123. ERICA GOLDSON: Graduation speech
This is part of the speech Erica Goldson, the 2010 Valedictorian of Coxsackie-Athens High School, gave at her graduation ceremony.
The speech was uploaded on YouTube, went viral and Erica became known as the ‘Valedictorian who spoke out against schooling’. You can watch the entire speech and read the transcript here.
Erica’s speech really struck a nerve with me because I was totally like her when I was in school. I always did what I was told, didn’t ask too many questions, mindlessly memorised then regurgitated facts and figures. I remember I would write out an entire essay for homework, memorise the whole thing, then write it down verbatim on test day … and then promptly forget it and move on to the next assignment. I graduated near the top of my class, but on hindsight, I’m not sure I learnt much. The pattern continued as I went on to university, even though I never really wanted to be a graphic designer. But the piece of paper I received at the end did help me land a job, so it was all worth it in the end right? Maybe if I had heard this speech back in high school, I would have realised I was stuck in the system and gone down a different path.
One positive thing I do remember about school is that I doodled on EVERYTHING – my textbooks, files, folders, desk, arms, legs,
pencil case and all of my friend’s stuff as well (mainly pictures of Batman, sometimes Wolverine, the occasional Ninja Turtle). If only I spent MORE time doodling and less time being a robot.
Related comics: 11 Ways to be Average. The Road Not Taken.
– Thanks to Jesse for submitting this.
– Check out this in-depth article about myself and the growth of Zen Pencils by viral media expert Jonathan Goodman. It’s especially relevant if you’re interested in starting your own website, blog or webcomic.
Discussion (174) ¬
Great comic as always, Gav! Quote reminds me quite a bit about Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk, about school and creativity. I’ve been feeling like this for a couple of years now but I don’t know any alternatives. I know a lot of people at my school are feeling like this, too. We’re waist-deep in the predetermined path so we can’t see anything else.
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Goosebumps!
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Fav, you sound like the perfect Singaporean. Lol. But look at you now. You broke the mould and so what you want. That’s all that matters. You know I am so proud of both Jess and you for dropping everything. Not many can so that. 😉 missing you guys heaps. Hugs.
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Gav not Fav. Duh. Lol.
I really hate autocorrect. It’s mincing my words!!! Do not So! Aiyayaya. ????
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Great work yet again! I guess many of us can relate – I myself (and many classmates) was a bit lost when I got out of university and had to find a new ‘goal’, rather than being the best student I could be. That is the challenge..! 🙂
When we talk about travelling then there are many modes of transportation available for us like water transport, road transport, air transport and many more. However the cost of transportation varies depending upon the type you select. Travelers choose the type of transportation depending upon their urgency of travelling and financial positions. When compared to all air transportation isthe fastest mode of travelling and the cost of air ticket is also expensive compared to other types of transportation.
Kudos Gav! best interpretation ever! …. you always surprise me with your comic and you choice of quote..
Air travel become very common all over the world and is one of the luxurious types of transportationwhich most of the people prefers to choose. We get to find there are many incidents took place like air crashes and all but still the demand for this type of travelling never changed. Especially in United States the demand for air travelling is on top level. Here in air travel the safety measures are high compared to road or ea transport which is why the incidents that happens with air travels are veryless when compared to road or ea traveler.
For years I thought myself a loser because I’d rather read for pleasure instead of studying.
I didn’t have scholarship money for college and so I stopped and started before graduating from UCLA nearly 20 years after high school.
However, I’ve lived a lot of life and now I share my stories with my students, encouraging them to read for pleasure, sit under the trees and sketch, stretch out on my library floor and lose themselves in picture books.
Nice to know that maybe I’m not a lose, after all.
I agree with you LEE; I take my time at a community college I attend to to enjoy the library and it’s books even if they relate nothing to my classes and walk about the nature walking spots.
Thank you Gav! I hadn’t heard about this, but I followed your link and listened to the whole speech. Love it. Great comic!
All of us are born “knowing” certain things and have to learn other things. Everything you went through, every frustration, every “aha” made you who you are today. You know not only what you want but what you don’t want in life–and why.
So see, you did learn something from school 😉
I’ve think about your point too. The thing is, we all have learned many things from school, at the end, in certain ways school system works, but the key here is to understand that the wrong part of the system is not the education itself, but the marketing arround education, the promesses that are made for those who give their life to their studies.
So i think the most important thing here is not to discredit the educational system, but to say, hey!! buddies!!! we are humans, school is only a part of our lives, we have a lot to learn that is not teached in the school, a lot to live that will not be lived but outside the classroom, hey!!! you can be succesful and happy without being a robot, but finding for what you are called for, and following that, and working hard for that!
I agree with what is said on the poster/image and on your comment zen pencils. Towards close to the end of high school, I was hit by a realization that came during a time I was feeling down and might as well say depressed. I realized that I was more confused than ever about my future and purpose of all the perfect attendance, honer student achievements, and so on. I left doodling and interest in Latin or any mythology for the sake to excel among my peers, to find my self completely lost and having no clue what I had accomplished in high school and if that meant anything to me really. Great, I am great work here and thank you Erica Goldson.
