Matthew Kelly creates fiasco in front of entire student body
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November 12, 2009
Jessica Contrera
It wasn’t his Australian accent that made us feel like the recent all school assembly speaker was the farthest thing from our “mate.”
Matthew Kelly caused a great deal of controversy last week concerning his actions and overall attitude during his speech to the Hoban student body. Kelly is a New York Times best selling author and a well known motivational speaker He heads his own foundation, The Matthew Kelly Foundation, and has authored ten books on ranging topics that mostly center on finding happiness in life. His renown would lead anyone to believe that his words of advice are likely worthwhile.
I enjoyed many aspects of the context of Kelly’s speech. If you were able to get past the copious fluff that surrounded it, such as the explanation of the entire Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie, Kelly made meaningful points about planning for life, finding true happiness and understanding yourself.
However, being a well known speaker, even one who has good advice, does not give a person permission to be rude. Matthew Kelly was certainly rude and disregarded a basic “common courtesy” that he insuated the students of Hoban lack.
While it is unfortunate that high school students, myself included, are often unable to sit still and be silent during an hour-long assembly, that type of action is bound to take place when over 900 teenagers gather. In fact, I am sure that in comparison to most high schools, Hoban students are extremely well behaved and respectful of speakers.
The school hired Kelly as a speaker, not an administrator. In addition to his obvious lack of enthusiasm, he crossed his boundaries by punishing talking students in the middle of his speech. He made students change seats, kicked them out of the gym and even openly called one an idiot. These actions then detracted from Kelly’s performance. Students were paying more attention to who was getting in trouble than the potentially valuable information in Kelly’s words.
Some defended Kelly, arguing that Hoban was his fourth high school talk that day. While I’m sure that his demanding schedule is exhausting, perhaps Kelly should not schedule talks to high school groups if he will not allow anything but silence while he speaks. He arrived for the speech as we were sitting down and left before we were out of the gym, like a referee who knows he will be heckled by the fans for his bad calls.
It may have been just an off day for Kelly, whose major charitable effort is “The Schools Project” in which more than 50,000 students will receive complimentary copies of one of Kelly’s books after hearing him speak at their school. Hoban students, as part of this project, received Kelly’s The Shepherd, a Modern Parable about Our Search for Happiness. Upon receiving and reading this “novel,” I wondered why a three minute short story which reads like a chain email was turned into a hardback, 81 page book.
But what bothered me most about the book and The Schools Project was not this disturbing waste of good trees. The Matthew Kelly Foundation website boasts that Kelly said this about his work with high school students: “Their hearts are free. All we need to do is give them the courage to follow their hearts. If we give them a life-directing message right now, we may save them from needing a life-changing message ten, twenty or thirty years from now.”
I guess Kelly felt that those students who were talking while he was talking didn’t have hearts that were “free” enough to deserve a life-directing message.
16 Responses to “Matthew Kelly creates fiasco in front of entire student body”
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November 12th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
This is a wonderful article, Jessica. Really captured what we were all feeling afterwards.
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chris Reply:
May 3rd, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Mr. Kelly did this same thing to my son last week-after losing the attention of many students, even to where there were kids punching each other in the first row-he single out one kid and kicked him out-no moving him to another seat or asking for the audiences attention. Not making excuses for my son-but there was a teacher sitting right behind him that didn’t even notice him talking and 2 other teachers that felt it was completely inappropriate. sounds like a motivational speacher’s way of gaining crowd control through public humiliation.
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November 14th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
First of all, it was rude of them to be talking during his speech!! When you talk during class or during school mass, teachers also move you or tell you to be quiet. Students had their warning when he asked them to pay attention and when they still didnt listen, they were moved. Now the girls that got kicked out had seen that they would be moved if they talked and they STILL did it anyways!! The people that got moved and kicked out are the usual ones that chit chat and never get in trouble. The idiot comment was a little much though. He didnt think they didnt deserve the message he just wanted everyone to hear his message when hes traveled from so far. This would have been a much better experience had both the speaker and the students shown some respect.
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November 16th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Sammuel, When you get 900 plus teenagers together there is going to be talking. Its kind of like when you get 900 Chimpanzees together, you can expect there is going to be some poo thrown.
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November 19th, 2009 at 10:01 am
To the Hoban student body,
I am wrtiing to express my disappointment and shame at the behavior of the Hoban student body during the Matthew Kelly assembly as detailed by Jessica Contrera in the recent Visor article. As a proud member (and alumna) of the Hoban family, I expect that Hoban students will be courteous to their guests no matter the circumstances. Contrera stated, “HIgh scool students…are often unable to sit still and be silent during an hour long assembly….In fact, I am sure that in comparison to most high schools, Hoban students are extremely well behaved and respectful of speakers.” False and false. Each of you has sat still for an hour multiple times in your life – in class, during exams, at church services. I personally attended a Matthew Kelly event involving nearly 2000 people, most teen-agers crammed into a 1000 seat church on a Sunday night. You could have heard a pin drop, (except during the gales of laughter). Ben Edwards stated an assembly is “kind of like when you get 900 chimpanzees together, you can expect there is going to be some poo thrown.” When you wear the Hoban name, you represent all of us. You are not chimpanzees. You are Hoban students whose core values include discipline, excellence and integrity. Where were those values in this assembly?
Many have sacrificed so that you have the opportunity of a great education. As Blessed Basil Moreau said “consider the greatness of your mission and the wonderful amount of good which you can accomplish.” The Hoban student body has big shoes to fill. As an alumna, I expect you to fill them.
Sincerely
Beth Davies, ’77
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November 19th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
i want you to get 900 highschool kids in a gym together and see if they talk. He was rude and extremely unprofessional. Of course there is going to be some chatter if you are in a big group.
