I have not stopped thinking about this amazing Wellesley High School graduation speech since I saw it yesterday, thanks to Jen Singer. In it, brilliant English teacher David McCullough cautions his students, “you are not special.”
I admit when I first heard the line, I bristled a bit. Aren’t those fightin’ words for any doting parent? Who among us doesn’t want our child to be special?
However if you watch the speech (it’s worth your 12 minutes, I promise/ UPDATE: the video is now posted below just to make it easier) it’s clear there’s a distinction between a child who is special to me, and a child who is special in all the world and thus, deserving of its myriad rewards.
In other words, entitled.