I am the good slave. Very scary. Hope I can break through like I’ve been wanting to do for so long. The thought of my own kids becoming good slaves is terrifying. The greatest thing I could ever do for my own kids would be to throw off my own yoke.
I’ve been a LONG time lurker of this website… I’ve read every single comic at least twice. This struck a nerve unlike all the other comics. This comic is EXACTLY me. I graduated salutatorian in 2009 and I’m slowly learning that just being smart doesn’t cut it. Thanks for all your inspiring comics. They have inspired me to start my own business and follow my true passion of becoming a doctor.
This is like the short version of the manifesto by Seth Goden: “Stop Stealing Dreams.” For more information on why the school system is how it is, and what needs to change, check out the manifesto http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/docs/stopstealingdreamsscreen.pdf
Thanks for this. I’m in the middle of it.
Man, that was powerful. The speech, the context and the drawings. Now I’ve GOT to see the speech on the video.
Hi there! Can you kindly expain to me how working to get into a college where I can actively work to cure cancer as an undergrad makes me a robot? I and a lot of my friends who busted their asses for eight years in the public school system would really like to hear more about how we’re foolish robots. I hope you can speak loudly. It’s a little hard to hear over the sound of my compsci, engineering, and cell bio friends creating nanoflesh.
No one who’s actually read the quote should feel attacked by it, unless they feel it applies to them (if the shoe fits, wear it, and all that).
You appear to have goals in life; you know where you’re going, and what you’re doing. Congratulations to that; it’s more than I’ve achieved so far, that’s for sure. If you don’t feel like you’re a robot, this quote is not addressed to you, so why get worked up about it? Why would you think this applied to you in any way?
But there are a lot of people out there, people who are excellent at playing the system yet have no clue what to do with their lives. I’m one of these people, except I’m lucky in that I don’t need to take a job I’d hate just for money’s sake (let’s just say I’m not a million (!) miles removed from the protagonist of the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”). “Do what you love” is easier said than done when what you love is something society sneers at and won’t pay you for, or when it’s something your social group, your family and friends, wouldn’t accept you doing for a living. These are the people who should take inspiration from this quote – not the ones who work hard knowing what they want to achieve, but the ones doing what they feel is expected of them, but which gives them no joy.
I’d agree with you, but that’s not what I’m getting out of this. It’s not just a quote.
The visuals imply that this person is a robot, and that they will remain a robot. It implies that if you don’t immediately find your passion in high school, and instead hold off picking and instead just work towards a better institution where you can have more choices , you’re ruined for life.
No. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing what you love and working hard to get to a good school anyways. This illustrations show’s a line of robots passing through university immediately into work, like you don’t make choices in college and your life can’t change after that.
By making the speaker both a robot and a valedictorian, it implies a link between academic success and a lack of humanity. The language used implies that academic skills are useless int he real world, when they’re far from it. I need to take and MCAT to be a doctor, a Bar exam to be a lawyer. I need to know how to write in an academic setting so I can publish my research, spread my ideas, and enter the theater of professional discourse.
It implies that the only way to find happiness is through the arts. Like the worlds you access by excelling in high school and getting to a good university only matter if you’ve already found your passion. Like your passion should be simple and mundane enough that you can access in a culture made up of pop culture, what you happen to find on the net, and the twenty like radius around your high school.
It’s a fuzzy, ambiguous, and poorly constructed message that is frankly offensive.
You know what they say–you only get defensive if you feel the other person has a valid point. Maybe you need to take a good hard look at your life.
Oh, I beg to differ. Liz Anne isn’t getting defensive, but simply opposing the point and presenting an alternative view (with which I agree). I did get the same feeling from the quote – that only the arts allow you to live your life to the fullest or to realize your dreams, and I did get a little offended by that as well.
Saying “you only get defensive if you feel the other person has a valid point” denies the very point of a discussion as well, because it means “if you argue, I must be right”.
Hakuin, though making such an accusation is an easy and effective way to get out of an argument, I must say it has no logical basis… 😛
I can say anything offensive (imagine all censored swearwords) to person “x” and claim that he’s getting angry simply because “it hurts because it is true”… 🙂
Heya Liz! Good to hear you’re working to cure cancer, and no, you’re not a robot! 🙂 I’m a compsci engineer and I’ve worked already for three of the top companies in the world in my field. Do I think this comic applies to me? Nope. Is it true in general, and does it apply for a lot of people? Well, I’ve seen quite a few examples around me that I’d probably have to go with yes! So let’s not assume that the comic talks about EVERYONE who got a degree… 🙂
The talk was by one valedictorian about herself. Gav felt it applied to him as well, and maybe a few others around him and drew it. If you think he meant it applied to EVERY single person in the world, maybe that’s stretching things a bit and reading too much into this comic.
