Like young people these days aren't scared and discouraged enough.

I suppose he meant well but . . . this was over the top.

that message to them, eh?

to feel discouraged before they even start their lives.

Optimists -- even "unrealistic" optimists -- tend to be more successful. Too much pessimism stops people from even trying.

Somehow, in the U.S., every kid thinks life will be easy, that he or she will be rich one day. It's precisely that attitude -- expecting an easy, comfortable life -- that causes some people to cheat or others to be terribly disappointed when they meet hurdles.

I tried to veer my children to do things they were good at on the one hand but also things that would be extremely difficult and challenging for them.

I wanted them to experience both success and failure while they were still young enough to practice humility and pride. It's that balance that makes for a person who is successful but also realistically modest. That's what makes you happy -- knowing that balance.

The more talented a child is, the more that child needs to know that there are many others just as talented and maybe far more talented at a lot of things.

It sounds as you have a good plan for being a parent as outlined in your 3rd paragraph. The world would be a better place if more folks believed like you did.

It's how you bounce back that matters.

Some children are overprotected. That means they don't learn resilience -- the key to success. Children have to learn to be flexible. If their expectations and hopes and dreams are not met, they have to be able to take stock and keep going forward.

If at first you don't succeed . . . .

Most important thing a child can learn. Try, try, try again -- and maybe revise your strategy and improve your technique.

And these kids have had the best of everything all their lives. They have never wanted for anything. It's because of where they live that the teacher gave that speech. These are very wealthy kids from the #2 school system in the country in a town that has the highest percentage (2/3rds) of adults having a degree higher then a bachelors degree. Their HS is like a college campus.

Just about all of us are good at some things and bad at others, and we all need to learn to stick to it and slog through.

It's very true that overprotected children or those who have never had challenges do worse than they should when they meet challenges.

in a sense I do think they need to hear this message. If these young people don't stand together and fight for better governance and a more just society, most of them will continue to see a deterioration in their quality of life.

As long as individuals believe that they are insulated by their own exceptionalism, they'll be complacent while they watch opportunities and rights erode around them.

grateful to have been reminded that what my parents thought of me might not necessarily be shared by others out in the real world. And that is why they told me not to expect it.

Some of my friends though, who grew up thinking they were special, had a more difficult time in the real world.

As the teacher said 'if everyone is special, no one is special'. You are special to those who love you, and that's about it. Unless you are gifted enough in some way to have an impact on society, which a majority of people are not.

with a 'special' child who you can't turn your back on because they will spit in your coke can because you want them to do their math. It happened to me. I agree with him. They are special to their families but beyond that? Meh. Meritocracies require merit.

It was the perfect speech to give them.

can we get back to educating.

who have been told perhaps once to often about how very, very special they are, this might not have been the absolute best venue to address this issue.

Julie

Why not delude the kids for a while longer so they at least have a fighting chance.

Regardless of the validity of the statement.

Julie

"so we must be very careful who we pretend to be."

And I agree, Hassin Bin Sober -- better to leave young people to their illusions than to grind their noses in the dirty asphalt of our own abused expectations. There are times when the only hope some people have are their dreams. Absent any immediate threat, who are we to dash those dreams against the rocks of our perceptions?

you have to earn merit to be meritorious. hey, call me old fashioned.

it has to do with the dreams and aspirations of young people.

Or don't they do that outside these shores?

a curse in this country.

their are a thousand unsuccessful people who believe their own bullshit, sitting on the couch, resentful at the world for not handing them a crown in a recognition of their inherent greatness.

I certainly know some folks in the second group...Hell, I'd put my younger self in that group, too

No one said that being unique and special and just being yourself means you are better than everyone else. This guy is one of those who doesn't get that.

I assume he was fired?

"The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you're not special. Because everyone is."

We're living in the sound-bite era. Distortion through oversimplification. Nuance is dead.

Righteous indignation has to rule the day!!

In my old age, I've come to that same conclusion--that EVERYBODY is special, in their own way. Not everyone can be Number One, but everyone has something to contribute.

"You are a piece of crap" speech to inspire people to do better. I mean, seriously. When people get told they are hunks of dog crap, that really motivates them to reach higher.

At least in the Army, after you are given the piece of crap speech, they build you back up. This one just knocks them down and leaves them to their own devices. At least this ass isn't a drill Sargent.

