You have to hand it to state Sen. Bill Hansell: Giving the commencement speech during Saturday’s graduation ceremony at Wallowa High School, he made certain that the graduates would remember at least some of his speech.

Now, to be clear — and with apologies to virtually every graduation speaker at a high school or college ceremony this spring — these speeches generally aren’t going to be remembered by, well, pretty much anybody. Can you recall who spoke at your high school graduation? Can you remember anything about your high school graduation ceremony?

We’ll wait.

The point isn’t that the people delivering these speeches aren’t good speakers or don’t have anything worthwhile to say. (“Wear sunscreen,” kids.) The point, as writer A.O. Scott argued in an amusing recent column in The New York Times, is that the best graduation speeches are the ones that don’t try to rise to the moment: “Like a wedding toast,” Scott wrote, “a commencement address is not supposed to surpass its occasion. The speaker is generally someone who has said or done memorable things; the speech should not be one of them.”

Hansell’s speech (which you can read about on Page A14 of today’s Chieftain) wasn’t shy on the advice: Remember, he told the graduates, that each of you has inherent value — and nothing can take that away.

Those are wise words.

But it was the props that really hammered the point home: He produced a $2 bill and proceeded to abuse it. At one point, he stomped on it. His point: Even after the abuse, the bill still had $2 worth of value. It was inherent.

Then he handed a crisp $2 bill to each graduate. Even the choice of currency is inspired: A $1 bill would be lost in the shuffle. Even a $5 bill wouldn’t stand out. But a $2 bill is unusual. If you can’t track down a batch of $100,000 bills, a $2 bill is a good backup choice. We bet a number of those graduates are going to hang onto that particular bit of currency and the memories that it inspires.

Over the last week or so, some 81 Wallowa County high school seniors turned the tassels on their mortarboards from the right side to the left — and then tossed those caps into the air to celebrate the end of their secondary school education. And then they commenced to enter the next phases of their lives, which we guess is why we call these ceremonies “commencement exercises.”

And we call the ceremonies “exercises” as a reminder that graduating from high school is hard work.

We’re not going to say anything here that even sounds like advice to the county’s new graduates; goodness knows they’ve heard more than enough of that over the last several months.

But we will say this: Graduation is a big deal. And when 81 students graduate, their communities should celebrate right alongside them.

Here’s why: Those communities, and the support they provide, are essential pieces of making sure that students graduate in the first place. It’s true, of course, that students tackle most of the required work. But they don’t do it alone. The path to graduation is paved with the work of many people — a community, in other words. In a county that prides itself on graduation rates that typically surpass 90% — well above the state average — this is a big deal.

So, congratulations to all of Wallowa County’s graduates — and to the work of everyone in their communities who helped them get to the point where they could turn those tassels and toss those caps high into the air.