——在华南师范大学附属中学国际部

2023届毕业典礼上的讲话

Sheldon Smith   2023年6月17日

Parents, teachers, colleagues, friends, distinguished guests, and, of course, Fleming, Lister, Nightingale and Youyou, HFI’s Graduating class of 2023: Hello.

And also, goodbye. It is time to say farewell to all of you. And, also, time to say farewell to me.

Because, as most you will know already, this is not only your last day at HFI, but mine as well. It’s your first and only, but my eighteenth and final graduation at the school. My last time to dress up in this wonderful gown, my last time to wear this fancy hat.

I must confess, I do not love graduation, because I do not love giving the graduation speech. Most of my colleagues know that already. Mainly because I tell them in EVERY SINGLE graduation speech. I write a new speech each year. And delivering it always fills me with dread.

So, although today is my last day at the school, and therefore a very sad day, it is also a very happy day… because I know that this will be my LAST EVER graduation speech at HFI.

Unless, of course, they invite me back next year as a guest speaker!

In which case, I will say NO! No, I will not do this again. Not even if they paid me. This is definitely my last speech.

I’ve been academic principal at HFI for so long that it almost seems like this is all I’ve ever done. I have though, in the past, had other jobs, some even at this school.

I became academic principal in 2008, 15 years ago, when the previous principal, Donal Crawford, left the school. When I first started at HFI, back in 2005, I was just a teacher. I had other teaching jobs before that, in Fuzhou in Fujian province, in Nanning and Liuzhou in Guangxi, in Jakarta in Indonesia, and in the UK. Back when I was in my twenties, before I became a teacher, I had a whole range of jobs, mostly temporary jobs to earn some money so I could go travelling. I’ve been an accounts clerk for an insurance company, a filing clerk, a worker in a chicken factory, a worker in a burger factory. I once worked in a kitchen scrubbing pots and pans and keeping the floors clean. I also worked as a postman one winter, delivering mail.

All told, I’ve had over a dozen jobs in the last 30 years. Some I’ve enjoyed, some I haven’t. I can honestly say though, out of all of the many jobs I’ve had throughout my life, being principal of HFI is very definitely the third best one. A solid number 3.

In mitigation though, the absolute best job, by far, was being a teacher at HFI. They tell me the students here are amazing. And they are. You gotta love being a teacher at HFI.

In 2005, when I started teaching here, the students weren’t that amazing. There were only 53 of them in the whole school, most of them headed for the UK, a handful going to Australia, none to the USA. The US market hadn’t opened up at that time. How things have changed. Some of the students were good, but there was a big range, from top to bottom. There were often a lot at the bottom. Even so, I really enjoyed teaching them.

There was actually a student from my second year of teaching here, I won’t tell you his name. Awful student. He’d be the first to admit it. He got very poor results. He was lucky to get in to any university. He came back to the Alumni Reunion a few years ago and I met him. He asked if I remembered him. I said, “Sure. You were awful! How could I forget? How’s life?” And he told me how he had gone to the UK, reflected on his problems, dumped his girlfriend – which was part of his problems – changed and got his degree and had gone on to get a PhD, at a very good university. He was married, with one kid. He had done well for himself. Which was very impressive, considering where he started, and also very gratifying, knowing how HFI had helped him on his future path.

To put it differently, even the bad students at HFI are good. Maybe that should be the school’s motto. You gotta love being a teacher at HFI. In case you’re wondering why I became principal when I so loved being a teacher, the answer is: somebody’s got to do it. I’ve always been very responsible.

I do miss those teaching days incredibly and look back with great fondness at those times. And I remember all of the students, very, very distinctly. The second best job, by the way, had nothing to do with education. It was being a postman. I liked it because it’s a very active job, lots of cycling and walking. I did it one winter and it’s the only winter in the UK that I wasn’t freezing cold. Unfortunately, I was too careful at the job, which meant I was too slow, and so they let me go.

And so here I am today, talking to you instead of delivering mail in England. So, at this point in my speech I’ve been talking for quite a while, but I haven’t actually said anything yet. Fact is, this speech proved incredibly difficult to write. For the longest time, I had no idea what to say. I’m standing here now talking to you, and I still don’t know.

What the speech should do is round off your three years here with some pithy advice. At the same time, it should reflect on my 18 years of life at HFI. The fact it was so difficult to write is kind of surprising, since it should really write itself.

