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Ted Smith, Director of the Upper School – Baccalaureate Speech
Good evening and welcome to the Baccalaureate ceremony for the Class of 2018.
We are in a new venue tonight and there are so many people to thank who spent time on this new effort. I cannot acknowledge them each by name, but our building and grounds staff, our communications office, our Head of School's office, our Athletic Department, our Tech crew and custodial staff have all put a tremendous amount of time into making this space beautiful and an excellent setting for this special event. Please join me in thanking everyone involved in putting tonight together!
I do need to thank two individuals in particular. Colleen Meader is a logistical machine who has a hand in all of these year-end events, including tonight and tomorrow. Ms. Meader is joyously at her own son's graduation tonight, but in her absence, please join me in thanking her!
It is not an overstatement to say that I could not get through many of my days without Cindy Eaton's mellow southern vibe to calm me off the ledge. Ms. Eaton is wonderful with our kids, for our kids, and for our faculty. Above all, she is a sweet and kind woman, who cares for everyone she interacts with each day. Cindy did some much work to get this event ready tonight, and join me in thanking her, too!
John Downey is a veteran teacher who preceded me in the Dean's Office in the late 1990s. After returning to the Latin classroom full time, Mr. Downey made a mid-career decision to return to the Dean's office where he has flourished as the Senior Class Dean. As dedicated to Berwick as anyone on our faculty, John Downey does a remarkable job in his role-join me in thanking the Senior Class Dean, Mr. Downey!
The Class of 2018 has been blessed to have Chris and Amory Mansfield as their Class Advisors for their high school career. Individually, Mrs. and Mr. Mansfield excel in their fields of history and physics, tennis and lacrosse, and generally being excellent school people. Together, they form a team that has been instrumental in keeping the Class of 2018 pointed in the right direction, and our seniors have been so lucky to have them as advisors for the past four years. Join me in thanking the Class Advisors for 2018, Mrs. and Mr. Mansfield!
On that note, before I forget, the beautiful portraits of the Class of 2018 are for the families to bring home, so we hope that at the end of tonight's ceremony, you will unhook them and bring them with you.
Also before I forget, if you child is performing or receiving an award tonight, please feel free to approach the stage and take photographs.
Tomorrow has been on your horizon for days and weeks and months and years. Recently, you have heard or will hear from teachers and classmates, friends and family, about finishing up high school and your teenage years and moving on to college, with words like independence and maturity, finishing one phase and moving to another, fresh starts and new opportunities, sprinkled throughout those well-intended comments. All of which is very heady and adult-like stuff, so be sure to listen carefully to this advice and take it with you this summer, next fall and beyond. Hopefully the last 2 or 4 or 13 years at Berwick Academy have prepared you well for all of the above, especially that moment when you set foot on your college campus for the first time next year.
In my remarks, I do not want to focus on high school or college, but rather on Kindergarten. Of this year's seniors, nearly 17 percent of you have been at Berwick Academy since Kindergarten. 13 of you have been here for those 13 years, which is a remarkable number of "lifers." We use the term "lifers" to describe the amount of time you have been here-virtually your entire lives-but allow me to flip that word tonight and talk not about time, but about the broader idea of life lessons and life goals.
When your parents and I were your age, an unknown minister named Robert Fulghum published a book called, All/ Really Need to Know l Learned in Kindergarten. The book is well worth reading and if you have not, you should bring it to the beach with you this summer, but the title really gives it away and the 17 million people who have bought Fulghum's book agree with this simple premise: "all I really need to know, I learned in Kindergarten."
I have the opportunity to visit our Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten classrooms about every other week or so, either to play my guitar, or help with their professional units, for example to talk about my role in the Upper School or about living on an old farm in town, or just to visit my Kindergarten friends. Our colleague Jenn Hedges, whose son Spencer is in the Class of 2018, teaches Kindergarten along with Meghan O'Leary, and here is what I experience when I go to their classroom: a calm, curious environment where children practice active and respectful listening. Being kind to one another is the most important rule in our Lower School classrooms. Behavior contrary to that is quickly corrected, either by a teacher or classmate, and there is a palpable community atmosphere with a group of students and teachers who know each other very well. With my opportunities to visit them regularly all year long, it is remarkable to see those group dynamics evolve from September to June. Now somewhere out in the audience right now, Miss Hedges is saying to herself that I get to see the kids on their best behavior, and while that may be true, there remain basic, but high, standards of conduct for our youngest students, and it is a behavior we would all do well to emulate whether we're in Kindergarten, about to graduate from high school, or firmly entrenched in middle age.
Each of you is very well prepared for your first collegiate English paper and your first science test, I am very confident of that. However, what we really hope we have prepared you for is what I said earlier: the life skills. The very moment you set foot on campus and in your new dorm room, the very moment you meet your roommate, the very moment you have a difficult social decision to make. In those moments, which will be many, you will have your Berwick experience to rely on and while I encourage you to think about us and these past four years, I also urge you to get back to elementary ethics: be curious, be respectful, and be kind. All those things you learned in Kindergarten will serve you in those moments outside of classrooms where you will need to make the many ethical decisions you will face in the next four years and beyond. With this classWith that, I welcome you to the Baccalaureate ceremony for the Class of 2018!
Berwick Academy
31 Academy Street
South Berwick, Maine 03908
Contact:
Admission | 207.384.6300
Main Office | 207.384.2164
South Berwick, Maine 03908
Contact:
Admission | 207.384.6300
Main Office | 207.384.2164
Berwick Academy, situated on an 80-acre campus just over one hour north of Boston, serves 520 students, Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 and Postgraduates. Berwick students are from Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and several countries. Deeply committed to its mission of promoting virtue and useful knowledge, Berwick Academy empowers students to be creative and bold. Berwick strives to graduate alumni who shape their own learning, take risks, ask thoughtful questions, and come to understand and celebrate their authentic selves.