And maybe this was intentional or unintentional on Gav’s part, but the reason Gav mentioned only non-academic stuff seems pretty logical to me. If your interests were academic, you are already in the right place, and hence probably not a robot! I can’t understand the leap of logic that takes offense and says “hey, artists aren’t the only happy ones/cool ones/whatever ones”. This strip was about people who just went along with the system like robots, despite a lack of interest. Again, let’s not try to apply it to yourself or your friends.
Also, there is no implication that they will remain robots forever; maybe it’s just till they find their interest instead of going along blindly with the system. As for linking it with the valedictorian, please remember – this quote was by a valedictorian and Gavin has just represented her. And as for academic skills, did you notice you’ve mentioned only academic settings for the future? Again, this comic is not for people who are in the system by choice.
If you and your friends haven’t been like the “robot(s)” in this comic, that’s great! Honestly, good for you and them, and I’m happy that you found your calling; but you’re probably in the minority, based on what I’ve seen so far. Rejoice about that, and please don’t look for offense where there is none intended… 🙂
P.S.: I have plenty enough compsci, engineering, molecular bio, architect and other friends too, who don’t like what they’re doing. And I also have a few who love what they do. From what I’ve seen, scores in school/college seem to have no correlation with whether people enjoy what they’re doing or not. However, the quality of their work today varies directly with their interest.
P.P.S.: If you’re an undergraduate now, please wait till you graduate and start work; nobody complains in their freshman year about how they’re there against their choice. Even while graduating, very few do. Reason? Nobody wants to admit they didn’t have the courage to stand up and do what they wanted to. It’s only later in life that people get the maturity and wisdom to admit their mistakes. You’ll be surprised by how many “robots” there were in the system; some might even be friends that you were convinced weren’t robots.
P.P.P.S.: And if you contend that “it didn’t kill them”, imagine being forced into a school where all you were taught was how to draw and paint and sing and dance, when all you wanted to do was just sit in a corner and dissect that frog or mess with a computer for the rest of your life… 🙂
Let’s not be too harsh on people with other interests simply because the system happens to work for us, eh? 😉
“Let’s not be too harsh on people with other interests simply because the system happens to work for us, eh?”
Well said, Thayu.
No, that’s not how I read this comic at all.
What this quote condemns is achieving academic success purely for the sake of doing so: “excelling at every subject just for the purpose of excelling” without reflecting or really learning anything.
This quote doesn’t apply to you because you clearly have a higher goal that you’re passionate about and that you want to work towards. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, whether your goal requires academic success or not.
This quote is about the people who live from exam to exam without knowing why they’re doing that. People who don’t take the time to try things, find their passion and figure out what they want to do after their exams are over.
Wow. You’re reading a lot of things into this, hardly any of which is supported by the actual art. If you insist on taking things this literally, perhaps this just isn’t the site for you.
As a connoisseur of art and it’s interpretations, the robot isn’t the focus. The robot is an illustrative tool to show how the system can destroy a person. Key word is “can”. I know it shows in the comic the robot/person doing chemistry as part of “being the best slave” but I’d argue that actively pursuing a scientific career is probably one of the best ways to still succeed in this system.
Let me elaborate about this a bit more. Most people look at the education system as the assembly line pictured above – school into college into work. That’s what students are told for the most part – you need to go to school and get good grades so that you’re better at college so you get good grades there so that you get a good job. But that doesn’t tell you anything about how to live your life.
You said you’re researching cancer treatment? Bravo, truly. You not only have a clear goal in mind, but it is also a noble one and one you are actively working to achieve. But alas, not all of us can be biologists, or even noble scientists. So many people, valedictorians and regular schmoes are going to school just to get that fancy piece of paper to wave in employers faces in order to make more monies.
But that doesn’t make people happy, or give them good lives, or guarantee them a job, even. It doesn’t matter if you’re skilled enough to do whatever you want if you don’t know what you want. Talent without drive, motivation, or passion is talent either wasted or for sale to the highest bidder. That, in essence, is where the “slave” part comes from. We may not have chains on our wrists and ankles – they are instead down our throats and into our stomachs.
I love science. If I had had the desire, I could have easily been a biochemist or an astronomer or astrophysicist or microbiologist…except I didn’t know what I would do with that. Throughout High School as I was bombarded with “look at colleges now” and whatnot, I was incredibly frustrated that I had to make choices that would dictate the flavor of the rest of my life when I didn’t even have a clue of what I wanted it to be. I was terrified of choosing one path for fear I’d end up really hating it, but have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars and several years of my life in order to do so.
The issue the comic and the speech take issue with is not people who are successful in it, because if you know what you want then the system works fine – it’s that the system does not give you much room to learn what you want in the midst of trying to succeed in it. Ever a fan of metaphors, it is much like trying to catch a fish while white water rafting.
But again, I cannot compliment you enough for your path. I say again it is a noble path and one that should not be denigrated. But science in its various fields is one of the few pieces available in the scholarly system that can have both the words “passion” and “success” tied to it. You are fortunate beyond words, simply for knowing what you love to do and doing it.
