HAPPY GRADUATION!

Survey: out of 100 recent American high school grads.....

■ 71 were physically assaulted: 28 victimized sexually (10 from date violence, 10 raped), 32 experienced maltreatment, 27 had a physical fight, 16 carried a weapon.

■ 64 had sex: 48 are sexually active, 27 used condoms, 12 on birth control pills; 21% had a sexually transmitted infection; 3-4 young women have been or are pregnant, 1 had an abortion.

■ 39 have been bullied, physically or emotionally: 16 in the past year; 29 felt “sad and hopeless” continually for at least two weeks; 14 thought seriously about suicide, six went through with the attempt.                         ■ 34 are fat, 22 live in poverty (10 in deep poverty).

HISTORY

Alexandre Farto

History, as taught in schools, is endless war (i.e. murder), using religion, economy, and ideology as justification for mutated animal behavior....

JOSS WEDON, DIRECTOR

GRADUATES:  Action is more important than words....but words are more important than nothing.  Here are 13 minutes of funny, serious, true words than can help you, if you occasionally think of them.

The two professor-administrators at the front, who probably invited him, get his dark entertaining humor and agree. The professor in the back is probably bored and thinks he's a jerk.  You can make your own decision.  (The English is clear and non-academic.)

The problem is that at graduation ceremonies, students are thinking about partying, their dates, supportive and non-supportive families, no job, the terrifyng future, being hot or cold, holding on to their caps in the wind, eating, texting, boredom, and having a good night's sleep, hopefully with someone.

Still, the Graduation Speech Ritual is one of civilization's more useful inventions, too often unused.

http://www.upworthy.com/behold-the-bluntest-funniest-and-deadliest-graduation-speech-in-the-history-of-the-known-universe?g=2&c=upw1

ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL / ALTERNATIVE LIFE

The diverse human struggle to live a happier, more meaningful life radiates hope.....

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/26/magazine/26look-lagos.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130526&_r=0

NECESSARY KNOWLEDGE

TO OUR GRADUATES

Life, as told by Lee Ang

STRANGE SOCIETY

Workers and Students on campuses live in 2 completely different worlds, never communicating or even acknowledging each other.

It is the 5000-year-old caste system - those who use their intellect and mouths vs. those who use their hands and muscles.

FAILURE OF CONFERENCES

Most conferences, seminars, panels, symposiums, and forums
meant for students and those starving to learn --
to find out the secret of the holy grail (talent),
to "network,"
to find out how to get a job --
are not specific or useful enough.

THE TYRANNY OF THEORY / THE PLEASURE OF ART // 學說的專橫／藝術的歡愉

Why is it that sentimentality and melodrama are considered artistically lower class than acerbic, dark, hopeless, and spirit-crushing drama? Who determines the truth about human existence…academics, critics, scientists, theoreticians? Does more education inevitably lead to disillusionment and negativity?

究竟為什麼那些惆悵傷感或情節通俗的戲劇，在藝術層面上，總被認為劣於那些刻薄、陰暗、絕望、重創靈魂的戲劇？究竟誰有權決定人類存在的真理…是學者？評論家？科學家？亦或理論家？難道受的教育愈高，就不免要抹煞幻想、負面思考嗎？

Do people who believe in gods have to be freedom-loathing terrorists, determined to force their personal idiosyncratic fantasies on everyone else? Do people who believe in goodness have to be obsessed idealists who defy realities to ignore evil, even as they are killed by it?

難道信仰諸神的人，非得是痛惡自由的恐怖主義者，強迫他人接受自己一廂情願的想像？難道崇尚善良美德的人，非得是鬼迷心竅的理想主義者，不顧現實，無視罪惡，即使自己因此喪命也義無反顧？