The Truth is Incontrovertible!

"The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may

deride it, but in the end, there it is." - Winston Churchill

A short while ago, I wrote about about the under 30 set ("The Under 30 Dilemma"), which espoused my personal views on the disservice being done to today's youth by their parent's over-coddling of them.  Last week, a high school English teacher, David McCollough, Jr., came under fire for comments which were directed toward the 2012 graduating class of Wellesley High School, in which he bluntly told the graduates that "You are not special. You are not exceptional ... You've been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble wrapped ... feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie."  Well said, sir!  He ended his speech with the following:  "Selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you're not special - because everyone is. Congratulations, good luck. Make for yourselves, please for your sake and ours, extraordinary lives." Click the photo to see the entire eloquent speech and news report:

Let me give you a little background on Wellesley, MA and Wellesley High School. Wellesley is located just west of Boston and is one of the more affluent suburbs of Boston, ranking 7th in the state for income per capita. "Wellesley's public school system is nationally well regarded. In 2007, Wellesley High School was ranked as the 70th best public high school in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report, and on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test, the district regularly scores higher than the state average." All in all, it's a pretty nice place to live, I'm sure. But, in my experience, the more wealth, the more sense of entitlement the youth have. So what's wrong with a well-respected teacher espousing some honest facts to these students?  In my humble opinion, absolutely nothing.

It's a sad statement that the teacher then had to go on national television to defend his address. Well, I say it was about time that someone spoke the truth and gave these young adults a little bit of a wake up call.  As they head out into the world, they have learned that you have to earn your way and not have it handed to you on a silver platter.  I suspect that they will remember this commencement speech for a long time and not just because it made the evening news.