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Liza Cowan '07, Student Council Chair
It has always been immediately obvious that Deerfield students are a breed unto themselves. Nursing quiet addictions to green and white m&m's and swearing by the power of a smile, we greenwheel our way from the mods to the arms and spend Saturday nights insisting that fishnets and side ponies really were worn in the seventies. Perhaps the Deerfieldisms peak when it comes to our deep affection for something as ordinary as a door.
With this love in mind, the year ahead of us seems indeed to be threshold: one across which we will take our first steps tonight…. And what a leader we have to follow.
I call Mrs. Curtis a hiker out of experience. Last Sunday morning, Sam Hanson and I accompanied her on her first trip to the Rock. We made our way up the hillside with conversation as constant as the incline and by the first gates of Eaglebrook, Sam and I had made "this-is-awesome" eye-contact two or three times. Upon summitting, the three of us exchanged expectant glances with the valley below. That morning, we left the rock reassured; our conversation with the valley had begun once again.
So tonight we gather to continue this conversation. The Valley has already spoken with this glorious afternoon, and now it is time to hear from the president of the senior class Sam Hanson and our new head of school Mrs. Curtis.
Sam Hanson '07, Senior Class President
Thank you Liza, thank you all.
Welcome to Deerfield Academy, 209 years in the making, 104 years revived, and 17 years returned to co-education. After 25 preceptors, 25 principals, and four headmasters, here we are, students, faculty, staff, trustees, parents, and our esteemed guests, all gathered together to welcome, and celebrate, our new head of school, Mrs. Curtis. We are gathered here in the heart of campus -- the most beautiful setting imaginable, at least to me, surrounded by history and nature on all sides. The trees, rivers, and hills that surround our campus have seen centuries of time -- Native Americans and Colonists in villages and towns -- they have seen the world change as countless sunrises pass into countless evenings -- evenings just like tonight. This place's story outlives every single one of us; our story outlives every single one of us -- but now it is our turn to write it. We are gathered here tonight to begin a new chapter, a new age, to pick up where those before us left off and to put our own mark on it. That is why we are all here, our community and every class in the school, on senior grass.
That being said, if all of the underclassmen would kindly raise their feet from the ground and either suspend them in the air or rest them against the chair legs, that would be great. That is a joke.
Despite the class of 2007's grumbling, this location is most appropriate for Mrs. Curtis' first convocation, as it is tradition for a new head's first convocation to take place on the Academy Building Lawn. It is a tradition like dress code and sit-down meals, the all-school sing and school meetings. It is one of the many traditions that hold this community together, one of the many traditions that have taken us so far, and we have come very far. In just over a century, this school has grown from a local public school of fourteen students, to an internationally renowned Academy -- with a community as rich and extensive as its academics. The best high school educators in the country compete to teach here, and the best prep-school-bound students in the country and internationally compete to learn here. The King of Jordan is modeling the King's Academy after Deerfield, and the founding headmaster is our very own Mr. Widmer. Members of our sister-schools are even joining us, much to the dismay of the Andover constituency here today. We have come so far, and accomplished so much, but not without everyone who has come before us putting everything they have into this school. It is our turn now, as members of this community, to uphold the traditions and values that make our school work -- to, as Mrs. Curtis encouraged us in her letter to students, "face the future confidently anchored in the strength of our founding values."
Now, I have read thousands of pages during my time here at Deerfield, but one thing I read that really stuck with me is a quotation from Horace Mann's Means and Objects of Common School Education. It states that, in essence, "No community should rest contented with being superior to other communities while it is inferior to its own capabilities…the very thought of improving is the germination of improvement."
We must avoid complacency if we wish to secure this school's future. Frank Boyden, headmaster of Deerfield Academy for 66 years and the reason we are all here today, was once asked if his school was perfect. He walked out to second base of the baseball diamond, spun around taking in the campus and said, "Let's not be boastful, but let's be thankful for what we've got." Every time you marvel at our students, facilities, and faculty, think about the work that has been done to create and attract them. If the members of the Deerfield community who preceded us had become content with the school, much of this would not be here for us. If in 1989 the school had rested content with itself, I would be speaking to a lawn full of males, or nobody would be speaking at all. If in 2005 the school had rested content with itself, our Mrs. Curtis would not be the next head of our school, and we would not be beginning the new chapter of Deerfield Academy's history.
Instead of complacency, let us embrace change as a chance to re-evaluate what it really is about Deerfield that we love, and improve upon it. Let us strengthen our community of trust, academically and otherwise. Let us work towards a community that upholds all of the school's values every day we are here. Let us work towards a community that does not need academic dishonesty committees, because every member holds themselves to the Deerfield standard. Improvement is impossible without every one of us taking responsibility and working towards our goals. Rudolf Steiner once said that, "A healthy social life is found only when in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue of each one is living." Always remember that you represent Deerfield Academy, and Deerfield Academy represents you.
It is this connection between the individual and the community that makes our school so powerful, so purposeful. Each one of is intelligent, each one of us is talented, but it is as a school that we are capable of things unattainable individually. This summer I asked my good friend Mr. Henry what issues he would like to see come up this year in student council. Extra help requirements? Faculty Greer duties? Sexual Intimacy? What he said in response shook the framework around my final year at this school. What he said was that we must, as a school, change our perception and scale. We must see Deerfield Academy as an entity not in itself but in the world. We must look at issues beyond DA to Z, and we must do what we can to affect them. We are all first and foremost citizens of this planet, and we all enjoy the natural beauty surrounding us. Let us show attention to our environment by showing leadership in reducing the global warming effects. I believe we can make a difference by being mindful of our resources, and I urge you all to consider it. When my children come here, I want them to see the same view from the rock that I see. I want them to swim in the same river that I swim in.
When I was a little boy, my family went to Maine in the summer. On Saturdays, my father and I used to get out of bed before dawn, and row our little rowboat out past the rocks to where the seagulls were flying overhead. There, I'd bait my hook and he'd throw on his fly and if we were lucky, we'd catch a striped bass or maybe a bluefish before rowing back in with the sunrise for breakfast. One morning in early August, right after a big storm, we got really lucky. Every cast landed us another catch, and by sunrise I swear we had caught and released 40 fish. As my father rowed back home that morning, I realized that we didn't have any proof of our catch. Who would believe our tale of 40 fish if we brought none of them back? I expressed this concern to my father and in between strokes he told me something I'll never forget. He told me that life is not about how many fish you can catch, or if you can prove it, it's about being out on the water before dawn with your son, sharing something you love. It's about the experience. Never forget the real reason we're all here - to be here. To live each day and grow from every experience. When Mr. Boyden retired, his only advice to his successor David Pynchon was that "the object of the school should be the development of character." As we dive head-first into Deerfield Academy's next age, I encourage you all to find what you love about this school, be it fishing before dawn or anything else, and live every minute of it. Because before you know it, it's gone.
It is with great honor that I welcome Mrs. Curtis into our beloved community.
Now, let's all show her why we love it so much.
Thank you all.
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