For example, let’s talk about your experience. We only have to look at your class names to understand some of that. They are constant reminders of what has happened, during the last 3 years. Lister, Fleming, Nightingale and Youyou, the names of healthcare workers, that reflect the state of the world when you joined, in the grip of a pandemic. It’s fitting that you’re graduating now, and those names will be retired from HFI, since the pandemic, to all intents and purposes, is over. Those years have given us a new lexicon, words that were rare or unknown before, like hybrid classes, lockdown, quarantine, nucleic acid test, Coronavirus and Covid.

So, that’s the part that writes itself. But it’s a bit facile, a bit simple. Sure, all of that is true, but it’s also irrelevant. Yeah, Covid was a thing, but it didn’t define who you were. It was just something in the background.

As for the rest, the stuff that really matters, it is difficult for me to comment on all of that. I will leave it to the valedictorian, who has done a fantastic job in his speech. It’s difficult because I have not shared that experience. I haven’t slept in the dormitories. I haven’t gone to class after class and listened to your teachers give you lectures. I haven’t gone to your homes at the weekend and listened to your parents give you lectures. I haven’t taken all those tests, or sat AP exams, or written college essays, or received rejection letters, or sung in the Voice of HFI, or acted on this stage, or raised money for International Day, and so on, and so on. I haven’t had the pleasure of teaching you, so I cannot even comment on that.

In fact, I don’t think I have even stroked the HFI cats. Ever. In 18 years. What can I say? I’m a dog person. So, it’s hard for me to speak with any real impact about your experience at HFI. And as for my 18 years here, that’s also tough. Should be easy. There’s so much material to draw from. But really, it’s just too much material.

In that time, thousands of students have studied here and graduated. I’m not sure how many, to be honest. PowerSchool has 1437, and we’ve only been using that for 8 of the 18 years. I recently counted up all the teachers I’ve worked with and it came to 125, and I’m sure I missed some. When I started at HFI, there were just 6 teachers, including me. I counted up emails and found I had sent over 50,000 in those years. I’m actually surprised it’s not more. Some are quite short, but many are really, REALLY long. I think it is the thing my colleagues will miss most, when I’m gone.

They get emails from me and think, “Oh look, here’s another huge email from Sheldon. What joy! What’s this one about then? Oh, uniforms again.” If an average of 100 words per email, and it’s probably more, that’s 5 million words in 18 years. The average novel is 90,000 words, so that’s the equivalent of 55 novels. It’s quite a prolific output.

I will say though, I feel extremely privileged to have worked here over the past 18 years, privileged to have known you all, privileged to have worked with you, privileged to have been your principal. I’m immensely grateful to Daniel, in particular, for taking a chance on me as principal in the first place, for sticking with me, for supporting me and for giving me the academic freedom to make a real impact.

And I hope you, the graduating students, also feel privileged, to have had the opportunity to study here, to graduate from here, to be taught by the amazing teachers you have had, to be guided by the counsellors, to be led by the school leaders, who will still be here next year. Most importantly, I hope you feel privileged to have studied with those outstanding individuals who are sitting beside you today, your fellow graduates.

One more thing, before I finish. I think you’ll like this bit most of all. One colleague, when they heard I would be leaving HFI after so many year, said to me, “You know, when US presidents leave office, they always grant presidential pardons for convicted criminals. You should do that, but for discipline penalties.”

And I thought, “Wow, that doesn’t sound like me. That’s way too nice.” I like the idea though. Makes me feel very powerful. Very presidential. I’m not quite sure I want to start that tradition. It places a lot of pressure on my successor. A year from now students will be saying, ‘We really like you. But… can you please leave? And don’t forget to pardon us on your way out!’

I am going to do it anyway. But like this. First off, it’s only for semester 2. Don’t get too excited. I can’t undo semester 1. That’s in PowerSchool, it’s on your transcripts, done and dusted. Sorry. Second, I’m only going to make a small allowance. I know the discipline policy isn’t all that popular with you, the students. But the teachers love it. It makes such a difference to their quality of teaching, and, in consequence, to your quality of learning.

Anyway, this is what I’m going to do: I will ‘pardon’ students by increasing the limits of all penalties. And I’ve decided to increase all of them by 2. So instead of 5 lates for a 5% hit, you need 7. Instead of 10 excused absences, you need 12. And so on.

