Jonathan Turner Graduation
June, 2003
I’ve taught 8th-graders for 31 years. I know what excites an 8th-grader and what bores an 8th-grader. The sort of things that excite and 8th-grader I can’t do tonight but I’ll try to avoid what bores you. This’ll be short.. I have to go to the restroom…tried earlier but a couple of protestors from Turner were blocking the door.
I only want to give you one thing.. the secret to being cool in high school. .. then college… then when you get a job.. then at your funeral.. It’s all one secret. What does an old bald guy know about being cool? A lot. Remember, I’ve lived around you guys for 31 years.
Traveling across Italy. … Bus Driver: Guido. No English. Tour Guide: Helga..Austrian. Built like a Hummer… didn’t shave her legs.. wore hose.. her legs looked like a roadmap of Missouri. They didn’t get along.. she yelled at him all the way across the country. He just sat there and mumbled.
We were on a 12-hour trip from Rome to the Italian Alps… rough day. Guido drove slowly. Helga screamed at him to drive faster. Guido got mad and drove slower. We all had to pee. Then… car broken down.. an Italian family in a beat up Volvo. Overheated, burnt up the engine. Stranded. Guido slowed to a stop. Helga screamed. Guido got out, looked at the ruined engine and asked the family to get on the bus. As we drove twenty miles out of our way to take them to their home, Helga finally gave up, crossed her arms, took off her hose in the Italian heat and fumed. Took the family to their small farmhouse. They thanked us all in sign language. As we pulled away, Helga really let him have it. Then he stopped the bus and for the first time in two weeks, he raised his voice and yelled an Italian phrase, which I wrote down. Helga wouldn’t translate it but that night in our hotel I asked the clerk to do so. He said it was “How you treat the weak people… that is who you are.”
How you treat the weak..that is who you are.
My nephew Doug is a graduate of Jonathan Turner… clowning with his grandpa. Quincy camp for emotionally troubled kids.
How you treat the weak.. that is who you are.
I teach a class called Quest… a class to build self-confidence.. At the end of each school year.. last week.. I ask my 7th-graders the same question… “What upper classmen to you want to be like? Who are you heroes?” Then, after they answer that, I ask them why this person is so great. Not once in twenty years has anyone answered: ---Because they wear expensive clothes ---Because they listen to the best music ---Or even..because they’re good-looking. The number one answer.. some years the only answer.. is that “They were nice to me.”
Okay.. a quick test.. think of your favorite teacher at Turner and don’t say their name.. a teacher you had who was really cool. Now.. it’s because they have the fanciest clothes, right? Best car? Best hair? No.. it’s probably because…they were nice to you.
Triopia: grades 7-12 in the same building. When seventh-graders enter, they have to walk the halls with seniors in high school. Scary.
The seniors who become heroes are not the great athletes or even the kids who get the best grades… they are simply those who take the time to stop and be kind to the younger kids, the kids who are less fortunate, the kids who have certain problems.
JHS will be no different from Triopia. That will be the measure of “cool” when you are in high school. Right now, the ones of you who are admired the most are those who have been kind to the less fortunate kids at Turner.
The number one answer this year when I asked my 7th-graders: Dan West. Dan is a dark-haired, blue-eyed weirdo. He isn’t normal. Certain words make him laugh: Abercrombe, Old Navy. Dan buys all his clothes at Good Will and Salvation Army. He wears old bowling shirts to class. Last week when the seniors practiced for graduation, he wore ladies’ pajamas. Underneath his graduation gown last Friday night were the pants from a 1970’s polyester leisure suit… Mine! He raised his pants and showed me his socks: Tweetie Bird.
He’ll look at expensive outfit on somebody and say, “My gosh! That would buy twelve rounds of golf!” In other words, Dan doesn’t spend a nickel on looking cool. He spends his whole life being cool. If Dan West stops and talks to you, that is really something. Dan was nearly always late to my speech class because he was talking to Jr. High kids in the hallways. I never gave him a tardy because he was usually in the hallway with his arms around a little boy who’d been picked on or a Jr High girl who felt like she didn’t have any friends. Dan West is cool.
How you treat the weak… that is who you are.
Next year: The Big Time. Bigger School, bigger opportunities, bigger chances to be cool. In closing, let me tell you about my puppy (Puppy Story)
How you treat the weak… how you treat those who are being picked on.. how you treat those who have a rough home life.. how you treat those who are having a bad day… That’s who you are.
Want my advice? Be cool.
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