What do we want our graduates to be?

I have taught high school for almost twenty-five years and am well aware of the hijinks students can initiate. Graduation, being a celebratory but also reverent occasion, is a time of terror for administrators. Parents fill the principal's office wondering why their precious child is not "walking the line." Vice-principals are running around monitoring senior behavior looking for any signs of the infamous, end of the year prank. Teachers patrol the graduation grounds like prison guards on the yard. The whole graduation experience is a complex production and for far too many families the highlight of their child's academic career. For most administrators the valedictorian speech is a harmless part of the event. Speeches are pre-approved and generally harmless, unless you go to Joshua HS in Texas or Liberty HS in South Carolina.

According to classmates, Remington Reimer is a quiet, smart, and Annapolis bound senior at Joshua High School. He delivered the traditional valedictorian speech recently but strayed from the pre-approved script and began discussing the role of God in his life and the importance of our Constitutional freedoms. Half way through the speech his mic was cut by administrators. By the way, the ceremony opened and closed with a prayer. He had been warned that if he diverted from the approved version his speech would e cut short.

Roy Costner IV graduated from Liberty High School in South Carolina a week ago. He actually tore up his pre-approved speech on stage and delivered a different one. He, like Reimer, discussed the importance of Christianity in his life and finished by reciting the Lord's Prayer. To their credit, Liberty officials did not interrupt and allowed Costner to finish. One faculty member or guest on stage actually smiled as Costner delivered his words. I hope it was one of his teachers, smiling not so much at what he said but that he had the intellectual courage to say it.

By all accounts, both young men delivered thoughtful, coherent speeches. While some might cringe at the references to religion, and schools do have the right to reject speeches that might promote conflict, are these institutions of learning stifling the very thing they should be teaching? Anyone who watched the video of Costner's speech or read Reimer's words should congratulate those schools for producing articulate, insightful students who can deliver compelling and persuasive remarks. Neither embarked upon some unrestrained rant like a hippie railing against the Vietnam War in the "free speech" arena of their protective university.

Schools are afraid of any sort of conflict. This is understandable in terms of violent conflict due to racism, discrimination, or institutional inequity, but intellectual conflict should be embraced, welcomed, and defended. Schools have to quit avoiding their responsibility to promote honest debate, to emphasize that ideas are important and words have meaning. Cutting the mic on a speaker advocating discrimination, sexism, racism, or anarchy is one thing. Stifling freedom of speech because someone talks about what has impacted their success, whether it's religion or science or sports or great teachers, is just cowardice.

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