Yet still the system curns out more robots for the cubicles and phone lines.
Possibly the best companion quote to my monolouge:
In Pre-school they put you behind a desk and tell you not to break anything, that School will be much harder.
In School they tell you that College will be much harder.
In College they tell you that Work will be much harder.
In Work they put you behind a desk and tell you not to break anything.
You’re a fool, Liz Anne.
There are two elements at play in this piece: the quote, and the art (the visual interpretation of said quote). The quote comes from the mouth of someone who plainly states “I have no idea what I want to do with my life”. And it speaks from that frame of mind when reflecting on all the efforts made to excel at school work. The speaker questions whether her efforts might have been better spent exploring what her passions might be instead of pursuing good grades for the sake of good grades.
This, in your self-aggrandizing tirade, does not sound to be your situation and thus, the message of this comic does not apply to you. It would seem that bio-engineering (or similar) is your life’s passion and you knew that excellence in scholastic was a required stepping stone. Congratulations.
Your bitterness belies your insecurity, however. And as a betting man, I’d wager that while you probably did do well in school, you likely have a job where “Grande mocha frap with skim” is heard far too often.
Alright let’s just take a deep breath.
Liz Anne, you worked your butt off academically and are now working for a hugely important cause. That’s fantastic, people like you make this world better. This comic clearly doesn’t apply to you.
The quote states “I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning.” You had a clue what you wanted to do and you pursued it and are now creating nanoflesh (which sounds freakin awesome btw, how does that work?).
Yes the robot is using a beaker and test tube in one panel but it’s also reading a book in that same panel and reading more books in a later panel. They could be poetry or literature books …
The way we decipher these comics are highly subjective, I don’t expect everyone to agree with the way I interpret quotes. For instance, last week’s Game of Thrones comic angered a lot of people … It’s one of my fave adaptations and I’m really proud of it.
Loveeee the robot…. been there on that situation also… ^_^
and i think that`s what makes us keep moving on with this life. To find out what the things that we love to do the most an doing it the best of it…
So keep looking and when you already find it
just do the best with all of your heart…
It is, in retrospect, foolish robot thinking to believe that what one learns in college necessarily defines what one will do in the future. One should regard graduating as proof that you are able to commit yourself to an endeavour, nothing more.
Unfortunately, that is precisely how the conveyor belts of human resource management see it: your employment prospects are judged by your historical resume, not by your future aspirations. Indeed, a while ago, I took it as the basis of a set of behavioral anti-patterns I dubbed the ‘Glass Wall’ http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?GlassWall
It is a rare person who will continue working in the field in which they graduated.
To riff from another famous graduation speech: the most important thing to learn is how to make ‘good art’; whether you define ‘art’ as nanoflesh or abstract doodlings
” To riff from another famous graduation speech: the most important thing to learn is how to make ‘good art’; whether you define ‘art’ as nanoflesh or abstract doodlings ”
Exactly.Art comes in many forms and only you can make definition of the word.
Marvellous…truly makes me wonder why we still have schooling in the structured manner…why are top rankers still considered intelligent students…i was an above average student myself and can relate to this very much, since currently i am in the last factory…work….are we all slaves for life? or do we choose to be?
The thing to remember about the modern schooling system is that it arose out of the industrial age. The model that was followed for schools, therefore, was that of the factory. The kids are, for the most part, products to be adjusted and refined.
The strange/surprising thing is that for a majority of people, this system actually works. Most of us go through it and become productive members of society–some more than others, obviously, and everyone’s definition of the word “productive” may vary.
The sad thing is that for a certain number of people, the system doesn’t work. In a factory, a widget that doesn’t fit the standard is defective and is tossed aside. You shouldn’t do that with a human being–but that is precisely what we do with many students who “fail”. Actually, the system fails them, not the other way around.
There are other failures as well, and Ms. Goldson’s speech alludes to it. Schools often tend to focus on short term goals while neglecting the bigger picture. While personal economic viability is one goal of education, it’s often the only one we focus on, to the neglect of several others of equal importance. Are we teaching students to get jobs (something you do just to earn a paycheck) or a career (something you do to advance yourself and achieve some measure of self-actualization)? Are we teaching students to behave and do as they’re told, or are we teaching them to be engaged, thoughtful, active citizens? Are we teaching them to be entirely self-centered or to consider the community, the nation(s), the species, the planet?
Those aren’t meant to be easy questions to answer or easy goals to achieve. The debate is, however, worthwhile. I fully respect Liz Anne’s perspective above, but I would submit that Ms. Goldson’s speech was more of a cry for help than a polemic. Here was someone who was supposedly a successful product of the education system, yet it had failed her as sure as it has failed many dropouts, leaving her feeling directionless and afraid. The fact that her words struck a chord with many people should lead us to keep asking, and never stop asking, the simple yet imperative question: How can we make our schools better?
Super speech.. Great comic.. This is so well done that it has scared me too!
Amazing!
