Dalton Sherman: Fifth Grader's Motivation Speech Video

by candice.tsuei | September 18, 2009 at 09:28 am

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Dalton Sherman's "Do you Believe In Me" motivation speech video has created a huge buzz online and has become a Youtube sensation.

11-year-old Sherman is a straight-A, grade-five student at Charles Rice Learning Center and the keynote speaker for the Dallas Independent School District 2008 Back-to-School pep rally. Fearlessly and confidently, Sherman delivered the speech to some 20,000 Dallas schoolteachers and received thunderous applause from the crowd.

He's been on Oprah Winfrey's and Ellen DeGeneres' talk shows. He's hobnobbed with Donald Trump, poet Maya Angelou and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and on Friday, Jenna Bush Hager will interview him on NBC's "Today" show in her broadcasting debut.

In addition, Sherman just had one of his largest presentations back in June, when he spoke to 24,000 people at a global training conference in Charlotte N.C. for a direct-marketing company. Also in the summer, Kids Who Care, a Fort Worth-based international theater group, turned Sherman's speech into a musical in which he starred.

“I try to shake and move when I’m getting ready to go on,” Dalton says, while demonstrating his movements. “I walk out there and I’m like here it comes—no turning back now. Then I just begin.”

Sherman's father said the boy has loved to talk ever since he was little. Although his talkativeness in the past has got him into trouble in the classroom, his parents call it his "gift." When he was 9, his teacher also a speech coach, Redmond, encouraged him to enter an oration contest about Martin Luther King Jr, in which he then won the $1,000 first-place prize and soon attracted Dallas school district administrators' attention.

"It just keeps going and growing," said Dallas schools spokesman Jon Dahlander. "The power of YouTube strikes again for Dalton Sherman. It couldn't happen to a nicer family or a greater kid."

“He has the ‘it’ factor,” said Dawn Blair, Dalton’s godmother. “Like Tiger has it, Obama has it. You can’t put your finger on it.”

It is no doubt that Sherman has become a celebrity of sorts, but the Shermans plan to greatly curtail their son's public appearances during the school year so he can still focus on important things such as doing his homework, behaving respectfully, and remaining involved in the church.