That’s maybe a bit too generous. Interestingly, raising the limits by just 1 is enough to halve the number of stage 3s, across every grade level. And that would be my recommendation for next year. Just raise everything by 1, and start from there. Raising by 2 wipes out all stage 3s for year 9 and 10 students, which is why I chose it.

For you guys, it reduces the number of students receiving stage 3 penalties from 28 to just 8. So, congratulations on being the least penalised graduating class since we started the new discipline policy. And commiserations to those unlucky 8 students who I’m not able to save.

And, as I’m setting this precedent, I should also lay down some ground rules. As principal, I’ve always signed a three-year contract, 5 of them in total across 15 years. In presidential terms, that’s kind of like 5 terms in office. So, the pardon is not because I’m leaving, but because I am reaching the end of this term in office. That takes the pressure off my successor a bit too, because he’ll have to see out his three-year contract before he is eligible to grant any pardons.

Applying all those penalties in PowerSchool is a major chore for me anyway, so it’s a win-win. So, yeah. That’s that.

I guess that this speech is pretty much my last act as principal, except some certificate issuing later and maybe some photographs. The speech is nearly done. The third best job I ever had has almost ended.

After such a long time at this school, it would be fitting if I were retiring. But I’m not, which in a way is also rather sad. I’m moving on to another job, at another school, which has to compete with this one. I will have other colleagues, that I will have to try and love as much as the people I work with now. Other students, who will have to compete with students at HFI, a school where even the bad students are great. Other parents, who I can only hope will be as supportive as your parents have been. It’s a tall order. But it’s not a competition. I’m sure I will enjoy my new job all the same. If it turns out to be the fourth best job I’ve ever had, I’ll be very happy.

Parents, teachers, colleagues, friends, distinguished guests, and of course Fleming, Lister, Nightingale and Youyou, HFI’s Graduating Class of 2023: Goodbye, good luck, and as you move into your futures, may success and joy be with you all!

Thank you.

（中文版）

家长们、老师们、同事们、朋友们、尊敬的嘉宾们，当然还有Fleming、Lister、Nightingale和Youyou——2023届毕业生们：大家好。

同时也要说声再见。是时候和大家告别了。同时，也是时候和我自己告别了。

因为，正如大部分人已经知道的那样，这不仅是你们在HFI的最后一天，也是我在这所学校的最后一天。这是你们的第一次也是唯一一次。而对我来说，这是我在这所学校的第十八次毕业典礼，是我最后一次穿这件美（hē）丽（hē）的袍子，戴这顶漂（fú）亮（kuā）的帽子。

我必须承认，我并不喜欢毕业典礼，因为我不爱做毕业演讲。大部分同事都知道这事，因为每年这个时候我的拖延症把他们都逼疯了。我每年都会憋一篇新的演讲稿，而且每次要演讲，我都非常弱小无助、害怕得瑟瑟发抖。

尽管今天是我在学校的最后一天（想想也有点悲伤），但我开心得转圈圈……因为这是我在HFI的最后一次毕业演讲。

当然，除非他们明年邀请我作为嘉宾演讲！真这样的话，我绝对拒绝！不，我再也不要毕业演讲了，给钱也不。这绝对是我最后一次演讲。

我担任了HFI的学术校长很多年，以至于几乎觉得这是我唯一做过的事情。但事实上在此之前我还有其他的工作，甚至在这所学校也有其他的工作。

我在2008年成为学术校长，也就是15年前，当时前任校长Donal Crawford离开学校。2005年我开始在HFI教书，那时我只是一名老师。在此之前，我曾在福建省福州、广西南宁和柳州、印度尼西亚雅加达以及英国等地做过其他的教学工作。在成为老师之前，我在二十多岁时做过各种各样的工作，大多数是为了挣点钱去旅行，包括保险公司的会计、文件管理专员、鸡肉加工厂或汉堡加工厂工人。我也在厨房洗锅碗瓢盆和扫地。我还在一个冬天当快递员，收发邮件啥的。

