Teacher gives a commensment speech

[fireheart17]

Hell, even my high school speech wasn't all about how "special" we are. It was more motivational if anything, but we knew that we wouldn't have a job handed to us.

And it definitely wasn't the same with my sister (last years graduate). Although her Year 10 "graduation" (DON'T ask) was full of that whole "I'm speshul" crap that pissed me off. -.-

[AdminAssistant]

When my sister graduated from college, John Grisham gave the commencement speech. He said that he would try to break the school's record for the shortest speech ever given (he did) and then told everyone to leave the state.

[Peppergirl]

Pretty impressive speech. At first I thought he was just going to rip on them the entire time which would have been grossly inappropriate. But then he turns into giving advice and it becomes an appropriate speech again.

I'm honestly kind of surprised that the guy wasn't booed off stage or that there wasn't some sort of walkout. A speech about how life will be hard would be fine but he was pretty disrespectful about it.

So, which is it?

[Rageaholic]

So, which is it?

I can't speak for greenday, but he can be both disrespectful while giving good advice.

The speech was still very disrespectful, but it also could have been a lot worse. There are people like Bill O'reilly and Charles Sykes (look up his 50 rules to see what I mean) who are nothing but nasty. They say the same stuff about how you're not special, but they don't give any encouragement to enjoy the finer things in life. It's all competition, competition, competition without offering anything positive.

So yes, he was disrespectful and I can completely understand why some people would be pissed at him, but he redeemed himself in the end.

[Peppergirl]

I can't speak for greenday, but he can be both disrespectful while giving good advice.

The speech was still very disrespectful, but it also could have been a lot worse. There are people like Bill O'reilly and Charles Sykes (look up his 50 rules to see what I mean) who are nothing but nasty. They say the same stuff about how you're not special, but they don't give any encouragement to enjoy the finer things in life. It's all competition, competition, competition without offering anything positive.

So yes, he was disrespectful and I can completely understand why some people would be pissed at him, but he redeemed himself in the end.

True - but the first post was very positive and the second one was all negative. There was also no 'after looking at this again....' type of comment, which is what you usually see in a case like you described.

I was just wondering what caused the extreme change and was confused by it. I'm sure GD will respond.

[Greenday]

Even in the first post, I pointed out how disrespectful the first half of the speech was. He has a point, but this was not the time to make it.

[Boozy]

There's nothing wrong with saying, "You know, some good points have been raised since I made my first post, so I'm seeing things differently now".

Personally, I don't expect people to remain stubbornly married to their original argument as a debate progresses.

[Greenday]

Personally, I don't expect people to remain stubbornly married to their original argument as a debate progresses.

Isn't this the whole point of a debate?