Congratulations, Graduates

Smile for a Saturday

The looming summer punctuates our calendars. It’s a time of long days and warm nights. We plan family trips to the beach, the mountains, and the local pool. The patter of baseball game play-by-play wafts from open windows. There are books to read and movies to see, gardens to tend, and grandchildren to hug. 

For some people, the dawning of summer also represents a rite of passage. This is the end of the school year. And for those who have finished their senior year of high school or college, those getting their graduate degrees, and even those leaving elementary school or middle school, this is a time of transition — a big step into the next adventures of life. 

As a father and grandfather, I know this time of year is also packed with emotion for the families of the graduates. We think about how fast time flies. We look back at old pictures and remember earlier milestones, even as we beam with pride at who they have become. 

For many colleges and universities, this commencement season marked the first time in years that people gathered for the rituals in person. All who are graduating now have had their education marked indelibly by a global pandemic. It will shape them in ways we cannot predict. 

This is also a time when the very idea of what education and schools should be is under strain. 

We are sickened by the gun violence that has placed multiple generations of children in harm’s way. We think of the latest horror — the young children in Uvalde who will never graduate high school, college, or even elementary school. We also reflect on how the threat of school shootings sows fear in classrooms across the nation, affecting even those who will thankfully not face them firsthand. 

At the same time, we are witnessing our classrooms converted to theaters for the cultural tug of wars that are tearing at the very fabric of our society. We have seen politicians inflict their own biases on issues like race and LGBTQ rights, dictating what teachers can teach. We see books being burned and animosity stoked. 

Yet despite all of this dysfunction, education remains one of our greatest hopes. Teachers heroically forge onward despite the challenges — inspiring young minds, percolating new ideas, and fostering energy for a better and more just nation. If you spend time around young people, you can’t help but feel that this country and the world have a real chance at solving their problems and becoming safer and more free. 

So for our Smile for a Saturday feature, we thought we could celebrate this time of year by sharing a commencement address. There are plenty to choose from online, and many of them are pretty good, if also pretty predictable. There is humor, usually at the expense of the institution and the parents. There are colorful allusions to student life. There are exhortations to face the future with curiosity and courage. There are hope and determination. Brevity isn’t always a feature, especially among the more famous speakers. 

But then we came across the one we are sharing here. It was delivered by Donovan Livingston, a 2016 graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It is not purely a feel-good speech. Mr. Livingston talks about the injustices of American education and the hurdles that particularly impede the more marginalized members of society on the path to academic participation and achievement. 

It may seem like an unusual Smile selection, and perhaps it is. But listening to Mr. Livingston's speech left us smiling. His passion for the importance of education is infectious. We can celebrate the progress American society has made, even while recognizing that it has been the result of tremendous struggle and sacrifice. Smiling doesn't mean forgetting the pain; it represents the realization that we must look squarely at what ails us in order to find the resolve to conquer it. To do so requires a commitment to education — open, free, expansive, and in service to all.