[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
thank you so much for being here this
morning and I love the theme this year
and it was such a challenge to think of
six words for the title so here are the
six words that I have and the tall trees
were silent and the tall trees were
silent so as a little kid you know I
would dance to the Jackson 5 so dance to
Michael Jackson or I would always love
for my parents to come and read stories
to me
so at the beginning of the day I would a
great my mom and dad to share a story
and I would jump up and down and I would
tell them mom and dad I want to hear a
story and then at night I would do the
same thing before going to bed please
tell me a story
so I want to share a story with you that
my parents told me that my mom told me
that just sticks with me and it’s about
trees and I just want to share that with
you this morning so she would talk about
this magical place and this magical
place is called skipper Ville and in
skipper Ville people would eat ice cream
day in and day out and so that’s one
reason why I enjoy the story so much
because I love ice cream but also you
had the sunlight it was always bright it
was always cheerful he had clouds you
had birds you had creatures small and
tall and you had people there with
sunshiny faces and they’re always
smiling but then you all know this
there’s always a villain in the story
and so in this story my mom would talk
about this dragon and this dragon is
coming along and getting ready to wipe
everything out and my mom said this but
you had these trees these tall trees
they’re humongous they’re powerful
they’re brilliant they’re extraordinary
they can wipe out anything in its sight
but on this particular day they did
nothing they were silent and the tall
trees were silent so again I love
stories and I think that’s why I’m an
English professor and so with students
in my class we read a lot of stories and
I get them to read these huge novels
always makes me happy as a professor to
give them huge novels to read but also
short stories and poems because I want
them to realise words have power words
have power words can stir people up
words can move people toward action so I
try to encourage them read stories and
then also write stories and when you
write a story I try to tell them think
of a problem and then go with it think
of a problem that we’re wrestling with
in this country or in the world and
write a story about that problem and so
I want you this morning to think about
the problem of bullying in our world and
I want to share some of these disturbing
stats with you over 4,000 lines are lost
each year because of bullying and then
notice this this is incredible half of
the suicides among young people in
Britain are due to bullying 83% of girls
and 79% of boys report being bullied and
how about this six out of ten
teenagers witnessed bullying in school
once a day and Stanford University
released this study just came out that
90% of elementary school kids are
bullied and when I go to conferences or
workshops or book events I always get
people come up to me and they say well
you know this is just a problem that
happens with little kids all right this
is just a problem that children suffer
with or perhaps in junior high or high
school but adults don’t wrestle with
this and tell them that it’s not the
case at all and so look at this stat 42%
of students have witnessed their peers
being bullied on University
campuses so college and university
students suffer with bullying and then
how about this in the workplace
seventy-five percent of adults in the
workplace are affected by bullying so
these are terrible numbers and awful
stats but we need to pay attention to
this problem and so I told my students
that’s why I was so inspired to do a
children’s book series and that’s why I
wanted to write on the subject of
bullying and so I did that with this
character and so this is Theodore
thumb’s so you can say hello Theodore I
always get yeah thank you thank you and
by the way I used to have hair like that
okay you save a afro or her hair that
was cool like that but not anymore but
this is Theodore thumbs and I’m gonna
share snippet of the story with you this
morning from the first book
Theodore thumbs once upon a time in a
town not too far away from yours there
lived a young boy named Theodore thumbs
he would always walk around town on the
happy sunny sidewalks where people small
and tall would look down on this little
boy with his thumb in his mouth he drew
attention from those near and far
because he was small in skinny because
his clothes would drag along whenever he
walked and because his long hair had a
life of its own he was old enough to
talk but when they would laugh point and
stare he would always as his body shook
and fear believed in his lucky thumb
instead of joining the boys by the trees
Theodore ran over to the slide in swing
set and then he sadly sat there on the
swing by himself while sitting there a
crowd of kids surrounded him the kids
began yelling cruel things at him
why do you wear those ugly clothes all
the time you look so silly sitting there
why is your hair so weird and funny it
Theodore jumped off the swing and just
stood there stood there without saying a
word they all laughed they all pointed
they all stared and so I decided to
write this book because I wanted to wake
the world up because of this horrible
epidemic in this world and so I decided
to do this through Theodore a thumbs and
a lot of times when I go to schools I
talk about Theodore thumb’s a lot of the
little kids like they’ll raise their
hands they want to know what inspired
you to write the story and I don’t tell
them the complete truth because it’s
very disturbing and sad when you know
the real story but I want to go ahead
and share the real story with you today
I wrote the story because of a good
friend of mine his name is Mark and Mark
whenever he walked into a room the
sunlight was there he was an incredible
kid had great ideas had great dreams had
wonderful things to say about people but
at our school people were bullied people
were made fun of and not just bullying
but we had other problems at our school
