Roycroft201
06-26-2004, 19:44
Just wanted to share this with you.
My daughter graduated from HS today. Instead of having someone with 'celebrity' status give the Keynote address, today it was given by the Superintendent of Schools.
He was talking to the grads about giving to community, giving to the nation, now that they are going out on their own.
As he was getting more specific, he didn't do one of those 'puffed up' speeches reflecting what a good job they did educatiing the kids by then giving a percentage of grads who will be going on to colleges and universities.
Instead, he discussed the ability of each member of the class to have a choice regarding his/her next step in life. He went on discussing the meaning of their choices in today's world and he asked the graduates to stand who have chosen to go into military service. I believe it was 8 or 9 who stood (almost equally divided between male and female). The sustained applause for these students, from the audience and their classmates alike, brought a lump to my throat. It was wonderful to see.
But the Superintendent wasn't done, yet. He then looked out into the auditorium and asked everyone who had ever served our country in military service to please stand. Two rows ahead of me a very eldery man, someone's grandad, really had to struggle to get on his feet- using the seat in front of him and his arm rest to pull himself up. Once he was up, he stood as straight as an arrow, yet his hands were shaking as they gripped the seat ahead of him. As I looked around the auditorium, the number of people standing - moms, dads, grandfathers, uncles, grandmothers - it was easily between 35-40% of those in the auditorium who had served our country at one time or another in military service. The graduating class was on it's feet in a cheering standing ovation and the applause from the crowd was almost deafening.
When things settled down, the Superintendent said he wanted to thank everyone who had supported his family while he was gone for the year, and thanked those staff members at school who kept things running smoothly when he was called to active duty.
There was no doubt this afternoon, in a semi-rural school in western New York State, with a graduating class of 150 seniors, that service, honor, and country are in good hands.
Roycroft201
My daughter graduated from HS today. Instead of having someone with 'celebrity' status give the Keynote address, today it was given by the Superintendent of Schools.
He was talking to the grads about giving to community, giving to the nation, now that they are going out on their own.
As he was getting more specific, he didn't do one of those 'puffed up' speeches reflecting what a good job they did educatiing the kids by then giving a percentage of grads who will be going on to colleges and universities.
Instead, he discussed the ability of each member of the class to have a choice regarding his/her next step in life. He went on discussing the meaning of their choices in today's world and he asked the graduates to stand who have chosen to go into military service. I believe it was 8 or 9 who stood (almost equally divided between male and female). The sustained applause for these students, from the audience and their classmates alike, brought a lump to my throat. It was wonderful to see.
But the Superintendent wasn't done, yet. He then looked out into the auditorium and asked everyone who had ever served our country in military service to please stand. Two rows ahead of me a very eldery man, someone's grandad, really had to struggle to get on his feet- using the seat in front of him and his arm rest to pull himself up. Once he was up, he stood as straight as an arrow, yet his hands were shaking as they gripped the seat ahead of him. As I looked around the auditorium, the number of people standing - moms, dads, grandfathers, uncles, grandmothers - it was easily between 35-40% of those in the auditorium who had served our country at one time or another in military service. The graduating class was on it's feet in a cheering standing ovation and the applause from the crowd was almost deafening.
When things settled down, the Superintendent said he wanted to thank everyone who had supported his family while he was gone for the year, and thanked those staff members at school who kept things running smoothly when he was called to active duty.
There was no doubt this afternoon, in a semi-rural school in western New York State, with a graduating class of 150 seniors, that service, honor, and country are in good hands.
Roycroft201