"You Are Not Special"

[paenggoy]

"'You are not special,' English teacher tells graduating Massachusetts students"

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...setts-students

[strandedstranger]

Our professors would tell us the same thing: that we should never feel entitled.

[gooseberry]

But a lot of people here do and it will break their putrid fantasies in life.

[hybridcomposite]

Dapat my like button na din sa Pex
Super Like lol

[paenggoy]

Try this one:

"My Graduation Speech" by Neil Postman

http://www.ditext.com/postman/mgs.html

[jielun]

im afraid my mother would have to disagree. hehe.

[victoryliner]

i not something special for you to disagree

[dashingdevonair]

Yan dapat sinasabi sa graduation ng UP.

[elbonito]

Yan dapat sinasabi sa graduation ng UP.

why? because only UP students feel entitled/special?
eh pano yung mga tiga La Salle, UST and Ateneo? hindi ba sila feeling special?
KAMING(does not include you) mga UP students/alum feel inferior nga because we don't have the looks or the riches of many of the students from La Salle and Ateneo.
na-special mention mo pa ang alma mater mo KUNO. way to go alum.

and fyi, hindi naman kami feeling special, hindi rin feeling matalino kasi matalino naman talaga kami. that's true. hindi namin sinabi, not once, na kami lang ang matalino or kami ang pinakamatatalino sa mundo.
what is flawed in this speech is the assumption that of the 7 billion on earth only one can be special.
that is the purpose of dividing it into continents, and then into countries, provinces, and counties so that in every division, merong pool of the best. there can never be a single best. the entire educated world knows that. ang t a n g a lang ng speech na to.

UP students know that there are people who are smarter, heck better than them.
hindi naman self-delusional ang mga taga UP to think na sila lang ang pinakamagaling.
of course may mas magaling pa sa kanila. we know that.

masakit lang talaga para sa outsiders kasi unrefutably matalino/educated/well-spoken/logical ang vast majority of the UP student body.

you know, for a UP alum, you seem to have a lot of negative feelings towards UP.

[dashingdevonair]

Haha trust me I don't have negative feelings. I'm just concerned.

I actually concede that most UP students are smart but I noticed that professors are instilling a "UP and others" mentality into their students. I just find it a matter of concern because a lot of people perceive UP graduates as mayabang. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who have noticed it. Haha Miriam Santiago once delivered a lecture and she said "UP students are the most prone to self-delusion".

I think what the speaker is just trying to say is that everyone should remain humble. He probably took it overboard.

[dashingdevonair]

Funny thing is because of our college's recent performance, professors have started to say the same thing to their students ) I think it's good because without any sense of entitlement, students are much more motivated to work hard and establish achievements of their own from scratch.

Just my two cents.

[judge_ojo]

I agree with dashingdevonair but I would not say anything further lest I would be bashed again by the likes of hacksaw and huntfan...

[gooseberry]

ojo: self-entitled delusional morons will forever be self-entitled delusional morons.

let it be and move on.

[Lady Chablis]

It’s a timely address to a batch of high school graduates and parents in the midst of America’s “you are special” cultural ethos of telling every child that he is special. Growing up feeling special may give them a grandiosity-tinged sense of superiority but in the real word of cooperation and competition it just leads to disappointment and frustration. The commencement speaker takes aim at this cultural ethos and reveals an obvious truth when he says: “You see, if everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, then trophies become meaningless…” Then he drives his point with the closing words: “Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion – and those who will follow them. And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that 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.”

It’s a great counter-cultural speech! An A+

[Carl Malone]

thank you miLady for emphasizing the message of the speech. Imagine what this world would be like if we thought and treated everyone as special.

[paenggoy]

Check this out, and this time from students complaining about the speaker:

"Students Protest Exxon Chair's Commencement Speech, Invite Peak Oil Expert Instead"

http://www.pinoyexchange.com/forums/...d.php?t=513006

The students won. Richard Heinberg's speech is linked in the article.