.</p>
<p>Sorry if this was too long! Is this something you all would want to sit through? Any advice? I have to keep it to about 2 1/2 minutes, so it’s not lengthy or anything. Thanks SO much! You guys are great!</p>
<p>Congrats on being valedictorian! You sound like a creative and certainly sensitive person - if only more speakers were as concerned about their audience as you are.</p>
<p>I must say that I agree with the teacher about the first idea. I’m sure you didn’t intend it this way, but there are those in the audience who might consider it grandstanding if you were both to speak and play the piano. No offense meant, and if you are truly an outstanding pianist, headed for a career in music, that’s a different story.</p>
<p>Idea #2 sounds very workable, but I would caution against doing the year-by-year thing, because it would be difficult to fit that into 2.5 minutes. I suggest choosing perhaps 5 of the most significant happenings in your school lives instead of something from each year.</p>
<p>2.5 minutes is a good limitation - it’s hard to put folks to sleep in that short a time. Good luck - hope you’ll let us know what you decide.</p>
<p>My D is val and what should be a happy occasion has turned very stressful and sad. There have been tears.</p>
<p>She has written her speech. It’s short and sweetly funny without being at all over the top. It has a creative beginning and a traditional ending. It talks about the experiences of the senior class as a whole, not about her as an individual. It thanks all the right people (school faculty and staff, families, etc.). It does not touch on politics or say anything offensive. Her father and I both liked it, and so did the other students she read it to.</p>
<p>The teacher in charge of vetting the speeches did not like it and struck out every paragraph with a black marker. She then scribbled an outline on the back that my D is supposed to use to write a new speech, one in which she details what she should have done differently over the past four years and says that she wishes she had not studied so much. As you can probably tell, this teacher doesn’t particularly like my D and seems to resent her achievements. When D wanted to sign up for three AP courses in her junior year, this queen of the put-downs said, “You have to stop thinking you can do everything. No one could take three APs and do well in them.” My daughter took the three APs and did well in them. Teacher also had students state their college choices in class, and when my D named hers - a highly regarded LAC - teacher said scornfully, “Why would you want to go THERE?”</p>
<p>Anyway, you get the picture. So my question is: In your schools, who is responsible for approving the val’s graduation speech? Do speeches have to have official approval? What happens if there is a difference of opinion - can the val stand up and say what he or she wants? We are encouraging our D to edit the speech to address some (not all) of the teacher’s concerns, and then to politely make clear that this is the speech she is going to give.</p>
<p>TeaTime,</p>
<p>Our guidance director and then, the principal look at the speech.</p>
<p>Tea Time, I feel for your daughter. I think in her shoes I might consider going to the principal and seeing if he/she hates the speech too. Otherwise, I might consider just not giving the speech at all. Why should she have to give a speech putting herself down?</p>
<p>k-girl - perhaps you could just do the four years of high school instead of all twelve years? If you rehearse the speech a few times you’ll see soon enough if it’s too long or too short.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone’s suggestions! TeaTime, we have a member of the English department in charge of our speeches. I don’t think a principal or anyone every really sees them, and I’m not even sure if she’s read mine all the way through yet.</p>
<p>I do agree with the fact that playing the piano may come across as show-offy, so I’ve decided to do the speech. I think I covered events from kindergarten, second, fourth, and sixth grade briefly, but really focused mostly on high school and especially our senior year. It’s only about a page and half double-spaced, so I’m not really worried about length right now. Thanks again, everyone!</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for the advice! I don’t plan on doing the Bush impersonation; I find myself in a good situation since I’m the school Prez (not the main val whose got the traditional climatical speech), so I have made a humorous yet insightful short speech. Please PM me if you would be willing to read and comment my speech, thanks!</p>
<p>kelspianogirl- unless these world events affected your class directly, I wouldn’t necessarily mention them, imo.</p>
<p>TeaTime, I feel your pain. My D is val and is stressing somewhat over her speech. For your D, I would suggest she writes the speech as she wishes. Will she be denied her opportunity to give the speech if it’s not approved by this teacher? As long as there is nothing in it targeting anyone adversely, what can they do??? I am sure they would not foolishly withhold her diploma!</p>
<p>Thank you all for your support. It’s easy for us, as parents, to say “just stand up and give your speech,” but harder for a high schooler to contemplate defying a teacher when the prospect of giving a speech in public is already scary enough. There’s a streak of vindictiveness and retaliation that runs through our school system, top to bottom, so her fears are not entirely illogical. But as you say, there is very little they can do to her at this point.</p>
<p>There are also some ugly school politics going on in the background - factionalism in the faculty and administration, etc. My D and her speech have to some extent become trapped in the middle. I wish they wouldn’t do this to kids.</p>
<p>Wow! </p>
<p>I will keep my fingers crossed that the ‘speech’ situation works out for your D and that her graduation day will be memorable in a GOOD way!!!</p>