Valedictory Address

"Valedictory Address" (14 May 1976): 1-4. (UA Case 68, Box 3).

We, the class of ’76 are the 147th graduating class of the University of New Brunswick. I wonder if we are any different from the first one? Certainly, they had greater opportunity with regard to the job market. But, I daresay that they were just as tired of exams, essays, projects, and labs as we are. It is nice to be finished our degrees, but I think that we will all feel a little twinge, if, by any chance, the Registrar mistakenly sends us a pre-registration kit. There has been a lot of hard work over the past few years, but the good times have been there too – be it a party that was fun or a well-deserved mark in a course.

But what did we get out of our years at UNB? There are so many answers to that – a sense of satisfaction that we have our degree, hangovers, exhaustion from pulling all-nighters and, maybe, an education. But I really don’t have an education. We’ve just begun to build our knowledge – we’ve only started to learn. In many respects we’re no farther ahead than the day we entered grade school. At that stage we could tie our shoes and maybe say our alphabet and now again we are embarking on a whole new experience. This time, we know the basics, just as before: but, instead of making words, we are now developing careers. Some of us will continue with our academic pursuits, but others of us will have life as an instructor from now on. Education is a continuing process and UNB was but one step in our lives. And we can’t stop now! We have got to keep learning…from and through others. This is so important! It is hard to come out of school and go into a job and now want to apply everything that we have learned. But the theory that we acquired is not always practical. We have to depend on others. We’ve learned a lot but we’ve got a lot to learn. Many of our nursing students learn that it is better to give an injection at a certain time that many be impractical because visitors may be there. Or business students learn that optimal performance may be achieved by having a five minute coffee break for the staff every hour but that may not be sensible either. I don’t think that anyone is going to question that we’re not intelligent or aware of new methods. But we have to be careful of trying to revolutionize the world in one day. I don’t mean to say that we should forget our ideals or not try to improve our conditions – working or otherwise. But experience is often far better and more pragmatic a teacher. We are not always dealing with the ideal conditions with which we originally worked. Education students learn that an ideal class size is twenty-two but you just cannot refuse to teach if you are facing thirty-five children. We have got to learn to adapt and learn from others. Sometimes their methods may seem old-fashioned but they may have developed through interaction, to be best. We’ll still be learning. Just because there isn’t a professor standing in front of us does not mean that our education is not still developing. Our undergraduate or even graduate degrees aren’t the end. We have so much to learn. We have chosen an academic stream in our quest for knowledge but there are other sources to tap – on-the-job experience, as was previously mentioned, travel, and others.

Basically, we have learned how to learn here at UNB – now we know how to analyze. We’ve got the basics – we could design a bridge now but we as yet haven’t actually had to deal with labor disputes or inflating costs that destroy budgets. We are so much better prepared for life even in the little things such as confidence within the classroom. In comparison with what we’ve learned in the latter years of our degrees, most of our introductory credits seem so insignificant. But how many of us were ready to cope with seminars in our first year.

So now what happens? Some of us will go back to school – others to work – yet others will travel or relax for a period of time. And what will happen to UNB? I daresay that it won’t collapse now that we’re leaving. But has anyone thought of what things will be like when we return in five or ten years? Even physically, think how much the campus has changed since we arrived. How will the university develop in the future? Will our emphasis change; will we go into new areas? We, as graduates, do have a say in this, you know. Not only in our contributions as alumni (Though I’ve heard we have letters in our mailboxes from the association right now), but as personal extensions of UNB. No matter what we do we are reflections of this institution. So let’s make it a good one. Take care, good-bye and good luck.