I dont agree at all with the quote. If yoy study what you really want you will feel happy with it. Otherwise are people who only study in order to get a huge amount of money later although I respect it because everybody does with his life whatever he wants. I also think that while studying university there are a lot of other things you can do at the same time. If you really doing those other things, you’ll find time for them. I think that the point is as Steve Jobs said, not getting stuck. Get a degree, work wherever you want (or can) but keep time for yourself and what you like doing because there can be more than only one thing you love.
Great one Gav. I am taking Career Planning class in my college and this is exactly what I am learning – to follow my Passion, not the Grades! I’ll share your cartoon with our instructor, she’ll appreciate it!
She should have delivered this speech when I graduated from high school. But that was almost ten years ago. 😀
You’ve done it again Gav! I have to say the quotes and comics are getting better every week.
This only makes it clear that an extreme (in any direction) is not a good thing.Life is about walking in the middle and taking in life around you.
As Coehlo said in the Alchemist ,when he wise man gave the young man a task to carry a 2 drops of oil in the spoonl trough a beautiful garden.On the first pass he came back with the spoon as it was,than the man asked him what did he see in the garden.He saw nothing because he was busy looking after the oil.He sent him back again and this time he came back and said he saw all theese beautifull things but the spoon was empty!Than the man said that the secret to happiness is to see and absorb all the beauty of the world but never forgetting about the 2 drops of oil in the spoon.
This makes so much sense! 😀 (NIHO’s comment)
I think she is not the first who had this kind of thought. She’s just simply speech it out.
Ah, but she was one person who was brave enough to say so to all her peers, to the principal and all the teachers that are part of the “system”. She even addresses the teachers directly, challenging them not to encourage robotic thinking and questioning their job satisfaction in the system. And that, is more important than simply thinking but not acting on it.
I swear, can you read my mind or something?! Everytime I’m going through something, ZenPencils updates with a comic that REALLY HELPS ME. Thank you for this encouraging and inspiring and utterly righteous addition. Posting this to my teachers’ Facebook walls right now. 😉 (kidding)
SABINE hope they learn from it
Erica Goldson must have been vexed but not that she is against schooling, she had a passion but couldn’t pursue it because she was been shaped into a cycle of labour without freedom.
Sometimes I wonder If the quote “Education makes a man easy to lead and difficult to enslave is not an irony”. Hope we can all follow our passion from the education we had not the other way around. Good one Gav! another motivating classic.
That’s the point; we don’t have education anymore (if we ever really did). It’s been subsumed into a training-and-indoctrination industry. To see what the US is going to be like in a few years, visit Singapore, and try *hard* to get out of the tourist bubble. You’re likely to hear a fair number of people talk about the “Ministry of Indoctrination and Regurgitation” — and there are many people working in Ministry of Education schools who try hard to make it more than that. They lose, of course; they’re up against a family-owned business that’s had half a century to perfect the “art” of reducing individuals to fully-interchangeable parts of negligible individual value within the machine purpose-built to enrich and empower The Minister and His Cronies. The local word for that process is “meritocracy”.
Good comic. But, come on, a high school graduate is not Buddha. She may have something meaningful or thoughtful to say, which I think is the case this time, but she lacks the necessary life experience to actually make any real conclusions and suggest anything really profound to make an improvement.
For instance. As one of the many who doodled and missed assignments and read things that weren’t on the syllabus, I’m in the same boat as she is. I went to school, got a degree so I could get a job, and now am a cog in the machinery. And, as is the case with every person out there, I can be let go at any time.
What experience tells me is that it is impossible for everyone to not be a cog. We cannot all go move to Vermont to dip candles, we cannot all follow our bliss or any other idiotic Joseph Campbell feel-good nonsense.
The real problem is that the system allows for only two choices, a point that Goldson fails to integrate and synthesize. Being a good student isn’t the problem. Being a dreamer isn’t the problem. The problem is that the system makes it impossible to merge those two aspects of human nature.
Look at school. You take a course for a semester. Draw a bell curve. In every one of those courses, some students are going to be miles behind and some are going to be miles ahead. And they’ll all get the same assignments. End result? Maybe 10 kids smack in the middle will enjoy the course and learn something from it. The rest will be some combination of bored, angry, frustrated, tired, resentful. There is no individualization. It’s like going to a shoe store that only sells brown shoes in size 9.
But Goldson doesn’t really blame the system. She blames herself. That’s why she’s wrong. She may be scared, but the reality of it is that she’s — from a probability point of view — in the best position for not being scared. The arts fields are notorious for producing starving artists. There has never been a glut of people who can play guitar. Being undereducated is rarely a survival benefit.
As for the person who took offense because she disliked the metaphor of the strip and who is working to cure cancer. If you really wanted to cure cancer, you could eliminate 90% of all cancers simply by burning all the tobacco fields in the country to the ground. That would take a couple weeks, tops. Then, you could round up the CEOs of the companies that manufacture tobacco products, the marketing people who made the ads, the distributors, etc., and try them all as mass murderers.
