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Back in the day I believe it was a motivational speaker who could move the students and parents. Today, I believe it's mostly a political decision - and not a good one at that! Quite sad!
HOW DO SCHOOLS SELECT A COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER?
- Thread starter Golddollar
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Many have blazed the trail for us.
As others have noted, these days speakers seem to be nothing more than advocates for a political agenda, and/or spend the time bragging about themselves. To me, a commencement address should be about celebrating graduates' accomplishments, as well as offering experience-based advice about how to succeed going forward (in career or life). Unfortunately, it's a rare occurrence these days. It wasn't a commencement address, but I was at a conference a couple of years ago where the keynote speaker talked about nothing but her own accomplishments (which weren't nearly as significant as she thought they were), with a particular emphasis on her ability to generate hatred from those with values that differed from her own -- a rather sad way to measure one's success, particulalrly given that the values she opposed were those upon which the organization she led was founded. It was supposed to be inspirational, but it was boring, annoying and bizarre.
