I hear and read many high school commencement speeches.  I think the speaker’s goal is to share some eternal truth, wisdom, and insight with students who are now formally starting their lives as adults. Â
I recently came across two items that together make the shortest commencement speech that was never delivered, but that has a message I wish all graduates could hear.
In his 1994 interview for the PBS documentary “One Last Thingâ€, Steve Jobs says:
“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.
“That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
“The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.
“I think that’s very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.â€
In her Invitation From the Head on our website, Delphian Headmistress Rosemary Didear writes:
“At the core of our philosophy is the desire to put students in control of their educations and their lives, and to help them realize that both are theirs to create.â€
A message worth repeating when you think about education or talk about education. Pass it on!
Posted by Mr. Mark Siegel on Monday July 15, 2013