I enjoy listening to college commencement addresses. A lot of them -- perhaps most of them -- are just a a string of cliches. But occasionally I come across a real gem. I had the pleasure of hearing Anna Quindlen at the Kenyon College graduation of 2008. She was wonderful This year she gave the commencement address at Grinnell College.(Transcript.) It is well worth a listen.
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J.K. Rowlings delivers the commencement address at Harvard University in 2008.
J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.
Read the text here.
Sir Ken Robinson gave this year's commencement address at the Rhode Island School of Design. While it is available on YouTube, the version on RISD's website (http://our.risd.edu/2009/06/02/sir-ken-robinson/) is much better. Robinson is a passionate critic of our education system for its failure to teach creative thinking.
Few of us probably remember what was said by the speakers at our graduations. I remember that two-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling spoke when I was graduated from Kalamazoo College. I don't remember what he said. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti spoke at my law school graduation. I don't remember what he said either, but I remember that he was dreadful.
Not so with these addresses from the past 73 years collected by Humanity.org. http://www.humanity.org/voices/commencements/
John Legend delivered a moving commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania this year. Well worth watching.
Part 1
Part 2
You can read the transcript here.
