Why I declined giving the valediction
We are back in 1986. I had just passed the exam for the Higher Trade Degree, when the chairman of the student council approached me and told me that I was selected to give valediction. Some would see this as an honor. However, this was not the case for me. Descending from the working class in Denmark, it was a task I couldn't take. Most people properly know that Denmark is a Kingdom. Still to this day a lot of people decline to accept distinctions from the Royal house. Even knighthood. In Denmark we don't have the same tradition as they have in the United States and some other countries where it is the student who had the highest-performing student at a certain school year, who gives the speech. At my school it was the chairman of the student council. I was not the chairman nor the highest-performing student. We have a strong tradition to acknowledge our social heritage. Recent research revealed that 30 years of effort to reduce this tradition had failed. People descendin...