Kreutzer to Grads: We Need You

Superintendent of Schools Paul Kreutzer . Below is the full text of his speech.

Good evening and welcome to our families and special guests, including our exemplary teachers, support personnel, and administrators.

Welcome to our honorable trustees of the school board, past and present.  

And welcome, most notably, (and for only a short time longer) our students – the very reason we are all here. 

I say only a short time longer because when our ceremony this evening concludes, these fine young men and women behind me will no longer be students of John Jay High School of the Katonah Lewisboro Union Free School District.  They will in the eyes of all, be adults and from this day and forever forward be members of the “real world.”

Some here this evening will lament the passing of youth, and an abundance of tears will certainly bear witness to end of childhood. There are those who wish to hold them a bit longer, to extend and cherish this time.

I, for one, do not share these sentiments.  There is one reason and one reason only I’m quick to send them on their way…  Ladies and Gentlemen of the John Jay Graduation class of 2012, WE NEED YOU. 

That’s right. We need you in the real world.  Actually, let’s not sugarcoat this, we really need you.  Truth be told, the real world is in need of new ideas, enthusiasm, inspiration, confidence. We need your ingenuity, determination, and optimism.  The simple fact of the matter is the “real world” has see-sawed between its advancements and regressions, with perhaps regression weighing more heavily these days.  We need you to tip the balance squarely in favor of advancement. 

We need your songs and your art.  We need a download to uplift, a theatre seat to stand in line for… we need a voice that inspires and stirs our soul, not an idol or fallen superstar.

We need your contribution to medicine and healing.  We need you to not simply check the spread, but to find the cure.  We need the removal of the cause, not just relief of the pain.  Which of your hands will comfort one of us in our time of need?  We truly need you.

We need your competitive spirit. We need to see something special in sport that allows us to share in the victory and admire the accomplishment.  Records are made to be broken… but we need them shattered. 

We need to move from a starving world to a meal to hunger for.

We need you to design the dress, publish the Pulitzer piece, green the globe.

We need you to lead.  Present us with politics unusual, not the usual politics.  Provide us a path that leads our daughters to the presidency.

Above all, we need you to do these things, and more while being true to yourself and others.

We welcome you to adulthood, the “real world” and all that entails.  We have waited your entire life for you, to be here, now. 

Welcome…