It's going to be a wonderful day in the Dartmouth neighborhood--Mr. Rogers is going to give the commencement speech.

Not all the students are happy about it.

"It's like Barney the dinosaur speaking at our graduation,'' said history major Michael Weiss. "We're 22 years old and we're getting lectured by a guy who plays with puppets for a living.''

The major professional association for my line of work once booked Fred Rogers AND Jesse Jackson to speak at their convention. It's part of the reason I don't belong to it anymore.

They were going to get Noam Chomsky but then they decided they wanted someone more serious.

Bill Cosby (a perennial favorite on the commencement-speaker circuit) and his wife are personal friends of my alma mater's president. In fact, Bill appeared at the president's splashy (cost $60,000 in student funds) installation ceremony and party. This gave us hope that maybe Bill would be engaged to speak at our commencement a few months later.

It was decided that the CEO of the Sizzler Restaurant chain (since gone bankrupt, I believe) was sufficient for us lowly students.

I'm trying very hard to think of a better person to have as a commencement speaker. I can't.

Fred Rogers has lived a life of decency and kindness, and has helped millions of children along the way. For many, he was the first adult, including their parents, to tell them they were special.

He is NOT Barney the dinosaur, he is someone who has always tried to get kids to imagine for themselves and be a part of a larger community (vs. follow Barney and be part of his kiddie cult).

The number of lives he has improved while living out this vision is difficult to imagine - but it represents a level of real success rarely achieved in our world.

If the morons at Dartmouth don't understand the value of a man like Mr. Rogers, their education has been a complete and utter failure. One hopes that someday they'll grow up enough to understand the value of "a guy who plays with puppets for a living."