Commencement Speech

Friends, I apologize for my blogging delinquency. I wrote prolifically as 2009 began, but then needed some time without the barrage of essays. Yet as I prepare to deliver a commencement speech, I am ready to blog again.

Graduates, I am honored to be here today and am thrilled to offer my heartfelt congratulations to you for your accomplishments. The Lord is smiling upon you today and as I was once told the Holy Spirit has an affinity for the learned mind. You worked diligently to this goal and you made many sacrifices along the way to academic success. But I have some disappointing news to give you today, for you see, your degree is not really yours alone. Oh it's true that you are among 17.2% in the United Sates and it's true that your degree may get you the promotion you are seeking, or perhaps the position that is available, or a higher salary, or maybe add credibility to your current employer. But in many ways your degree is not yours alone.

As we look around the room, we see families and friends that are here to share in your joy. These are the people who also made sacrifices along the way. Maybe there is a husband who cooked dinner when you didn't have time, or a son who did the laundry, or a daughter who had to do her homework by herself. What about the man who stopped to help you change a tire that blew out on the way to class? Or the person who sold you a hamburger in the drive through? And let's take it another step. Someone built the car that took you to class and someone wrote the textbook that provided you with knowledge about the subject and someone paved the road and another person put the computer together you used in writing a paper.

The contributions to your degree completion are endless and are filled with people who may not even know you but did help you in your goals. Your friends and family are a special part of the story but even they cannot claim exclusive rights to your success. Many people worked together, including your professors, fellow classmates, and yes even Howard Payne University to help you reach this day. So I encourage you to take a moment to say thank you to some of those who made a difference in your life and I further encourage you to seek out ways to help someone else in the same way.

But I also have further disappointing news for you today. That is that you may have lost something in your quest for your degree. There has been much concern that as we increase our knowledge base and as our understanding grows, our curiosity tends to lessen. It is the frightening thought that education may slowly, deliberately, and effectively destroy the eagerness that made us want to know more in the first place. Education tends to increase our paranoia, our suspicion, and our concern while reducing our joy, our love of life, and our zeal for knowledge.

My first teaching position was at a large state university where I was asked to teach music to college students many of which were adults seeking a degree. I recall lecture after lecture where I asked for questions at the end only to receive one or two. Most of the questions dealt with the next quiz date or the content of the test questions or how the final grade would be determined. Rarely if ever did a question refer to how to gain more knowledge of music.

Accepting this as a norm, several years later, after accepting a public school position teaching elementary music, I was taken aback when teaching a class of 5th grade students. At the end of a class period on how notes work on a music staff, I asked for questions. Every hand went into the air and the questions were multi-dimensioned about notes and their meaning. Not one question referenced the next test or how the grade would be determined. They were curious, they were eager, and they loved knowing new things.

Is the process of education a type of fruit of good and evil, causing those who partake to lose their joy of the world? Let's hope not. Jesus said, "to let the children come unto me, do not hinder them." He also said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3-4) This is an admonition to be humble as a child and to keep our child-like curiosity about life. To experience the joy that led us to wanting to know more in the first place.

Yes, you may be smarter, you may be full of great intellectual thoughts, you may have written some marvelous papers and imparted great truth to the world. But have you lost something along the way? Have you lost your eager curiosity about how the world works and what makes it a special place? Since you no longer need to worry about the upcoming test, it is probably time to take a moment to reflect on those magical qualities that make children love to learn.

I was busy one day accomplishing great dean-like things in my beautiful office that is full of books and knowledge. I had completed a meeting, answered 20 emails, studied a spreadsheet, taught a class on Beethoven and Mozart, and was preparing for another important meeting where I would get a chance to make decisions that could affect many people. In our building we host a program called Pre-college music. This program involves parents bringing their child to the building to sing, play, move around, and enjoy music. As they experience music, they also learn something about it.

So on this particular day, I headed out of the building to my important meeting at the same time a 5 year girl and her mother were leaving. I hurried past them to my car when I heard the little child say to her mother, "Can I smell the flowers?" I stopped and glanced back mostly in shock that there were flowers. I had never seen them before. The little girl crouched down and smelled the flowers and said, "Mom, they smell pretty."

Of course part of me wanted to correct her, for flowers cannot smell pretty. They can smell sweet but they cannot smell pretty. But instead I walked over to the girl and asked if I could smell the flowers also.

"Sure" she said.
"I don't know how"
"It's easy" she said in that high sweet voice.
"Can you show me?"
Taking my hand, she crouched down, "First you get low, then you put your face close to the flower, then you go like this..." And she sniffed.

I was a little concerned with the crouch since I wondered if I could get back up, but I followed her advice, sniffed the flower and said, "You know what?" She said, "What?" I said, "The flower smells pretty." She smiled and said, "See!"

I then proceeded to my meeting with my mind full of thoughts of pretty flowers and the joy of children. I realized that yes the Holy Spirit smiles upon the learned mind but the Holy Spirit has a bigger smile for children.

Take your knowledge and your degree and use them wisely, but also take a moment to smell the flowers. I promise you, they smell pretty!