Posted on 07/06/2006 6:39:31 AM PDT by dukeman
The valedictorian of a Blue Ribbon-awarded high school in New Jersey has left teachers and administrators with a sour taste in their mouths after using his June 20 valedictory speech to describe his education as "hollow" and one filled with "countless hours wasted in those halls."
"I felt like the most important questions were not asked." said Kareem Elnahal, the top rated student at Mainland Regional High School in Linwood, N.J. "Things like ethics, things that defined who we are, were ignored so in that way I thought it was hollow." he told Cybercast News Service Wednesday.
Mainland High School was ranked 403rd among the nation's top 1,200 schools in Newsweek Magazine's "America's Best High Schools" report from August 2005.
But at the June 20 commencement, Elnahal told his audience that "the education we have received here is not only incomplete, it is entirely hollow."
"[It is] grade for the sake of a grade, work for the sake of work." Elnahal added, according to a transcript of the speech posted on the Press of Atlantic City website.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the spirit of intellectual thought is lost," Elnahal said. "I know how highly this community values learning, and I urge you all to re-evaluate what it means to be educated," he concluded before leaving the ceremony without collecting his diploma.
Elnahal told Cybercast News Service that teachers refused to discuss certain topics because they were too closely tied to religious views. In his valedictory speech, he argued that there is a connection between a person's faith and that person's power of reasoning.
"Is there a creator? And if so, should we look to it for guidance," Elnahal asked the audience gathered at the high school graduation ceremony. "These are often dismissed as questions of religion, but religion is not something opposed to rationality. It simply seeks to answer such questions through faith."
Elnahal said the reaction to his speech from fellow students was the most dramatic development on the night of June 20. "I think the story really is not me or what I said but what the reaction was. If you were there you would have seen the kids stand up and clap," he told Cybercast News Service.
"The reaction from the students to me has been overwhelmingly positive." he continued. "For some reason, I don't know if for the same reason, I think they were all disappointed in some way or unfulfilled and I think that's what the school should be thinking about."
Daniel Loggi, superintendent of the Atlantic County, N.J., School District, said he was not troubled with Elnahal sharing his thoughts, but disagreed with the manner in which he chose to do it.
"I don't have any problem with anybody speaking what they feel." Loggi told Cybercast News Service. "But there are certain parameters when you have a graduation or any kind of ceremony where you prepare for it. I don't believe the way he did it was appropriate."
Loggi added that the student did not give school administrators the chance to either approve or disapprove. "Who knows whether the Mainland administration would have approved it or not. Maybe they would have, but he didn't give them that opportunity."
He also defended the quality of education at Mainland Regional High School. "I know Mainland is one of our top high schools in this county." Loggi said. "They've been a Blue Ribbon school and received a lot of awards. The education [Elnahal] received there is permitting him to go on to Princeton."
Elnahal said he would have chosen another occasion to say what he thought, but that his graduation seemed to be the only one available. "Had there been another venue I would have used it, but there really wasn't," said Elnahal. "So I felt I had to do it there. I felt it was the right thing to do."
Had he not chosen to speak out, Elnahal said, the opportunity for change would have been lost. "I felt like nothing would change. I felt like it had to be said and if this was the only time I could say it, then I should."
"The incident drew letters to the editor, pro and con, for weeks."
But the NEA will quickly crush any thought of positive changes to the public school system.
This kid should go get some college degrees and then become a superintendent somewhere. We need more people like this involved in our system of education.
"Had there been another venue I would have used it, but there really wasn't," said Elnahal. "So I felt I had to do it there. I felt it was the right thing to do."
I guess this kid never heard of school board meetings.
I don't doubt that he felt every bit of what he said and I don't doubt that others agreed (although I'd guess that quite a few didn't), but a graduation speech just seems like the wrong place for this. He might have coasted through and felt like he wasted his time, but I guarantee there were other less naturally gifted students there who felt like they had worked their butts off and were proud of what they accomplished. And now this guy is telling them they accomplished nothing or almost nothing.
And what was he still doing there if it was such a waste of time?
Personally speaking, I get weary of hearing about education-related issues. I suppose that is mostly because my husband and I left the season of hammering out our beliefs years ago. We waste much energy trying to preserve tradition in the form of an ungodly, crumbling educational structure that would be better left for dead. I know this is a hard statement and if you do not agree with it, then before you turn a deaf ear, come, let us for a few moments reason together about the public school issue.
I has become increasingly clear to thousands of parents that public school system no longer makes sense even to much of the world, much less to morally and spiritually minded people who want a solid education for their families. It is like a burning building out of which we must certainly flee. The values taught are not in harmony with biblical values outlined for the Christian and even aside from the moral and social problems, education itself is not what we have been made to think it is. We have some very important elements backwards in the priority line-up. The idol of academics has replaced true education-that is training the heart and character of a child. The school lifestyle with all its social ills has replaced the family unit that is whole in its relationships, purpose and direction in life. In a nutshell, education has been made complex-such are the ways of man-to the point that few parents believe they have what it takes to rear their own children!
An excerpt from an article by Marilyn Howshall, paraphrased
There is no saving this mouldering, rotten system.
In case anyone didn't recognize this phenomenon, it's called "speaking truth to power".
And what had he accomplished?
They memorized a bunch of facts. This was the audience he was talking to, it's right that he addressed them. The school board isn't listening.
Our son "skipped" high school. Instead of spending 3 years in a high school, he spent three years at the community college (tuition free, thanks to our local school board program of dual credit) and came out with an AA and a high school diploma.
I don't think he really appreciates what he was spared. He can't appreciate it, in one respect, because he never had to expereince how bad a day wasted at high school could be. He came and went to the college campus and had a lot of freedom and time.
I told my husband, someday, he'll look back and figure out what a good opportunity it was to be able to skip high school and transfer into university as a junior instead of a freshman. But at this point, his attitude has been, "no big deal."
He might have coasted through and felt like he wasted his time, but I guarantee there were other less naturally gifted students there who felt like they had worked their butts off and were proud of what they accomplished.
&&
Worked their butts off? I seriously doubt it. When was the last time you were inside a high school?
This makes me wonder if Elnahal had been reading John Taylor Gatto. If not, he should. And I would recommend Gatto to you as well, if you really want to understand what was being said.
While I applaud the young man for asking questions I do not believe he will find answers to his questions on ethics and religion in a public school.
Hopefully, all he'll miss is 3 years of HS teachers trying to make him more ignorant.
It would be interesting to hear how he feels about what he's said 10, 20, and 30 years from now.
I agree with you.
"They memorized a bunch of facts..."
Due in some good measure to state standards of learning tests and Bush's NCLB. These standardized fact-memorizing money-wasting things were pushed on us by politicians and "experts" who loudly procliamed that they would make the school systems and teachers accountable. All I can see they've done is increase an already bloated school system bureaucracy (it takes people and many hours and a lot of cash to keep up with all the numbers and tests) and probably made it easier for bad teachers to stay. Instead of being creative or demanding that students think, all the mediocre teacher has to do is follow an outline that lists the facts they know will be in the tests. Testing companies and test tutors are happy, though.
One thing I think is probably universal: Since they dislike controversy so much, school administrators must wince when graduation season begins.
I agree with you. The wrong venue. Only jerks try to distract from what should be a happy day for hundreds.
No, he's probably smart enough to realize what a waste of time they are. Rare is a school board whose members even listen to the public comments section of the meeting.
I also don't approve of political speeches at graduation.
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