总之，在过去的30年里我有过十几份工作。有些我还挺喜欢的，有些就比较呵呵。老实说，在我职业生涯中的众多工作中，担任HFI校长绝对是第三棒的工作，稳居第三位。

要说最棒的工作毫无疑问是在HFI当老师。大家都告诉我这里的学生们太棒了，确实如此。在HFI当老师是一件让人无比热爱的工作。

2005年，当我开始在这里教书的时候，学生没有那么卷。整个学校只有53个学生，其中大多数打算去英国，少数准备前往澳大利亚，没有人去美国。那时候美国还没有市场，如今变化太大了。其中一些学生还不错，但整体水平跨度很大，从顶尖到底层都有。通常尾部学生很多，可是我超级喜欢给他们上课。

在我教书的第二年有一个学生，名字咱就不说了，就真的太内啥了，他自己也必须承认。他成绩非常悲剧，能被哪个大学捞走都很幸运。几年前，我在校友会上见到了他。他问我记不记得他。我当然记得：“你当时差的不行，想忘也忘不了！现在怎么样？”他告诉我他去了英国，通过自我反省，把女朋友甩了（太渣了）；他自己有些变化，毕业后继续在一所非常好的大学攻读博士学位；他现在结婚了，有了个娃。就挺好的。考虑到想到他当初的起点，还让人印象挺深刻的。我也松了口气，因为HFI在他的人生道路上还是起了作用。

换个说法，来到HFI的学生都很好。没有不好，只有更好——这就应该成为学校的座右铭。在HFI当老师就是一件让人无比热爱的工作。你肯定想知道为什么我会成为校长而不是一直做老师。答案是：总得有人来做吧。我就是这么责任心爆棚。

我非常怀念那些教书的日子，回忆起那段时光总是感到无比温馨。我也无比清楚地记得每一个学生。顺便说一下，第二棒的工作与教育无关，是当个快递员。我喜欢它是因为得骑车和走路。做这份工作的时候是冬天，唯一一个在英国不会被冻傻的冬天。悲剧的是，我在工作中太过小心，其实就是速度太慢，他们就让我拜拜了。

所以今天我就在这演讲，不是在英国送快递。讲到这里，你们已经听我唠叨很长时间了，但实际上也没听到啥实质性的内容。这演讲本来就挺难写的，我都语枯词穷了。你看我现在肉体站在这，但灵魂根本不在线。

演讲应该做的是总结过去三年，给一些实质性的鸡汤。同时也是对我在HFI度过的18年人生的反思。但我就纳闷了，它咋就那么难写呢？它不应该挺流畅的么？

那谈谈你们的经历吧。看看你们的班名，就知道这些年发生了些啥。Lister、Fleming、Nightingale和Youyou，这些医护人员的名字告诉我们，你们刚进HFI时，整个世界就处于一场流行病肆虐的状态。还挺巧合的哈？你们现在毕业，这些班名就没了，流行病也结束了。这些年我们有了一个新的词汇表，包含以前很少有人提及的词汇，线上线下结合课程、封锁、隔离、核酸检测、新冠病毒和Covid。

看，这部分我写得还挺流畅，就有点肤浅，太单一。不过很真实，也挺无聊的。是，新冠就一件事，它无法定义你们，它也只是众多背景信息里的一条。

至于剩下的那些真正重要的事情，我很难发表评论。那我聪明地把这部分留给毕业生代表吧，他的演讲比我的精彩多了。我太难了，我没有办法与你们过去的经历感同身受。我没有在宿舍里睡过觉。我没有走班、听老师讲课。我没有在周末去你们家里，听你们父母给你们灌鸡汤。我没有参加学校的考试、AP考试、写申请文书、收到拒信，也没有在Voice唱歌、在这个台上表演、为国际日筹款等等。我没有享受过教你们的快乐，也无法为这份经历发表评论。

事实上，我甚至没有摸过HFI的猫。18年都没有。我能说啥？我喜欢的是狗。所以，对于你们在HFI的经历，我很难发表真正有影响力的言论。至于我在这里的18年，也挺难概括的。那么多回忆本来应该挺容易的。或许正是因为太多回忆，才如此难以挑选。

18年里，成千上万的学生在这里学习、毕业。具体人数很难确定，PowerSchool显示有1437人，但这个系统只用了8年。我数了一下一起工作过的教师，总共有125人，肯定漏掉了一些。当我刚来HFI的时候，包括我自己一共只有6名教师。我数了一下发出去的邮件数量，发现在这些年里我发送了超过50,000封邮件。看到这个数字我都惊了。有些邮件很短，有的长得不行。当我离开的时候，这可能会成为同事们最怀念的事情。

