Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Ted Wachter has left the stage. (Editor’s Note: This is

the Final Graduation

Speech given by Dr. Ted

Wachter, retiring principal

of Rosewood Elementary

School on May 27, 2010.)

Good morning and welcome to the parents, families, and friends of our graduating class of 2010.

This is a very special day for our fifth graders and a very special day for me. Today marks the end of your and my careers at Rosewood Elementary School.

Time passes quickly— the more so the older you get. I remember quite well when many of you started in kindergarten here six years ago as Rosewood Squirts. You were so young, cute, innocent, and naive. You actually believed everything I told you. And then by third grade, you wised up and realized that I had been fibbing to you for several years. But, thankfully, you forgave me!

And now you are about to leave us and soon enter the world of lockers, lunch detention, and pre–adolescence at Hand Middle School.

Our efforts to educate, enlighten, and civilize you have come to an end. Some of you resisted those efforts quite valiantly. Nevertheless, I believe in the end we have left our mark upon you—and a good mark it is. And, our school has left a good mark on me, as I know for sure that I am a better man now than I was when I first entered here 34 years ago.

Some of you and I have been together for six years—longer than the three years you will be with your principal in middle school and longer than the four years you will be with your highschool principal. During these six years we have gotten to know each other pretty well. I have had the good fortune of being able to enjoy you, clown around, and hang out with you—and actually get paid while doing it. Not a bad job at all!

Today, I would like to invite you on a very exciting journey. The name of the journey is You—with a capital “Y”. Your life, if you will let it, can be like a great novel. And like a good novel, you do not really know what the next chapter has in store for you.

You are a “work–in– progress.” You are not a finished product. How you will think and feel about something a year or two from now may be very different from how you feel and think about that thing today.

Some old Democrats were once young Republicans, some believers were once atheists, and some philanthropists were once stingy misers.

So, all of this is to say that you must find the courage to allow yourself to grow and to change and not be afraid to become different from whom you are today.

This is the great drama of living, and this will be the great drama of your lives. So enjoy this drama and make your life a great story.

I have been thinking lately about what I have actually tried to teach you over the years. Your teachers have worked hard to teach you how to read and write well, excel in mathematics, science, and history. But what besides spinning tops and

flying monkeys have I tried to teach you? The answer to this question can perhaps be best summed up in a short piece by the famous American poet Walt Whitman entitled, “This is What You Should Do.”

This is what you should

do:


Love the earth and sun


and animals,







despise riches, give alms to

everyone that asks,




stand up for the stupid





and crazy,





devote your income and


labor to others, hate



tyrants,







argue not concerning God,



have patience and indulgence





toward the people...








reexamine all you have



been told in school or

church

or in any book,




dismiss what insults your



very soul,




and your flesh shall




become a great poem.

Now it is time for you and for me to say goodbye to this magical school, time to say goodbye to The Helicopter, Duck on a Bike, The Squirrel, Moe and Joe, The Rocket Ride, The Critter, Teddy Top, the Dungeon, The Ashes of Problem Students, the Sponge Bob Power Stick, The Gong, The Easy Button, The Crash, The Crying Baby, Noogies, Dr. Albert Spongestein, and last but not least, The Flying Monkey.

Tomorrow, you and I will leave this very special school. You will go on to middle school and I to retirement. To quote the Greek philosopher Socrates at the end of his famous trial at which he was accused and convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens:

The hour of departure

has arrived, and we go our

separate ways. Who goes

to the better fate is known

only to the gods.