Jesus. Where do they find people like this bonehead?

"You've been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble wrapped ... feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie."

Forcing kids to labor for free is the opposite of being "pampered".

minimum wage. Way to not inspire.

How much you wanna bet this teacher is a right wing fundie?

fundies at the state level.

He teaches in a VERY wealthy town.

His speech as perfect for this town at this time.

They are the children of the 1%.

The speech was great.

The kids will be fine.

So I ask them what they produce.

They answer the same problems that yield no useful or interesting results year after year. They fill the same blanks and learn the same words that probably 90k other kids learned. At the end of it all, they don't remember much of what they were supposed to learn and can't use the skills they were supposed to have mastered to solve.

Their "work" is practice, the exercises needed for them to be able to do something useful--some of it may help in a job, some may help keep them from doing stupid things.

The orchestra and band students are still learning. They charge for concerts, but if they raised their prices to the standard rates they'd be expected to perform at professional standards. They can't. Most never will.

The CATE folk at my school do a knock-up job on some things. They'll grind rotors, replace mufflers, design all sorts of things and build them. The money goes to buy their supplies and new equipment. And they're carefully overseen and supervised because, well, they're still students.

For example, "They answer the same problems...."

My argument was about "compulsion" and lack of pay. Put the two together. It's not rocket science. In schools other people tell kids what they must produce (attendance, at a minimum, and the various other requirements, some of which you mentioned), and then you're backing that up with the valuelessness of the required work.

Something terrible happened on the institutional path to your scenario.

Where are those at?

Alex Jones where are YOU!!!

From bouvier (1856 Revised Sixth Edition of John Bouvier's law dictionary, emphasis added)

It was a great speech to give them before they leave the bubble of their very rich town and head out to the real world.

I would guess a common trait, within a high-income area, would be to inculcate in the children the value of work as a source of rewards, as it would seem to have worked so well for the parents.

Even if the students live in a wealthy neighborhood. Sounds like the guy is getting out his political resentments.

something special about fixing the world my generation and those who came before me left for you? Now that would be a message.

That is a better message. Doesn't have to be negative.

And it is not true that there are "nearly 7000 people just like you." There is no one just like you. Even identical twins are different people.

It isn't necessarily true even if "1 in a million" weren't just an expression, which it is.

I have a lot of problems with this man's logic.

So he ended his speech with "Everyone is special." Why not start there?

Just like everyone else.

even if they're made in the exact same factory on the same day there will be subtle differences in the manufacturing process.

It would be silly however to say everyone wears special shoes.

The word ought to have some meaning. If everyone is special then no one is.

Unique is probably more what you're aiming at. Everyone is unique.

Start by giving them something other than a mediocre, typical commencement speech, so that they sit up and take notice. Make them think about what 'special' can mean. Remind them of the size of the world. Challenge them a bit.

It's not as if they need confidence to sit through a commencement speech. This wasn't a pre-match talk. They weren't going to walk away in the middle of it if they didn't feel it chimed with what they'd like to hear, either. It's a great chance to give a well-constructed, thoughtful speech. And it does seem to have gone down well locally, doesn't it? It's just DU that seems to think it's a problem. Of course, DUers may have felt it didn't chime with what they'd like to hear, and given up with reading or listening to it (all). But that would be our short attention span problem, not the schoolkids'.

But the horror is that the kids already know. Instead of boosting their confidence, it has been destroyed. They have no faith in any compliment of any kind.

The thing about ordinary UNexceptional brains is that they are pretty good and reliably useful. But our kids are being taught that only exceptional brains are useful and worth having. I have met kids who automatically reject their own ideas. En masse. But most poignant was a young woman who wouldn't tell her opinion of a movie she'd seen and I hadn't because she "might get it wrong."

That's what our brilliant esteem-building strategies have done.

Children are naturally competitive. They need to be helped to win, not told they've won for doing nothing. They also, most desperately, need to learn how to cope with losing which is what happens most of the time.

and have seen a lot of wonderful people come and go. Very few young people I worked with were lazy, entitled, or unintelligent. Sometimes I think the hostility toward youth comes from guilt. The generations prior have betrayed us to consumerism, profiteering, and ego-trips of every kind.

