Moscow graduates face the alternative facts

For all the chords of Pomp and Circumstance, traditional black garb and cords and medals proclaiming academic excellence, Moscow High School’s 2017 graduation ceremony was anything but the same old routine.

Studded with laughter, song and some accidentally touching reminiscences, administrator, student and teacher speeches alike cheerfully turned tradition on its head.

District Superintendent Greg Bailey recalled with sly humor student accomplishments over the past four years, “Like putting a car in the commons area of the school and looking right into the recently installed surveillance cameras,” he said with a fatherly glance into the audience. “Don’t worry, the statute of limitations is up at 8:30 tonight, when the ceremony ends.”

Prom King, Mr. Moscow High School and student speaker Isaac Stone had some fond memories of his own.

“Freshman year came with a lot of firsts,” he said. “First day, first homecoming, first girlfriend … second girlfriend and the first girlfriend again and realizing I had a lot to learn about girls.”

Sophomore year brought new lessons, he said — such as learning it is a bad idea to look upward with an open mouth when silly string was sprayed over the crowd.

“I learned that from experience,” he said proudly.

But it was junior year when students began defining their priorities.

“Some of us studied night and day for SAT’s and began writing college essays,” he said. “Some of us thought it would be more productive to paint our Geo Metro’s camouflage.”

But graduation is not about memories, he said.

“As good as the memories of high school can be, forget them,” Stone challenged his peers. “And don’t be afraid to dream big.

“Help those you surround yourself with achieve their goals. Be a dream fulfiller and attack your dreams with passion.”

Teacher Sam Hoogsteen had some advice of his own to share with his former students, in the form of a speech based on the book, “Lies My Teacher Told Me.”

But this is 2017, he said, and adjusted the title of his talk to “Alternative Facts Past Graduation Speakers Told Me.”

“Alternative fact number one,” Hoogsteen boomed in his practiced announcer voice. “You are the future. I argue against this one.”

Hoogsteen said the graduates should not wait for the future to act, as they have enough practice with procrastination already.

“You are the present,” he said. “You don’t have to wait.”

Hoogsteen noted with a proud air those things the students had already accomplished, standing up for civil rights and feeding the homeless, among others.

The second alternative fact may have come directly from a graduation speaker’s handbook.

“You can be anything you want to be,” he said, noting he would never be a professional football player. “But make the attempt regardless of what the critics say.”

Hoodsteen’s final alternative fact to be debunked meshed with Stone’s challenge to his fellow graduates.

“Your high school days were the best days of your life,” he said.

But not for everyone. For many they were years of struggle.

The greatest moments will be found ahead, he said. Perhaps when students meet their own special someone, hold their children in their arms, land their dream job or graduate from college.

“Or when you strike it rich and buy your favorite teacher that muscle car I’ve always wanted,” he said.

He left the class on a sweet note, specifically one written in the late 1960s by Paul McCartney, when Hoogsteen and two fellow teachers serenaded the graduating class with “Blackbird.”

“I hope it brings you some joy,” he said.

Graduate Caleb Couch had no fear of his own big dreams, or of voicing them.

“I want to direct a movie that’s a box office hit,” he said. “To carve out some new ground.”

Couch, graduating cum laude, said he is set up with an internship with a media production company, followed by plans to attend the University of Idaho in the future.

Tatum Dahlin, also 18, has chosen to celebrate her freedom from high school by jumping right into independent adulthood — and the work force.

“I’m so pumped to be graduating finally,” she said. “I’m going to get a job and save money for a place to live.”

Shanon Quinn can be reached at (208) 883-4636, or by email to squinn@dnews.com.