that teachers and administrators and
people in our town would just turn the
other way every time at recess time mark
would run out there and he wouldn’t use
the slide and he wouldn’t use the swing
but he would just hang there from the
bars in between and so he just enjoyed
doing pull-ups or he would just hang
there and look out at people well some
kids surrounded him and start saying all
these hateful things about him look at
Blacky hanging up there
look at and they would use the n-word
what is that doing there the
words would go on and on and this
happened on our playground Monday
through Friday well mark got tired of it
all
and so in his backyard there was a slide
and the swing set and he took some rope
and ended his life and I’ll never forget
that day because you had people in our
neighborhood from various professions
you had doctors lawyers nurses the
policemen were there the firefighters
children men and women watching this
black boy hanging there from the bars
and so I’ll never forget mark and
whenever I teach I think about that
image and that’s why I tell my students
go ahead and write the stories and
create the stories because we’ve got to
change this problem in our world and so
I want to go back to the trees because I
think we cannot afford to remain silent
also do this exercise with my students
because I absolutely love the movie Dead
Poets Society and I try to recite lines
from the movie to inspire them to do
something and so I want you to do what
my students do whenever I walk to the
classroom and start talking about Dead
Poets Society I want you to go ahead and
stand up where you are to stand up and I
want to recite this scene the teacher
walks into the classroom and he looks
them in the eyes and he says we do not
read and write because we have to we
read and write because we are members of
the human race and medicine law
engineering these are noble pursuits and
necessary to sustain life but poetry
beauty
man’s love these are the things we stay
alive for to quote from Whitman o me o
life of the questions of these recurring
of the endless trains of the faithless
of cities filled with the foolish would
good to admit thee o me o life the
answer that you are here you are here
and life exists and that the powerful
play goes on and you may contribute a
verse that the powerful play goes on and
you may contribute a verse
what will your verse be and I tell
students while you’re on this stage of
life you have a verse to contribute but
while you’re on this stage of life you
think about the problems of racism roll
up your sleeves and do something when
you think about the problem of sexism in
the world go ahead and do the research
but read the stories as well and roll up
your sleeves and do something about that
problem when you think about what’s
going on with gay people and what they
suffer with and what they’re going
through right down this world roll up
your sleeves and do something and when
you think about bullying don’t be silent
like these trees but do something thank you so much thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
thank you so much for being here this
morning and I love the theme this year
and it was such a challenge to think of
six words for the title so here are the
six words that I have and the tall trees
were silent and the tall trees were
silent so as a little kid you know I
would dance to the Jackson 5 so dance to
Michael Jackson or I would always love
for my parents to come and read stories
to me
so at the beginning of the day I would a
great my mom and dad to share a story
and I would jump up and down and I would
tell them mom and dad I want to hear a
story and then at night I would do the
same thing before going to bed please
tell me a story
so I want to share a story with you that
my parents told me that my mom told me
that just sticks with me and it’s about
trees and I just want to share that with
you this morning so she would talk about
this magical place and this magical
place is called skipper Ville and in
skipper Ville people would eat ice cream
day in and day out and so that’s one
reason why I enjoy the story so much
because I love ice cream but also you
had the sunlight it was always bright it
was always cheerful he had clouds you
had birds you had creatures small and
tall and you had people there with
sunshiny faces and they’re always
smiling but then you all know this
there’s always a villain in the story
and so in this story my mom would talk
about this dragon and this dragon is
coming along and getting ready to wipe
everything out and my mom said this but
you had these trees these tall trees
they’re humongous they’re powerful
they’re brilliant they’re extraordinary
they can wipe out anything in its sight
but on this particular day they did
nothing they were silent and the tall
trees were silent so again I love
stories and I think that’s why I’m an
English professor and so with students
in my class we read a lot of stories and
I get them to read these huge novels
always makes me happy as a professor to
give them huge novels to read but also
short stories and poems because I want
them to realise words have power words
have power words can stir people up
words can move people toward action so I
try to encourage them read stories and
then also write stories and when you
write a story I try to tell them think
of a problem and then go with it think
of a problem that we’re wrestling with
in this country or in the world and
write a story about that problem and so
I want you this morning to think about
the problem of bullying in our world and
I want to share some of these disturbing
stats with you over 4,000 lines are lost
each year because of bullying and then
notice this this is incredible half of
the suicides among young people in
Britain are due to bullying 83% of girls
and 79% of boys report being bullied and
how about this six out of ten
teenagers witnessed bullying in school
once a day and Stanford University
released this study just came out that
90% of elementary school kids are
bullied and when I go to conferences or
workshops or book events I always get
people come up to me and they say well