他们收到我的邮件时会想：“哎呀，Sheldon又发了一篇小作文。有意思！啥内容啊？行，又是校服。”如果每封邮件平均100个单词，实际上可能更多，在这18年里就是500万个单词。平均一本小说大约有9万个单词，这相当于55本小说的篇幅。我也太多产了。

然而我要说的是，过去的18年里能够在这里工作我感到无比荣幸，很荣幸认识你们每一个人，很荣幸与你们一起工作，很荣幸能够成为你们的校长。我特别感激Daniel，他给我成为校长的机会，一直支持我，给予我学术自由，让我在学校产生影响。

我希望你们，毕业生们，也能够心存感激。感激在这里学习的机会，从这里毕业，被出色的老师悉心教导，受到升学指导老师的关怀，得到学校领导的指引。这些可爱的人明年和未来的很多年一直都在这里。最重要的是，我希望你们能够因与坐在身边的每一位杰出的同窗一起学习感到荣幸。

还有一件事，在我结束之前。你们可能有点喜欢。有位同事听说我在 HFI 工作这么多年后要离开时，对我说：“你知道，当美国总统离任时，他们总会赦免罪犯。你也应该对处罚过的学生一些特殊关怀。”

“哇，听起来不太像我。过于有爱了吧。”但我还挺喜欢这个想法。它让我感到非常有权力。我已经开始觉得自己是个总统了。不过我不确定是否要设置这个传统，这会给我的下一任校长带来很大压力。一年后的学生会说：“我们真的很喜欢你。但是...你能赶紧走吗？走之前别忘了赦免我们！”

算了，我就要赦免你们！首先，这只适用于第二学期。不要太兴奋啊。第一学期的处罚PowerSchool 上已经记了，撤销不了了。其次，只有小幅调整。你们对违纪处分政策不太喜欢，但老师们很喜欢。他们的教学质量和你们的学习质量都会因此改变。

不管怎样，具体的做法是：我会通过增加所有处罚的限制来“赦免”你们，把所有限制都增加2个。所以不再是5次迟到扣5%，而是7次；不再是10次请假，而是12次。以此类推。

这是不是有点太慷慨了。有趣的是，限制增加1就足以减少每个年级阶段3处罚的数量一半。这也是我对明年的建议，只需将所有限制增加1就行了。增加2就会消除9年级和10年级学生的所有阶段3的处罚，就这个吧。

对于你们来说，调整以后受到阶段3处罚的学生人数将从28人减少到仅仅8人。恭喜你们成为自新的违纪政策推出以来受到惩罚最轻的一届。那不幸的8名学生，我对无法拯救你们表示慰问。

既然我正在设立这个先例，就应该制定一些基本原则。作为校长，我一直签订三年合同，总共有5个，跨越了15年。按总统任期来看，这有点像连任5个任期。因此，这个赦免不是因为我离开，而是因为我即将结束这个任期。这也为下一任校长减轻了一些压力，因为他必须完成他的三年合同，才有资格赦免。

在PowerSchool中应用所有的惩罚对我来说本来就是一项巨大的工作，减少以后正是一个双赢的局面。耶！就这样吧。

这次演讲应该是我作为校长的最后一项工作了，除了稍后要颁发证书和拍些照片。演讲快快结束了。我第三喜欢的工作已经接近尾声。

在这所学校待了这么长时间，我退休得也算是正合时宜。但我其实没有退休，想起又有点悲从中来。我要去另一所学校开始新的工作，与HFI竞争。我会有新的同事，要努力像喜欢现在的同事一样喜欢他们；也会遇到与HFI学生竞争的其他学生，而HFI就没有不好的学生；我还会遇到其他的家长，希望他们也能像你们的父母一样给予支持。这挺不容易的。但这不是竞争。我相信我仍然会喜欢我的新工作。如果它能成为我第四喜欢的工作，我会非常高兴。

家长们，老师们，同事们，朋友们，尊贵的嘉宾们，当然还有Fleming、Lister、Nightingale和Youyou，HFI的2023届毕业生：再见，祝你们好运，在未来的道路上，愿成功和快乐与你们同在！

谢谢。