Because her classes were kids trying to bring themselves up to college level, even though they were already enrolled.

The assignment was to compare Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories with pretty much anything written. Wide latitude.

Students swamped the SEEK tutoring lab in panic. "I can't think of anything!"

"You already did. When the teacher announced the assignment, something jumped into your brain and you rejected it. What was it?"

Damn near needed a rack and thumbscrews to get it out of them, so ashamed were they of their own thoughts. But I'm stubborn and each one finally spilled.

They took my breath away with those discarded wisps of ideas. Every single one was different and every single one was perfect. Not one "close but no cigar."

Each one understood Rushdie's book. Each one. And not one of them believed it.

hahaha.

Too many American kids DO think they're special and can do no wrong. They think that hard work is beneath them. They think that rules don't apply to them.

As a result, American kids have an inflated view of their own academic prowess and their place in the world.

Compare it with Asian cultures, where kids are constantly exhorted that they need to try harder. And guess what? They do.

As a parent with kids who were small at that time, I think part of what made the "self-esteem push" catch on was its manipulation power. "Oh, you're doing such a great job" serves to keep the kid moving in the desired direction, so it works well for teachers and others in charge of kids. The problem is that it doesn't just let the kids be themselves.

At some point -- and the end of high school, when the kids finish the task of becoming responsible for themselves, is kinda late -- the kids have to come out of this system that has manipulated them. There will be some amount of withdrawal from the sugary praise. But there must be at least some sense that now they are free to be who they are.

he was accusing them of being lazy. I would bet that their ACT and Sat scores are very high and that the students are pushed very

hard.

What I see is that they will grow up thinking that they are entitled to be the elite. I see that Obama and Clinton. They went to the

elite schools and became part of the ruling class by their hard work.

Can you give any statistics, any solid factual background to your statement that "too many American kids DO think they're special..."?

Can you please tell me how you KNOW that most American kids "think that hard work is beneath them"? Have you been to any of the factories, restaurants, landscaping jobs, etc. where young people are working, either to put themselves through college or because college is unavailable to them?

Have you spent time in a wide variety of higher ed institutions (not just one) to see the broad spectrum of students pushing themselves through school at the highest rate in history to try to better themselves? Do you know how many young people are taking unpaid internships or spending years of their lives in Americorps or other low-pay/volunteer organizations, scrambling to build the experience and the credentials to land a decent job?

Do you have anything to back it up besides what you see on the TV or read on the internet from crabby commentators with no actual experience of what they're talking about?

I wish someone had said that at my high school graduation.

we teach these 'little emperors' that they are what the whole world revolves around and we wonder why they cannot wipe their own asses by the time they get out of college...

sP

teacher my daughter had that gave her the best bit of advice before she graduated, was that nobody cared about them.

It was raw and it was honest. My daughter loved that teacher because she always told it like it was.

Nobody cares about one another, there is no empathy left in society.

This only shows society is rotten to the core.

But she went to the best Liberal college that circumstances allowed. She now knows what a conservative world has to offer, and what a Liberal community hopes to build.

Has been in high school exit and college entrance surveys for the last 30 years. Finally fell off the top 10 or 15 in the last year or so.

If you're special, then you deserve respect and appreciation. If you're special, then the next guy isn't special. If he's not special, he deserves less respect and appreciation.

In fact, I've heard that in the most recent surveys some of the respondents simply don't understand the questions. In previous surveys they'd understand what was being asked, and say that they knew that empathy or sympathy was considered a virtue. Now, not always. Empathy is partial and reserved for those like yourself or those you've been trained, from an early age, deserve it. You always deserve it.

There's another reason that graduating seniors, especially, need to be told that they're not nearly as special as they think. Why? Because if you don't treat them like they're special, at least some will assume you're being rude for not buying into their fantasy.

Humility goes a long way. When you have your hand out asking for an entry-level position that's not the time to focus on your specialness and act like you're honoring your interviewer and possible boss by your presence.

With so many people competing for a single position, you need to convince the boss that they can't go on without your talent. If a competitor gets you, they're screwed. You need to show that you are special, even for an entry level position.

Even if you're special, you're likely to get laid off if you're not golfing with the owner. If you're not special, your chances of employment go by the boards.

and his big point about helping others was really good. Looking at some of the kids behind him I could see them laughing or smiling.

