Archive: Opinions

I went to two graduations last weekend.  I have been to a lot of graduations on the college and high school levels, and I have come to see patterns.  General the salutatorian and valedictorian speeches are predictable.  No doubt the speakers think they are being original and inspiring, but in general they are blah blah go out into the world and make a difference, blah blah, don't just work but take time to be happy, blah blah, and so on, and the class president speeches are generally along the lines of we were a unique group of people who had fun together, went through a lot together, blah blah.

Yeah, after you sit through enough of these you do get a bit jaded.  That's not to say that you are immune to the impressive accomplishments of the kids or the honor they are being shown after earning their degrees.  But you pretty much know what to expect, and the hour or two goes slowly.  That's why I took notice of the Lansing and New Roots High School graduations this year -- they each had something different and truly inspirational.


Two things deeply affected me in the Lansing ceremony.  First, who could help but be impressed that the school gave Fred Voss, a Holocaust survivor, a high school diploma 77 years after he would have earned it if the Nazis had allowed Jews to go to school.  Even if he weren't such a genuinely noble soul it would have been moving.  He has touched so many lives in Lansing and elsewhere that the crowd's delight that he was receiving this degree was palpable.

Class of 2012 Valedictorian Christian Zaloj's speech was also very moving.  Zaloj told the story of how his grade point average got as high as it did, explaining how the death of his father drove him to work harder to honor his Dad's aspirations.  His story was a case of turning a devastating setback into a triumph.  Wow!  Not your average graduation speech!

I was extremely moved by the unique commencement at the New Roots Charter School for a number of reasons.  Full disclosure: my daughter was among the graduates there, so I was bound to be emotional.  But to a connoisseur of commencements this one stood out in a big way.

First of all, this was the school's very first graduating class, and the fact that anybody was graduating was a miracle, because when most of them signed up for the school there literally wasn't a school.  These kids are pioneers who helped build a positive school culture that celebrates each students' gifts while focussing on getting a quality education that stressed participation and went well beyond the classrooms. It was a brave decision to change schools, a gamble that paid off in spades.

It was also amazing to see what the school community came up with in terms of establishing what will become traditions in commencements to come.  Very thoughtful, unique, and a very specific reflection of this one school.

One student had attended 16 high schools and had no hope of graduating before he came to New Roots.  No school system, especially small rural school systems can be all things to all students.  This school was about finding the right educational and cultural fit for those students who may not have excelled, or even succeeded in district schools.  The quality of their work, their buy-in to the school they helped create, and genuine joy in each other and what they have accomplished just about glowed from the stage at the State Theatre Saturday.


Speeches, especially by students, were intelligent, thoughtful, personal, and inspiring.  They went well beyond the average high school speech, and gave a sense of what the New Roots experience really meant both personally and in the greater scheme of making the world better.  Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick, was amusing and inspirational.  And when the principal got up to sing a song that added voices in every verse until the whole audience joined in was unexpected and delightful.  There was a lot of hugging that you don't see at the average commencement, and a surprise presentation by the graduates to their much beloved principal summed up the positive experience these students have had there.

Myrick told them that every one of them are leaders, and from what I saw, I believe that.  90% of the class is going to college next Fall, and I have no doubt that each of them will excel at whatever they decide to tackle.

Both these graduations made me feel that despite the economy, despite massacres around the world, the Middle Eastern mess, the left versus right divide in our own country, and all of the things that alarmingly shout from the headlines, that there is true hope for the future.

Making lemonade out of lemons was this year's theme at both schools this year.  I forgot to be jaded.  I was really proud of all the graduates, and deeply moved by their graduation ceremonies.

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