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November 23rd, 2009 at 10:26 am
Dear Mrs. Davies,
While Hoban is a highly regarded school and the students are held to higher standard, Matthew Kelly was unfit to talk at the time he did. He was not exciting and it was obvious he did not want to be there. The attitude Matthew Kelly showed reflected back on his audience which ended up in no one wanting to be there. Matthew Kelly was having an off day, or maybe it was the four speeches he gave before Hoban’s.
Matthew Kelly needs to spend some time in the classroom of silence himself and possibly rethink his career. While the message was good, the delivery was not.
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November 23rd, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Dear Mrs. Davies,
Your response was very appropriate and true. If I had time I would have written the same thing myself. I have been to many events where teens have sat for an entire hour and listened to a speaker whos delivery wasn’t that great and rude, but nonetheless Matthew Kelly was a guest here at Hoban and he deserved the utmost respect and SOME of the student body failed to meet that request. I agree with Ben Edwards times have changed since 1977, but have they changed in a good way that we are all proud of? Maybe its time for the Hoban community to revaluate its manners or maybe our disrespect is the reflection of todays society. I don’t mean to offend anyone or this article its just my opinion and I understand and am open to others as well.
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November 24th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I think this is a great article, Jessica! As a recent Hoban alum, I know our students are well behaved and conscientious teenagers. For a professional motivational speaker to act in this manner is frankly disturbing – and it seems that his poor performance caused the students to speak during the assembly, rather than vice-versa.
I’m not ashamed of the Hoban student body – I’m sorry that they were so disrespected by a motivational speaker.
To insinuate that because students were offended by his behavior, Hoban is losing touch with Holy Cross values is simply ridiculous. Hoban is a great school, and students and administrators do not deserved to be called “idiot” by anyone, regardless of how many books he sells.
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November 25th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I think that the only way you can really understand the article is if you were there in person. If you were not, it is easy to say that the students in the crowd should have been able to keep quiet. Many Hoban teachers agree that Matthew Kelly was out of line for sending kids out of the gym. Therefore I think it is unfair for people to judge Hoban students on their “lack of behavior” without actually attending the assembly.
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December 8th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
he who is without sin should be the first to cast a stone.
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December 10th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I think that Mr. Kelley’s message wasn’t even really remembered. He acted so irritably that all we can remember is that there was some guy who came to speak for us who had a cool accent, talked about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and kicked people out (like Jessica said).
Him calling people idiots just didn’t seem right. I mean I understand you are supposed to respect your elders and I am a firm believer in that; however, if your elder is acting juvenile and disrespects you and your school then honestly he doesn’t really deserve respect. For all he knows some of those kids could have been discussing his speech. I’ll admit that i did comment to my friend sitting next to me about a few things Mr. Kelley said and he commented back.
I also agree with a lot of the previous comments made on this article. When you gather a group of teenagers together in a gym who are all pretty much good friend there are going to be a few little conversations going on in this crowd. As an experienced speaker though, Mr. Kelley should of been able to ignore it. I mean seriously were they screaming? The answer is no. I also don’t think it’s fair to say that Hoban’s students are disrespectful when it was what? Like 7 out of 900?
Even though we’ve had this one bad experience with a motivational speaker I hope the administration will try to set up another assembly.
Hannah Good
Class of 2013
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December 14th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I feel as though Mr. Kelley was a perfect example of a little thing called “tough love.” Us Hoban students are great, and he knew that. In fact, he thinks we are so great that he has even HIGHER expectations that he would for any other school. So yes, maybe it seemed as though he was being irrational and crazy, but he was just trying to help us be the best we possibly can. Think about it: in a few years when your in a meeting for your job and your boss is talking, will you just have a side conversation with your co-worker? Heavens no! So you shouldn’t have side conversations during assemblies.
I fully understand that we are humans, and we make mistakes, but let us learn from them, and being the great students we are, I’m sure there will be no more misconduct.
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December 17th, 2009 at 12:43 am
In my oppinion, unless you were at the assembly, it’s hard to accurately assess the situation. I agree with Jessica wholeheartedly. Mr. Kelley acted unprofessionaly. It was clear to anyone who understands obvious indicators in human behavior that he had no interest in being there. As a speaker, it is your job to show that your passionate about the subject your talking about. If you don’t believe in what your talking about, how will you ever manage to get the audience to buy in to what your saying? As far as Hoban students changing for the worse, I believe that not a more incorrect statement was ever spoken. I urge you to come walk the halls of Hoban with me anytime (my real name is attached to this post) and see for yourself. Its full of amazing individuals.
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December 17th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Firstly, if you listened to Mr. Kelley’s presentation, you would know that opinion is not spelled with 2 p’s. Secondly, I agree that Hoban students put the “cool” in school, however, sometimes the “cool” thing to do is not always the right thing to do. Look at it this way: What if it were Jesus giving a speech to you. Would you have side conversations? I highly doubt it. And before you say, ” Mr. Kelley is not Christ by any means,” let me remind you that there is Christ in all of us, so indirectly, Christ was speaking to the student body.
Also, if Mr. Kelley “didn’t want to be there” then why was he there? He is an adult that can do what he wants. And sure, maybe it wasn’t his top priority to be speaking at Hoban, but at least he was there. He gave up time from his busy schedule to speak to everyone. He got you guys out of class as well, so no one should even complain at all.
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December 17th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
I completely agree with Jessica, and I think David’s comment said it best. Personally, I was pretty uncomfortable sitting in that assembly; I felt like Mr. Kelley was telling a worn-out story to a group of people he mildly disliked. I said that to someone; maybe he should have kicked me out.
I think the negative reflection on the “changing times” is that a supposed ‘motivational speaker’ was a glaring example of public disrespect.
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