That would still leave a lot of people getting cancer, but it’s a pretty good start, I think. Wouldn’t be as glamorous though, would it? (At the party):
Person 1: What do you do?
Person 2: I burn down tobacco fields.
Person 1: Omigod, you’re a t-t-t-terrorist!
Person 2: Maybe, but I’ve prevented millions from dying prematurely.
Person 3: I work in a lab, researching cancer cures.
Person 1: Oh my! How important! May I suck up for a few minutes?
Person 3: Of course.
Person 2: Cured anyone yet?
Person 3: We’ve come very close a few times to isolating compounds that might be efficacious at some point in the very distant future. It’s terribly complicated and you wouldn’t understand because you didn’t go to school for many years to be able to go to a lab and work on dead end after dead end to come up occasionally with something that doesn’t pan out.
Person 2: My methods work in minutes.
Person 3: Sigh. You just don’t understand how important my work is.
Person 2: That should be what I’m saying to you.
I’m not advocating terrorism here, people. But I am truly tired of seeing how much intellectual capital is expended pointlessly by people who do not seem capable of realizing that they are wasting their time just as much as the person who doodled his way through high school.
Researching cancer cures? Sounds great. When any of the thousands of people who are trying finally come up with one, we can revisit the discussion. Until then, I think that a few show trials where the seven-figure-salaried managers are trotted out in orange jumpsuits and sentenced to decades in prison (gen-pop), would save a lot more lives.
Your interpretation of this speech is wonderful! I can completely relate to this, because I was the same in school. And now it is actually hitting me how difficult it is break away from this ‘structured’ way of thinking.
But saving grace – I did doodle on everything too 🙂 That makes me feel better. Thanks for this!
A welcome return to form after last week’s unsettling implications!
we have a lot in common especially on the positive side! yes. i wish i had MORE time of doing art and do music. therefore now i’m heading to the finish line of being a slave to the system and then, i’m gonna pursue my own dream!
While this is without a doubt a great and inspiring comic, the kids this generation and even the past few aren’t quite as productive as portrayed.
“While I did my homework, the other kids partied and became high school dropouts” or ” Played HALO and became unemployed-stay-at-home-grown-up-kids” is more likely the case these days.
I see the point, it WOULD be beautiful if we spent our time efficiently towards our passions instead of blowing it on distractions 🙂
I don’t believe the author is trying to say “don’t do your homework” or “play video games all day”, but rather; learn for the purpose of learning, not just to excel at school, as well as pursue other interests/passions (as you said).
This is a great piece of work you’ve made here. The comic is a wonderful personification of Ms. Goldson’s speech and it made me feel better about myself. Currently, I am about to be senior in high school and I frankly don’t feel ready at all to take this final step of my teenagehood. I fell back a lot during my junior year and that pretty much ruined my chances of getting into any decent college. It made me very upset because I work much slower than my fellow peers because I try to absorb the material as much as I can just for the sake of being informed (I must admit that I procrastinated a lot as well). The “star” students of my class would just find a more sufficient way of getting the work done without really going over it. This comic gave me some comfort because I’ve always thought I was stupid and that I will never go anywhere at the pace that I’m going. It reassured to me that I’m just fine the way I am. I want to go to college mainly to increase my knowledge, not just my income.
Great words, I’m in awe! As a recent graduate and now a law student, this is something I agree with 100%. Thanks so much for putting this into drawing
Sadly I find this to be true. Getting good grades in school is only for show. My son is one of those kids who is gifted and through school he did great on tests but did not like the busy work just becuase it was busy work. He excelled in classes that had him thinking out of the box and really taught him somehting and barely got through the mindless classess as he pursued his love of art. He now has so many open doors to choos from and is continuing his education by attending college and taking class that once again play the game…but also taking time to take classes that speak to the artist in him. I look up to him in so many ways. My other son has also followed his love and passion of writing and sports and fitness and got through school with fair grades but really spent time learing about what was passionate to him…he is also enjoying life and vesting in his passions, as he plays the game at college and I see both my children getting so much more out of life than those students that stick their noses in books get excellent grades….and then have a hard time deciding who they are and what they stand for and where thier passion is. I applaud my children and I applaud this young lady for noticing before its too late!!! Hats off!!
Thanks Gav for this wonderful illustration. I was so totally against school and such, and I’m trapped between pursuing what the system wants me to be, and my interests that I enjoy so much. I am 16, a college sophomore, and still not sure of what to do in my life.
I agree with the quote, but I don’t think it’s the right venue. The valedictorian speech isn’t about you, it’s not an acceptance speech for a reward. It’s supposed to be a speech for your classmates. I think a good valedictorian speech uses “we” and “you” a lot more than “I”
Story of almost every Indian Student.
Thanks Gav, Your work is brilliant every time.
I always enjoy reading the text you write at the end, both because it’s great to learn a bit more about the person originating the quote, but also for a glimpse on how this connects to your own journey.
This time, though, I wondered.
You obviously were discontent with your job as a graphic designer, so naturally you see yourself in this quote.