you know this is just a problem that
happens with little kids all right this
is just a problem that children suffer
with or perhaps in junior high or high
school but adults don’t wrestle with
this and tell them that it’s not the
case at all and so look at this stat 42%
of students have witnessed their peers
being bullied on University
campuses so college and university
students suffer with bullying and then
how about this in the workplace
seventy-five percent of adults in the
workplace are affected by bullying so
these are terrible numbers and awful
stats but we need to pay attention to
this problem and so I told my students
that’s why I was so inspired to do a
children’s book series and that’s why I
wanted to write on the subject of
bullying and so I did that with this
character and so this is Theodore
thumb’s so you can say hello Theodore I
always get yeah thank you thank you and
by the way I used to have hair like that
okay you save a afro or her hair that
was cool like that but not anymore but
this is Theodore thumbs and I’m gonna
share snippet of the story with you this
morning from the first book
Theodore thumbs once upon a time in a
town not too far away from yours there
lived a young boy named Theodore thumbs
he would always walk around town on the
happy sunny sidewalks where people small
and tall would look down on this little
boy with his thumb in his mouth he drew
attention from those near and far
because he was small in skinny because
his clothes would drag along whenever he
walked and because his long hair had a
life of its own he was old enough to
talk but when they would laugh point and
stare he would always as his body shook
and fear believed in his lucky thumb
instead of joining the boys by the trees
Theodore ran over to the slide in swing
set and then he sadly sat there on the
swing by himself while sitting there a
crowd of kids surrounded him the kids
began yelling cruel things at him
why do you wear those ugly clothes all
the time you look so silly sitting there
why is your hair so weird and funny it
Theodore jumped off the swing and just
stood there stood there without saying a
word they all laughed they all pointed
they all stared and so I decided to
write this book because I wanted to wake
the world up because of this horrible
epidemic in this world and so I decided
to do this through Theodore a thumbs and
a lot of times when I go to schools I
talk about Theodore thumb’s a lot of the
little kids like they’ll raise their
hands they want to know what inspired
you to write the story and I don’t tell
them the complete truth because it’s
very disturbing and sad when you know
the real story but I want to go ahead
and share the real story with you today
I wrote the story because of a good
friend of mine his name is Mark and Mark
whenever he walked into a room the
sunlight was there he was an incredible
kid had great ideas had great dreams had
wonderful things to say about people but
at our school people were bullied people
were made fun of and not just bullying
but we had other problems at our school
that teachers and administrators and
people in our town would just turn the
other way every time at recess time mark
would run out there and he wouldn’t use
the slide and he wouldn’t use the swing
but he would just hang there from the
bars in between and so he just enjoyed
doing pull-ups or he would just hang
there and look out at people well some
kids surrounded him and start saying all
these hateful things about him look at
Blacky hanging up there
look at and they would use the n-word
what is that doing there the
words would go on and on and this
happened on our playground Monday
through Friday well mark got tired of it
all
and so in his backyard there was a slide
and the swing set and he took some rope
and ended his life and I’ll never forget
that day because you had people in our
neighborhood from various professions
you had doctors lawyers nurses the
policemen were there the firefighters
children men and women watching this
black boy hanging there from the bars
and so I’ll never forget mark and
whenever I teach I think about that
image and that’s why I tell my students
go ahead and write the stories and
create the stories because we’ve got to
change this problem in our world and so
I want to go back to the trees because I
think we cannot afford to remain silent
also do this exercise with my students
because I absolutely love the movie Dead
Poets Society and I try to recite lines
from the movie to inspire them to do
something and so I want you to do what
my students do whenever I walk to the
classroom and start talking about Dead
Poets Society I want you to go ahead and
stand up where you are to stand up and I
want to recite this scene the teacher
walks into the classroom and he looks
them in the eyes and he says we do not
read and write because we have to we
read and write because we are members of
the human race and medicine law
engineering these are noble pursuits and
necessary to sustain life but poetry
beauty
man’s love these are the things we stay
alive for to quote from Whitman o me o
life of the questions of these recurring
of the endless trains of the faithless
of cities filled with the foolish would
good to admit thee o me o life the
answer that you are here you are here
and life exists and that the powerful
play goes on and you may contribute a
verse that the powerful play goes on and
you may contribute a verse
what will your verse be and I tell
students while you’re on this stage of
life you have a verse to contribute but
while you’re on this stage of life you
think about the problems of racism roll
up your sleeves and do something when
you think about the problem of sexism in
the world go ahead and do the research
but read the stories as well and roll up
your sleeves and do something about that
problem when you think about what’s
going on with gay people and what they
suffer with and what they’re going
through right down this world roll up
your sleeves and do something and when
you think about bullying don’t be silent
like these trees but do something thank you so much thank you
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