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    You Are Not Special: … And Other Encouragements
    Unavailable
    You Are Not Special: … And Other Encouragements
    Unavailable
    You Are Not Special: … And Other Encouragements
    Ebook297 pages6 hours

    You Are Not Special: … And Other Encouragements

    By David McCullough, Jr.

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A profound expansion of David McCullough, Jr.’s popular commencement speech—a call to arms against a prevailing, narrow, conception of success viewed by millions on YouTube—You Are (Not) Special is a love letter to students and parents as well as a guide to a truly fulfilling, happy life

    “Every once in a long while, a voice seems to come out of nowhere, and you wonder how you ever managed without [it]. David McCullough, Jr. has that startling, insightful, wry, reassuring, helpful voice and You Are Not Special may be the wisest ?‘parenting’ book I’ve read in decades.”—Madeline Levine, author of author of The Price of Privilege and Teach Your Children Well

    Children today, says David McCullough—high school English teacher, father of four, and son and namesake of the famous historian—are being encouraged to sacrifice passionate engagement with life for specious notions of success. The intense pressure to excel discourages kids from taking chances, failing, and learning empathy and self-confidence from those failures.

    In You Are (Not) Special, McCullough elaborates on his now-famous speech exploring how, for what purpose, and for whose sake, we’re raising our kids. With wry, affectionate humor, McCullough takes on hovering parents, ineffectual schools, professional college prep, electronic distractions, club sports, and generally the manifestations, and the applications and consequences of privilege. By acknowledging that the world is indifferent to them, McCullough takes pressure off of students to be extraordinary achievers and instead exhorts them to roll up their sleeves and do something useful with their advantages.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 22, 2014
    ISBN9780062257352
    Author

    David McCullough, Jr.

    David McCullough, Jr. taught for sixteen years at Punahou School in Honolulu and has been teaching at Wellesley High School near Boston since 2002. He lives with his wife and four children in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

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    Reviews for You Are Not Special

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      Listened to it. Somewhat repetitive but entertaining with some excellent insights.
    • 3/5
      Built from a commencement address that went viral (and I recall seeing) in 2012, the book has some wise ideas mixed in with a few interesting anecdotes. It goes on a little too long in some sections.
    • 5/5
      The one point overlooked is that the battle for admission to expensive colleges is a main factor in the increasing cost of those colleges. Prices will change when the market begins looking elsewhere.
    • 5/5
      Rich with one-liners and insightful observations. A little awkward with the delivery in spots but still a magnificent commentary on teaching, students, and the contemporary culture of self-absorption where everyone receives a trophy whether they achieved anything or not.
    • 4/5
      Built on the famous graduation speech where the author informed a graduating class that they were not special. This book is a series of essays that expand on that theme, and others, such as racism, materialism, and the sexes. There are some profound insights, a number of pithy one-liners, some solid advice, and not just a little mushy thinking in the modern, sort of almost New Age but not quite variety. The work is limited by the author's limited experience; his own life, and that of his students, is one of preppy upper middle to upper class schools, and as such, he has very little comprehension of the average student facing the average teacher in the average school, so some of his observations and advice may sound a bit...precious...but there are a lot of places where the issues being dealt with in these schools sounds eerily similar to that faced in the inner city and rural schools around the nation. The chapter on males and females should be skipped; one wonders where the author is meeting these oh, so stereotypical people, and the chapter oozes with a subtle, probably unrecognized sexism (yes, even though he does point out the less stellar characteristics that supposedly define boys and juxtapose them with the more socially desirable traits in that sphere for the girls - they still fall into men bosses, women nurturers). Overall, it's a worthwhile read, but expect a certain amount of unquestioned conventional wisdom. A bit more research in parts could have been helpful.
    • 4/5
      An interesting expansion on the graduation speech made popular by the title. It covers a little bit of biography and a lot on the author's experienced view on teaching. Even if you don't agree with all of his conclusions, he makes an interesting read along the way.