Graduation Speech

Speaking at graduation is a wonderful honor, but I won't lie, it's hard. Everyone wants something different from you and there is a cliche at every turn. Before I ever did it, a colleague who I have a great deal of respect for asked for advice about what to say. I told him, "figure out why they picked you....then give em ten minutes of that."

Here was my attempt, given to 1200 excited and anxious people outdoors at the Minnesota Zoo Amphitheater.

When I try too hard at my writing, I fall into a workmanlike, explicit 5 paragraph essay style. I've been told that when it happens, I sound 'academic' (which would make my friends who are really academic smile) I'm afraid I've slipped into that here.. I rationalize even today that you really almost have to do that with the spoken word, that you have to stick to a visible structure and repeat yourself.

The Myth of Dichotomy

Ladies and Gentlemen, here we are again. It is a great honor to be able to speak to you tonight. Most teachers only get a group of students for a year. Not only have I spent two years with this group, you’ve been good enough to give me ten more minutes.

I hope you already know that as a teacher I don’t believe that best learning happens by you sitting and listening and me talking. The best learning happens by getting real experience. But since you’re about to go about getting nothing but real experience and since we’re all dressed up, I hope you won’t mind if I remind of some things before you go.

There is a tendency, by westerners at least, to break the world into dichotomies. A dichotomy is the categorization of the world into two separate and mutually exclusive groups. An example you all know is called a dichotomous key. Trees, for example are separated into deciduous and coniferous; they are either one or the other. A dichotomous key goes on to separate the leafy trees into simple and complex, toothed and smooth and so fourth. The advantage of a dichotomy is that it helps us simply divide and describe the world. We have a tendency, however; to attempt to make all problems into dichotomies, to make every situations appear as if you must go either entirely one way, or entirely in another. The problem is that the world is often not encompassed into only two possibilities and our belief that it is closes the door to solutions that lie in between. I believe that many of the dichotomies that our world gives us are mythical, that they do not really exist.

Let me give you an example that you have already heard. At the end of your junior year you heard that there are two ways to view the world, classically or romantically. In the classical view of the world there is a desire for explanations for all things in minute detail. That there is unfailing order and organization in the way things fit together that can be discovered and explained rationally. In the romantic view, order need not be found, because the nature of things was contained in the holistic experience of them. One view looked with hard eyes at the trees, the other, with soft eyes, at the forest. I don’t believe that dichotomy exists and there are many people in this class that prove it. The most hard core of you in terms of attention to detail and the ability to reduce things to their component parts have written beautiful essays about the intrinsic, unexplainable value of forests. And the most abstract of you have explained in detail how the components of a forest work together in a system. Clearly there is room in each of us for both the romantic and the classical. The dichotomy does not exist.

You may also have heard that you must choose between working hard and taking your job seriously and having a fun, carefree life. I don’t believe this dichotomy exists and you have proven to me every day that it doesn’t. I have seen many of you here between 6am and 6pm, working on unworkable computers to finish a project that was important to you. But invariably, you were here cheerfully and of your own free will. I’ve had some great laughs, shared some great stories and eaten some great baked goods in these out of school hours. Visitors to our school often wonder what makes our students tolerate our challenging curriculum. I tell them that you work hard because you love it here. Clearly, there is a middle ground between hard work and having fun.

Some people say that you have to make the choice between being an active, committed member of a community and being a healthy, unique individual. I don’t believe this dichotomy exists and you have proven to me every day that it doesn’t. Of course, each of you is here tonight with different skills, values and paths for the future. You have, in the past two years, carved a path for yourself that fits your individual talents and needs. At the same time you have consistently showed that you can be your own individual and still help others, still help the community as a whole find its way to be successful as well. If your talent was organization, you have given it, if it was art, you gave it, if it was making the computer work, you gave it. Each time you gave to the community, you earned something for yourself as well. It is possible to serve your self and a group at the same time and you’ve been proving it every day.

You’ll find that wherever you look people will try to limit your choices by telling you must either have one thing or the other. There are dozens of examples:
• You must either be dedicated to a career or dedicated to a family
• You must be a leader or be a follower
• You must either be a law-abiding citizen or a radical dissident
• That you must either use reason to solve the world’s problems or be a person of faith.

Hooey, hooey, hooey, hooey.

I see none of you are writing this down, so let me be clear about what I am not trying to say. I am not trying to say that dichotomies do not exist. After all, there will always be coniferous trees and deciduous trees. I’m not trying to say that you will not and should not lean toward one extreme or another. I am not trying to say that it will be easy to find the middle ground between ideas that appear to be opposite.

What I am trying to say is that to view the world as having two opposed ends closes you off from wonderful possibilities. It closes your eyes to solutions that encompass the best of both worlds. It makes the world seem like it is less complex and rich that it really is. I am saying that you are up to the task of finding the middle ground.

There is one last dichotomy that you have heard a thousand times, perhaps even from me. I’m sure you’ve heard that we must choose between having a healthy environment or having a strong economy. I’ll be honest with you, it’s a sticky wicket because it seems that the two ends are at such odds and I just don’t know if we can have both.

• But as I look out at you tonight I see so many of you that I know very well. I see so many of you whose characters I respect
• whose abilities I admire
• whose friendships I value.
I believe that if there is a middle ground to be found between the environment and our economy, it is you who will help to find it. This is not false hope or pride. I have seen what you can do.

I wish you all the best in your future. I believe in what you can do. Please keep in touch. Thank you and congratulations.