But at the same time, it was this ‘stuck-in-a-rut-wanting-to-break-free’ that got you into Zen Pencils to begin with.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that going through the whole schooling process to find yourself in a place you didn’t want to be in was more than a good thing, it was almost a necessity, because it led you to seek this voice that you now have.
What would have happened if you were mildly content in a job, just about enough to keep going. Know what I mean?
Terrible. Privileged teenager rails in fear against the working class. “If you aren’t an artist or scientist you aren’t human.” “People who work in offices lead unfulfilling, subservient lives” “If you don’t do your dream job you’re a failure.”
i’m glad everyone mirroring this sentiment lives in such a privileged world that they believe anyone who commits themselves to academics is wasting time. i was valedictorian but i also worked my ass off singing & acting & drawing & public speaking & i did all of it because learning is freaking awesome, & as a low-income student, i wouldn’t HAVE options for my future without the grades to support me. now i get to go to an esteemed college & tackle more rigorous academics for the sake of artistic & intellectual stimulation. [skateboards off the planet] bye, nerds
The good messages here are that schooling systems shouldn’t only require simple regurgitation of facts, and that artistically creative pursuits can be valuable.
The bad message here is that schooling is less worthwhile than people believe. A good education is one of the greatest assets a person can have. Its benefits are not limited to landing a job. Even if one doesn’t end up using the specific knowledge gained, schooling enhances our ability to reason, to make good decisions, to learn, to analyse and to understand and interact with others. The abilities that education helps to foster are valuable in any possible job, but they also lead to a more informed society; one in which people are more likely to understand and empathise with each other, and one in which voters are more likely to reward politicians for doing good things (like sound policy) and less likely to reward them for bad things (like deception). When you read this, please don’t be trapped by the seductive “society has got it all wrong” mentality. Rather, remember the value of education, and the state of other societies in the world that lack the type of education facilities that Erica Goldson has had the privilege of benefiting from.
I just graduated and I have to say that I am kind of lost right now. Most of the things I learned in college are not usefull at the jobs I am trying to find. And without some working experience your degree is kind of useless. Nice comic!
Wow. That’s a huge slap on my face. This is true for me. I worked my ass off in high school, took up Engineering in College but during those time, I wasn’t happy. I graduated for the sake of getting a degree and land on a well-paid job. I did land on a nice job but I wasn’t happy. It was the biggest mistake of my life.
well, I found the comic as an interesting piece of criticism to the educational system. What called my attention the most was the fact that as in the U.S, here in my country (Argentina) the same story is repeated.
An educational systems that seems to prepare students to be inserted in the world of work but that didn´t inspire them to be be free of choose, criticize or even to find themselves as usefull human beings.
who are the ones that succeed?
The students that get the best marks, do the homework and are excellent academically speaking will be the most successful, but what are they going to do when they have to face the real life? In the real world, in an era which the regular world rythm is continuously changing, the expected successful students will find themselves lost. Mainly because our educational system is not training them properly, They don´t know how to manage uncertainty.
As regards the students that don´t get the best marks and that have different interests, I should say that they won´t be integrated in the world of work neither. May be because they don´t have developed the skills and knowledge required or because their low self steem makes them feel unable to do. Here we face the other fault of our educational system. It fosters that every student that don´t get the marks required to pass exams are not able to do nothing…
Now I ask myself how can the educational system cope with this?
Perhaps the whole world should start thinking about the expectations, skills and possibilities that the educational system, politicians, employers have as regards the graduated students to be or about the recently graduated students.
As Louis Althusser, a French Marxist philosopher, explained that the Educational System is the ideological aparatus of the state.
That´s why I believe that changes in our educational system should be made not just taking into account marks or indoctrination but thinking about the future of the world.
Since we’re stuck in the system as is, as a student at university level myself, here’s my advice: take the initiative and make something of it. Choose something that’s actually useful, something you enjoy, and mold the system to work for you. It’s not all despair. It can work. Working great for me.
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I find it funny that the valedictorian is depicted as the best “slave”. I was valedictorian of my high school class. I somehow found time to have a great social life, learn an instrument, play two sports and relax and enjoy life. I did well because I wanted to. I did well because I had the capacity to, and to not try my hardest would be a waste. Say what you want about me being brainwashed, but I am at the brink of entering medical school and loving every minute of it. Unfortunately most who doodled in class did not become great artists. Most sports stars in high school did not become professional athletes. The real disillusionment with our society is not the educational system, but this same “follow your dreams” message that is pumped into every young person. The real problem is our denial of the fact that our educational system is diluted and degrading, with grade inflation and teachers of less intelligence. This comic and this speech prove to me that my worst fears for this country and the human race are coming true. I truly would love to see where any person agreeing with this trash would be without education. But what do I know. I’m just a “slave”. Keep living in your “dream” world. Just don’t expect me to pay for your healthcare, foodstamps, and welfare when you are looking for a job as an art major
I think the comic is trying to send out a message – do what you love the most… the parts where “the valedictorian is depicted as the best slave” and “whoever doodled became a great artist” are not to be taken literally.