I think his delivery could have been less blunt. I believe we are all special to those who love us, but to the world at large not so much.

was that the message was basically...

Don't base your happiness on being at the top of your class, the best at your job, etc... Figure out what you really want out of life and concentrate on that. For everything else, learn to be content to just be the best YOU can be.

And grounds being special in actions and achievements.

Too many of my kids have no idea there's a connection between effort and achievement, or actions and respect.

McCullough's address does push students to recognize real achievement: "The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life is an achievement," and he encourages graduates "to do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance."

a good speech.

...from Full Metal Jacket.

I won't post it here because it contains inflammatory language that would probably get Alerted.

of what Marine Corps boot camp was truly like, more so than any other movie that I have ever seen.

Dennis Hopper in True Romance is my favorite but this one is right up there...

Not the last. Maybe then, people will follow their true passions and make a real difference in the world. Many kids are over scheduled, starting at the age of 2. Parents attempt to "build their resume" even before they are out of diapers.

People need to realize that they're special because if who they truly are, not because of what they do.

First of all, I don't think that this generation has been particularly pampered. Most children today don't have a stay at home parent - they have single parents or two parents who are both working at least full-time jobs. The small communities that looked out for children in years past have disappeared for the most part, replaced by anonymous suburban tracts where there is isolation and loneliness. Yes, children are driven to sports practice and music lessons now - because hardly anybody lives within walking or biking distance of them now.

Second, how is it helpful to any child to be told something like this at graduation, when they are facing the bleakest economic times in generations, not to mention environmental disasters?

This whole meme reeks of right-wing hypocrisy and low information. I disapprove.

You have to hear the whole speech and realize who the audience is.

And hello my friend



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellesley,_Massachusetts

"According to Boston Magazine's yearly "Best Places To Live", Wellesley ranks first in the United States in percentage of adults who hold at least one college degree. Over 66% of the households have at least one individual holding an advanced degree beyond a Bachelor's Degree. In 2009, Wellesley ranked #2 in "America's Most Educated Small Towns" according to Forbes.com."

The darlings will be fine.

I'll take your word for the context, but I've been hearing this meme all over, mostly from right-wingers. I'm still uncomfortable with it.

And I totally get you about the right winger stuff, but in this case it was actually the opposite. I grew up a few towns away.

I don't like the tone it conveys. Why put a turd in the punchbowl on an otherwise nice occasion? Also, a strong sense of individualism (which carries with it a feeling of specialness, or uniqueness) is what got me through some very tough times, and it continues to serve me well into middle age.

are not "special" in the sense that they deserve the admiration of those around them and deserve to be given special treatment.

If that's the sense he meant, he was correct. None of us are "the most important person on the planet," except to ourselves. And each of us are exactly that to ourselves. Or should be. Rather than be a "princess" to our parents or be given things just because we exist, each of us must earn our own respect for ourselves. Self-respect cannot be given by others, and this is one area where we don't do so well with our children as a society.

Self-respect must be earned, and be based on genuine knowledge of what is required to respect oneself. Self-respect begins with the recognition that mere existence does not matter. Rather, it is the manner of that existence that matters. Self-respect is earned one lesson at a time, after effort is expended. Too often, now, children are praised without exerting any effort.

Unless we, as individuals, prove to ourselves that we are worthy our our own self-respect, we cannot truly respect others. Self-respect cannot be given; it can only be earned.

I had one, lone teacher who taught me that lesson. He was the band director. I had some musical talent, and learning to play my instrument wasn't too difficult. Recognizing that, the band director insisted that I do better than play that instrument pretty well. He withheld praise for my skills until I had pushed myself to play as well as I possibly could at that stage. He was a good judge of what was possible, rather than what was acceptable. That made all the difference. When I succeeded, I knew it, and respected my own progress, but only after exerting considerable effort and time. I learned much more from him than how to play a musical instrument. I learned how to be worthy of my own self-respect.

How about this ...prepare your kids for real life by telling them the truth. Life isn't fair. You are not special and you are going to have to compete and struggle to make it. Nothing is handed to you on a silver plate (except for the Rmoney types). Don't expect it to be easy. Work hard. By over protecting and lying to your kids you are not doing them any favor.

