Acted Like Clowns

I watched some of the news coverage of the graduation at the University of Florida and I was quite disappointed. Click the story here.

As a former school board trustee, I have listened to many graduation speeches and attended my share of ceremonies to know graduations are solemn events. A time to reflect on the past, say your sad goodbyes, and ponder the road that lies ahead, full of opportunities and risk.

You’d think that serious and somber mood would overtake all who are awake and listening to the speeches, and those students would be moved by the gravity of the moment. Yet that is sometimes not the case, as we saw here.

Why is it that some of these graduates acted like children, better said, like clowns, when they walked across the stage? It would be like the groom at a wedding breaking into a stand-up comic routine in the middle of the ceremony. Self-centered and disrespectful.

I admit this is not a cornerstone piece of evidence, but I think evidence none the less that many of our youth are immature and lack the seriousness they’ll need to see and then meet the challenges that lie ahead. And the fault lies with us, the parents, us adults collectively, and our culture and what it is teaching our youth.

We have given our children too much and told them they are the center of the universe, when they are not. As a result, too many have been raised lacking rules, boundaries, consequences and a good dose of reality.

What worries me the most is, we mortgaged their future to pay for all we’ve given them. Gosh, it is such a bad combination – youth that lack the required fortitude, character and skill-set and a tsunami of challenges that are heading their way.

I think the behavior or the reaction of the adults to this graduation event was actually worse than the children. Why did the President of the university apologize for ushering-off these children from the stage? And the knee-jerk coverage of the media, to side with those who acted out. Gosh, who are the adults in the room?

Then to listen to some of these students who later talked to the media. How they were in the right to act out as they did. How it was racially based, they were victims, now seeking to hold the university accountable. Sad. Students of all races acted out, and they were escorted off the stage. It had to do with their behavior, not the color of their skin.

I would be embarrassed if either of my daughters did this. And then to go on network TV to justify it and worse yet seek victim status and retribution against the school when they were the ones who acted the fool.