You happen to be one of those very few lucky ones, who happen to love what is widely accepted by the society. It’s great for you. But for the majority of the crowd out there, that is not the case. There are so many out there who love to do other stuff apart from academics, but are not recognized by the society or the school system. This is an inspiration for that majority to not lose heart bcoz society doesn’t recognize them. Everyone is special in their own way.
I wish i was a robot, instead of a doodle-er.
STOP MAKING SO MUCH AWESOME!!! I am compelled to share damn near every single one of your comics, yet I know it must be driving my friends mad.
Seriosly though, keep it up. Maybe do “A ship is safe in harbour… but that’s not what ships are for.”?
The other thing is, even after you discover what you really really love doing, I’ve found that in 6 to 10 years, you change! What you really really love doing changes, and then you are so afraid.
You don’t know what to do next, you have to go through what all the other lost people went through during college, when you were so sure of your passion. We are ever-changing beings. There is never just one answer to what we are meant to do on this earth.
There are many answers. and we will keep evolving 🙂
Gosh!!! That guy is hursh . . .
Inspiring!
the one who made and told this speech in his graduation was the one who capable to reach many things in his life.
the one who made and told this speech in his graduation was the one who capable to reach many things in his life.
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Very nice comic, nice speech. this makes me think… think about my past university life, my present situation(working in a factory, i am glad that my job is not requiring me to do things repeatedly everyday, its more like a process for me to learn how to start an online B2C business and I think it is useful for me…I might want to start a business myself some day…haha…) life is really different from what i used to be told or dream of… thank you guys…
I spent most of school doodling in books and reading about space and spaceships and technology. I could have worked hard and probably topped my year, but I think it turned out better this way. I am studying things I like. Still draw all over my books, and feel like I’m happier with all this than the people who topped my year.
Such a great illustration of an even better speech! I saw it in this month’s Utne Reader and featured it on my blog about alternative education. You can see it here: http://www.livingequalslearning.com/learning-in-the-news-29-october-2013/
Thank you!
Emily
This is how I’ve felt my entire life; although I’m on the other side of the spectrum. I’ve never been a studious person but my peers and teachers regard me as one of the most intelligent people they know. I’ve been working toward my undergrad for 5 years and still don’t really see an end in sight for the simple fact that I have no desire to enter the common workforce. I feel that mandatory public education is trapping and silencing children and young adults through debt and standardization. I know a lot of people that are going to community college with no real career aspects, not to say they wont figure something out, but they lack a genuine interest in anything that will sustain their lifestyles. I feel that a great deal of creativity goes into choosing what you would like to be when you grow up and that creativity is being drowned in testing and regurgitation.
Very nice comic, nice speech. this makes me think… think about my past university life, my present situation(working in a factory, i am glad that my job is not requiring me to do things repeatedly everyday, its more like a process for me to learn how to start an online B2C business and I think it is useful for me…I might want to start a business myself some day…haha…) life is really different from what i used to be told or dream of… thank you guys…
Hahaha These are reaaaally cute and funny!
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So… Wanting to be an artist is noble, wanting anything different than that is not? I see.
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Graduation is the activity of getting or giving a scholastic degree or the function that is in some cases related, where understudies get to be graduates. Prior to the graduation, applicants are alluded to as graduands.
I never went to my graduation, didn’t feel the need to, now I’m feeling like a missed out, in a funny sort of way, after reading this comic strip.
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Since we’re stuck in the system as is, as a student at university level myself, here’s my advice: take the initiative and make something of it. Choose something that’s actually useful, something you enjoy, and mold the system to work for you. It’s not all despair. It can work. Working great for me.
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Erica Goldson, must have been vexed but not that she is against schooling, she had a passion but couldn’t pursue it because she was been shaped into a cycle of labour without freedom. Its constantly decent when you can be educated, as well as entertained! I am beyond any doubt you had a ton of fun composing this article.
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I received at the end did help me land a job, so it was all worth it in the end right? Maybe if I had heard this speech back in high school, I would have realised I was stuck in the system and gone down a different path.
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I wish i was a robot, instead of a doodle-er.
‘Knowing is not enough, we must apply’ Bruce Lee?
What an amazing speech! just awesome
“If you study what you really want”? At 14 you don’t know it in most of the cases. You study what you *think* you want, and, more importantly, in a very boring manner which rates you all the time, mostly by quantity.
And you have worked a lot just to prove you’re worthy, then you realize very few care about things you spent 5 years of your life for. And then you’re sad.
Thank you Gavin for your “ERICA GOLDSON: Graduation speech” comic post
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Hi thanks for this comic. Even though, that as a teacher, I’m part of the educational system, I realize some things are wrong.
I’m glad I stumbled on this comic.
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Hi thanks for this comic. Even though, that as a teacher, I’m part of the educational system, I realize some things are wrong.zzz
“If you study what you really want”? At 14 you don’t know it in most of the cases. zxxxdsdsd
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