And as paraphrased from the course in miracles, specialness is the worst of the mental errors. It creates the "I am better than you, I deserve more than you" mentality which leads to the massive inequality we have today.

The whole self-esteem movement has destroyed our youth. No one loses at anything, everyone is special. It's bullshit and it's bad for us

"You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are not the car you drive. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis. We are the all singing all dancing crap of the world."

That's the message we should be teaching our kids, IMO.

My kids are special to me. That's what matters.

We should be teaching our kids that it's okay they're just like everyone else in the crowd. Of course, they have unique aspects of themselves that those who care for them appreciate.

In the real world, all this "you're special BS" does them no favors, IMO. They shouldn't strive to think themselves special...they should strive to be true to who they are. Maybe in this is where we can be better.

That's what I would teach my children.

that everyone can be special at something. Or at least above average. For anything you want to name, half of the kids graduating from high school this year will be below average, and when they get to college, it will be even harder to stand out. Some kids will above average or "special" in more areas than others, certainly, but no one is likely to be special at everything, or below average at everything.

The important message to send to kids is to find that thing you're good at and passionate about, and run with it.

Wellsley is one of if not the wealthiest town in Massachusetts.

He had a New Rules dealing with this.

May 5th 2006:

And finally, New Rule: If you want to live the American dream, move to
Europe. According to a new study, climbing up the economic ladder in this
country is much harder than in just about every other wealthy nation. If
you're born poor here, you pretty much stay that way. And fat-cat catering
Republicans get poor people to vote for them because they get them to vote
their dreams, not their self-interests. That's why lots of people of modest
means are all for getting rid of the estate tax, a tax which affects one
percent of us, the richest one percent of us. You know, the ones with
estates.

A category also familiar by the name, "Not you." You know, America has a
lottery mentality. We think we can party till we're 40, fail in business
after business, and then somehow wind up as president of the United States.

Okay, bad example. But our philosophy does come from the lottery. Hey, you
never know! Yes, I do. In America, if you're not born rich, you'll die
tryin', bitch. Because you're not going to win the lottery. You're not going
to inherit a fortune from a distant relative. Or marry a prince. Or get that
call from Hollywood saying they're making a movie out of your MySpace page.

Oh, yeah. According to a recent survey, 98% of college freshman agreed with
the statement, "I am sure that one day I will get where I want to be in
life." I'm sorry. You have yourself mixed up with the Asian kid.

You know, I have never understood how Americans can talk so much about
dreams, how great it is to have a dream, but make absolutely no judgments
about what the dream is! Does it matter that your kids all want to be
rockers and rappers and ballers and divas? Watch MTV for a day. You'll see.
Your kid's dream is to be on "Cribs," living in a 50-room mansion with a
shark tank and a Whitney Houston "crack nook." It's a dream about being able
to spend your life pigging out on ego and money and attention in the way
only this wonderful business of ours allows.

So, fine. But do we have to admire it? Do we have to treat that dream the
same as if it was a dream to teach, or join Doctors Without Borders? Do we
have to...do we have to honor our kids for wanting to go from rags...to
bitches? For wanting to live out an eternal weekend that never turns to
Monday, snorting caviar off their Bentleys and air-guitaring their way to
the cover of Us magazine? Sadly, yes. Or they'll refuse to teach you how to
clear the porn trail off your computer.

So I'm not saying, "Stop dreaming." I'm just saying, "Wake up." Because no
one is ever going to give you half-a-billion dollars for sitting around like
a lump. They can't. They've already given it to this "bastard."

he is from a very pro-education family. The following is an excerpt from the Boston Herald, June 7th, a columny by Margery Eagan "Finally, someone tells 'em like it is."

snip-

Well known at Wellesley for his ’06 graduation address, when he told seniors to “carpe the heck out of every diem,” McCullough — the son of renowned historian David McCullough — ended his talk with typical, upbeat advice to work hard, find your passion, help others selflessly, etc. But he also said, “The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life, is an achievement, not something that will fall into your lap because you’re a nice person or mommy ordered it from the caterer.

what I don't agree with in this speech is that it asks students to just accept that life is hard and they are going to have to kill themselves to get ahead instead of asking why is life still so hard despite all the amazing achievements we have made in technology, engineering, agriculture, etc.

