All graduations are special but I have been waiting for this one for 18 years. Waiting with both trepidation and anticiaption. I have known many of you since you were three or four years old and it is not often that a headmaster can say that he has seen his students in their pyjamas and that they have seen him in his without there being a long jail sentence ahead. They say that familiarity breeds contempt. That probably depends on the pyjamas but it is certainly true that the more you get to know a person the more you get to know their shortcomings. How many frienships, how many relationships, how many marriages have run aground as we discover things about our partners that we do not feel so comfortable with?

The ultimate test of true love is undoubtedly being able to turn those discoveries into something positive, being able to see beauty in that which appears ugly, being able to find meaning in that which appears senseless, being able to understand ourselves more fully through the mirror that the other provides for us. So whilst it may appear on the face of it more comfortable to maintain a distance and a superficiality that hides the real truth, there is no question that our humanity can only truly become fulfilled to the degree that we know others, and know ourselves through them.

In this sense I believe that you have excelled. As a group you are uncompromising. You cut to the chase, you reject hollow reasoning. You have a healthy disregard for rules for rules' sake and are true to yourselves. You question the unfounded, you make bold decisions and you are not afraid of confrontation. You reject superficiality, you spurn platitudes and you abhore hypocracy, even though you sometimes indulge in all three. Your trajectory in this school has been always intense, often polemic and rarely peaceful. It has been a turbulent and at times painful journey, with casualties along the way, but at the end of the road there is a deeper understanding and a stronger bond as a result of that intensity.

I am reminded of a poem by Louis MacNeice which sums up this indelible spirit and determination not to be sucked into the mediocrity of conformism:

Prayer before birth

I am not yet born; O hear me.

Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the

club-footed ghoul come near me.

I am not yet born, console me.

I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,

with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,

on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.

I am not yet born; provide me

With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk

to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light

in the back of my mind to guide me.

I am not yet born; forgive me

For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words

when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,

my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,

my life when they murder by means of my

hands, my death when they live me.

I am not yet born; rehearse me

In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when

old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains

frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white

waves call me to folly and the desert calls

me to doom and the beggar refuses

my gift and my children curse me.

I am not yet born; O hear me,

Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God

come near me.

I am not yet born; O fill me

With strength against those who would freeze my

humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,

would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with

one face, a thing, and against all those

who would dissipate my entirety, would

blow me like thistledown hither and

thither or hither and thither

like water held in the

hands would spill me.

Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.

Otherwise kill me.

But this spirit alone is not enough. We live in a world where corruption and self interest are the norm. Where we put ourselves first and others second. Where trust and honesty are so undervalued that we are all assumed guilty until proven innocent, if in fact anybody can actually be bothered to try prove us innocent. Even headmasters of schools are assumed to be "on the make", living a life of opulence and decadence with funds allegedly deviated from their intended destiny.

The defiant spirit that champions free thinking autonomy means nothing without a set of guiding values and principles to keep it on track. Although these principles are under seige today, there was a time when their currency was far stronger, and I would like to share with you a little known piece of history to illustrate my point.

In 1948 a remarkable piece of statistics ocurred. Harry Truman, who as Vice President had taken over from Roosevelt as President of the United States upon the Roosevelt's death in April1945, stood for election against the Republican Thomas Dewey. Truman was considered to be rather uninspiring and Dewey was the clear favourite to win. Opinion polls all predicted a Dewey victory and on November 2nd the nation went to bed confident that they had elected a Republican President. In fact the Chicago Tribune actually printed an early edition of the next day's newspaper with the headline "Dewey defeats Truman".

However, a handful of dedicated Truman supporters in Antioch, Ohio, who had campaigned hard for him, the grandmother of one of you amongst them, stayed up to watch the late results come in. And as the night wore on a remarkable turnaround happened, with Truman eventually winning by 2,000,000 votes. This, of course, is a famous piece of history, and the statistics lesson behind it a fascinating one which we don't have time for right now. However, the little known history is what happened afterwards, and I am indebted to that Truman campaigner who stayed up all night on November 2nd, 1948 for sending me the following:

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding the nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents preceding him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri. His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired from office in 1952, his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale.

Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!"

The tragedy, of course, is not that there are no Harry Trumans anymore - there are - but that in 2010 a Harry Truman could never be elected. Today Presidents and Prime Ministers are elected on charisma, sound bites and good looks, not on values like honesty and trust.

Another great US President, Abraham Lincoln, once said "nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power". As you move on in your lives, will you be able to stand the test of power? I invite you to take that indominitable spirit and guide it with equally strong principles and values.

Have a great day!