“drive home the message that being honest isn’t actually the best policy after all.”

...especially in someone entering the law field.

Some. People’s. Children.

If you ask me, it’s practice for life in the real world; especially if Tiffany ends up working in a corporate environment, where the mucky-mucks will solicit suggestions and feedback that they’ll ignore completely no matter how delicately in its phrasing it’s been written.  And if it’s written honestly, making evident the level of frustration and low morale that’s infecting employees, it’ll get a response rather like Tiffany’s speech.

Honesty is only the best policy if a person aspires to a professional life outside the corporate environment where ass-kissing, ego-stroking and playing politics are considered “professionalism.” In the corporate world, honesty is not encouraged and is certainly NOT the best policy, but a guarantee that one’s “career” will consist of being rewarded with lateral move after lateral move no matter how hard one works or how many compliments on a job well done one gets from co-workers and supervisors.

But I’m not bitter.

("each")

Damn OB, I thought you were talking about me for a moment. Seems we have much in common. Probably explains why I’m not climbing the corporate ladder at any significant pace.

Submission word = “results” (really!)

Somebody owes her classmates an apology, all right.  The school district owes them an apology for running a shitty school. 

Well, shooting the messenger is an old tradition…

I don’t know anything about the text of her speech, but one thing that younger folks DO need to learn is how to present problems ALONG WITH constructive suggestions on how to solve them.  It’s all too easy to bitch about problems and then act as if you’ve done something heroic just by speaking out.  (Mind you, sometimes it IS pretty brave to speak out, but that’s not enough to get you over the finish line.)

In the real world, yes, there are fearless whistle-blowers, but there are also an equal number of clueless, snotnosed punks who want to badmouth an organization without actually doing anything to fix it.  This is very annoying to the ones up the chain who KNOW there’s a problem, probably know more about it than anyone, and who could really use help in doing something about it, not just blamethrowing from the safety of the rank-and-file.

Just another perspective on the matter ...

THe comment the student should help solve the problems is well taken but if the third paragraph of the story is true it would be damn near impossible to find an intelligent solution under those circumstances.  Apologize my ass --give her the damn diploma and be proud that someone with some courage and intelligence spoke up.  The Education Department spokesman doesn’t get the fact that telling the truth makes it ‘a day of celebration’ for these students. 

my word is effects maybe fixing the short comings will take the embarassment away, Admins.

You’re right about snotnosed punks, GM, but it isn’t her job to fix the problem or even to come up with suggestions - she’s a high school kid.

It’s their damn job to provide a functional school, qualified teachers, etc. and it’s their responsibility to figure out how to fix things if that is not happening.  That’s what they’re paid for and supposedly trained and experienced to do.

Far from being a punk, she was obviously a high achiever, a testament to the resilience of a strong mind against the deficits of a weak school system.

(Just one example of many: my kids went through a Jr. high where the Japanese-American Spanish teacher could not speak Spanish.  Lots more where that came from.)

Oh, I agree that she should get the diploma, and that it isn’t her responsibility to fix that particular mess.  I was just explaining why some people CAN be justifiably annoyed when someone actually follows the “honesty is the best policy” maxim, and why, if you don’t do it wisely, you possibly won’t get anywhere in your organization for a good reason.  In general, people don’t get promoted for complaining; they get promoted for pointing out problems and helping to fix them.  There’s a time for plain old criticism and there’s a time for constructive criticism, and we’re doing our kids a disservice if we only expose them to the former.

(captcha:  “board")

In general, people don’t get promoted for complaining; they get promoted for pointing out problems and helping to fix them.

I’ve seen the loud squeaky wheel get well greased, and I’ve seen it get a lower pay raise.  You just have to know which way your office political wind blows. 

At my last job, I heard some of the programmers talking about how their boss needed to be promoted into full management, just so he wouldn’t be in a position to write anymore code they had to go patch up.

Damn!  They’ve found me out.  Hopefully the promotion will still come through.

As the saying goes, people get promoted for having a business impact. Good or bad doesn’t matter.

Perhaps she should have prefaced her speech by politely reminding her audience of the 1st Amendment, which might have saved her the censorship, or at least bought her some time on the mic, and make it all the more glaring should she have been cut off.  She must have been expecting something (probably not the diploma bullshit though.  The principal got publicly ridiculed by the mayor in the days following.)

Side note:  as an admittedly privledged up-and coming college freshman myself, I’d be curious to know how a seemingly bright inner city New York Valedictorian compares to my environment, my somewhat academicly elite peers with whom I’ve been able to experiences with wonderful and truly life-changing teachers. 

Anyone been able to find a transcript of what she did get out before they turned off the juice?