The truth is is that if our society was even half-assed rational in its distribution of wealth, most people wouldn't have to work very hard at all to have a good life.

To me, I think at least some of the "laziness" of the younger generations is a recognition of that fact that working harder and harder, competing more and more has, over the course of the last fifty years, only gotten us less and less. There's a reason for this and it isn't that the kids aren't working hard enough. Nor is it the "feminisation" of men through the "self-esteem movement". Get a new meme right wingers. They've been saying this since the 70s. And really it's just cloaked capitalist cheerleading with a twist of mysogyny.

Telling kids "good job" when they do something right isn't the problem. It's hypocritically glorifying slaving away into an early grave while the 1% continues to skim off all the benefits of increased productivity.

These are the children of the one percent. You have to understand where this was said, who it was said to, and who the person was saying it.

that he was saying to find something you really like and actively pursue it and then to genuinely achieve rather than do something for the sake of accolades. I love this part: "[W]isdom is the chief element of happiness. .... I also hope you’ve learned enough to recognize how little you know… how little you know now… at the moment… for today is just the beginning. It’s where you go from here that matters. As you commence, then, and before you scatter to the winds, I urge you to do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance." He says to go to Paris to be in Paris, not just to cross it off a list to show that they're "wordly."

To me he was saying that whatever they've achieved up to that point probably isn't all that special (eg 37,000 high school graduations = 37,000 valedictorians).

After I read the entire speech, I didn't really take away that he was calling them all spoiled brats. Just that they shouldn't rest on their laurels so to speak but really begin pursuing what they like and what's important to them. That whatever they've "achieved" up to that point isn't all that special or extraordinary. In some ways, the speech isn't really not all that different than many high school commencement speeches. Just a few blunt statements thrown in that probably aren't the norm.

love this part. As parent of tweens and teens, I agree with much of what she said.

I try to tell my kids all the time that they have to work hard whether they're naturally talented at something or they have to struggle with something. I just told my daughter yesterday that they people who achieve are the ones who work hard, and that the people who are truly the "best" at something are the ones who combine a natural talent (of some degree) with lots of hard work.

I think technology makes it easier to spoil children and to ignore the development of important character traits. I just bought a kindle fire this week. It's the first tablet in our house, and if you listened to my children you'd think we were the last people in the USA to not have some kind of tablet.

On a much smaller note, the Ugg part really cracked me up. The girls here wear Nike shorts and Uggs. My daughter decided this year that she could wait until her feet stopped growing to ask for Uggs as a gift. She said she was fine with look-a-likes from Target. Such a proud parent moment.

"Special" could mean "unique," that everyone's experience in life will be different from one another, and that your personal character is likewise unique.

"Special" could also mean "self-important" or "self-entitled."

If it's the former definition of the word, McCullough is wrong. If it's the latter, he has a good point.

Funny thing is he is an English teacher, and I think he could have probably used some better words. I think his message was probably right, but I'm not sure about the language he used.

But in the words of the late, great Fred Rogers:

You are my friend
You are special
You are my friend
You're special to me.
You are the only one like you.
Like you, my friend, I like you.

In the daytime
In the nighttime
Any time that you feel's the right time
For a friendship with me, you see
F-R-I-E-N-D special
You are my friend
You're special to me.
There's only one in this wonderful world
You are special.


And in that sense, we are "special."

Sounds more like a rant he wanted to get off his chest rather than something he said intended to motivate them. Pretty selfish, if you think about it.

I love it.

That was one great lady

This moron, among others, simply does not get it.

I am all the more richer because of it...

But it's all coming apart at the seams, kids...

Learn something useful to your community, your neighbors...

Learn how to grow food, make things, build, teach, care for others.

Because the guys at the top don't give a shit about you unless you are useful to them. And that's not because "you're not special" it's because they are evil.

Good luck! Live well and spite the evil mother fuckers as their unsustainable empires collapse about them.

Don't buy into their game, for their game will eat you.

There's no point dying old and wealthy if your soul dies young.

Nevertheless it is probably a good time to tell young people the truth. Lest they think themselves so special that they don't know what's coming.

"30 years of schooling and the put you on the day shift... "

If only that were true Bob! These days its more like "30 years of schooling and they might actually look at your application before putting it in a pile with 200 others.