Today I had the honor of delivering the student address at the graduate commencement at Oklahoma City University. Below is the text with a few edits.
Michael
Slack
5/5/2012
Student
Address: Graduate Commencement
Oklahoma
City University
Essential Questions
There is only one thing I’d like to talk
to you about today. Just one thing. And that one thing is an instructional
strategy and approach I learned while a public school teacher in Atlanta,
GA. The strategy is called “Essential
Questions.”
Essential Questions are questions that a
teacher asks his students before the lesson begins. These questions give students clues into the
fundamental content of the day’s lesson.
These questions tell a student what to listen for, what to watch for, what
to expect, and what’s to come. So if I
taught a lesson on triangles, I might ask the essential question, “How many
sides does a triangle have?” or “What is the area formula for a triangle?” During the lesson, when I say, “A triangle
has three sides,” the students know to underline, circle, and highlight that
bit of information because they know it will be on the quiz, which I like the
call, “The Moment of Truth.”
The really good teachers put tremendous
effort into asking the right Essential Questions every single day. I was only an ok teacher, so I did this
sometimes, but not always. But this
practice is extremely important for students because it doesn’t always come
naturally for people to think “now” about questions they’ll need to answer
“later.” It takes time to learn that you
have to ask the Essential Questions, before
you get to the Moment of Truth.
I’m telling you about Essential
Questions because the 2012 graduates are wrapping up a phase of our lives where
we’ve been preparing to answer a series of Essential Questions that are
inwardly and academically based. “How
many pages does this paper need to be?” “What’s going to be on the final
exam?” “Do I have enough credits to
graduate?” These are all questions we had
to answer before we could arrive here, at the Moment of Truth. But these questions aren’t the only ones I’ve
been preparing to answer in my 5 years of studies at Oklahoma City University.
The faculty and staff at OCU have the
great foresight to prepare us to answer the Essential Questions that force us
to look beyond the class period, beyond the semester, and even beyond
graduation. They have the foresight to
prepare us to answer the Essential Questions we will try to answer for the rest
of our lives. Questions like: “What kind
of person do I want to be?” “What impact
do I want to have in this city, this state, and this world?” and “How will I be
remembered?” They’ve asked us these
questions both explicitly and implicitly through OCU’s exposure to service
learning classes, University participation in volunteerism and fundraising,
and, most importantly, by surrounding us with a cloud of witnesses who have
served at times as model responses to these “Essential Questions.”
I want to share with you just one brief anecdote
about how the faculty and staff have helped me to think about and answer some
of life’s Essential Questions. I could
tell 50 stories, but I suppose we should walk across this before too long.
I learned how to answer the essential
question, “What kind of person do I want to be,” before I even attended my
first class as a freshman when a leading University administrator walked up to
me, introduced himself, called me by named, and told me he was excited that I
was on campus. I was stunned. This campus leader came up to me, he know my
name, my major, and the name of my scholarship.
Looking back on that moment I realize now I was being taught what it
means to be a Servant Leader. I hope that if I ever ascend to a position of
authority or importance, I will remember this lesson – time invested being
gracious and humble yields enormous returns.
This interaction took one minute at most, but it made me, a freshman,
feel important. And it is a memory that
has remained fresh in my mind to this day, almost 8 years later. And I imagine it will remain with me for many
more years. What kind of person do I
want to be? A Servant Leader.
This interaction precipitated reflection
on the characteristics of a Servant Leader and I’ve mentioned a few of the
obvious characteristics like humility and generosity. But one of the less obvious characteristics
that I’ve come to appreciate more is the attitude towards service which is best
described as: Eagerness. I think Servant
Leaders have a special antenna in their brains pays special attention for
opportunities to serve. The Servant
leader seeks out and enjoys those moments when they help make someone else’s
life better. How do I want to be remembered? As someone who is eager to serve. When my Moment of Truth comes and I consider
the impact I’ve made in this world, I hope I can answer, “I enjoyed working
with others to make this world a better place.”
That’s what OCU has taught me.
I wanted to share these thoughts on
Essential Questions today because we’ve succeeded in answering the Academic
Essentials Questions of our lives. And
now, we have decades to answer a different set of questions, Life’s Essential
Questions.
As we go out from this place, I hope
we continue to ask ourselves how we can be servant leaders in our community;
actively, eagerly, working together towards a better community.
Thank you so much for this time, and
congratulations to my fellow graduates and good luck out there.
