June 8, 2008

Welcome: Peter Branch, Head of School
From the Principal: Kevin Barr, High School Principal (text not yet available)
Faculty Speaker: Chris Thompson, High School English Teacher
Class of 2008 Speaker: Jacob Ansbacher
Class of 2008 Speaker: Joanna Rothkopf
Parent Speaker: Susie Gelman, Parent

Speeches from the Classes of 2002 - 2007...

Welcome by Peter Branch, Head of School

It is my honor and pleasure to welcome you to the 37th Commencement of Georgetown Day School and to the graduation of the Class of 2008. It is always the welcome culmination of many days and years of effort on the part of families, the GDS faculty, and the students themselves. Sentiments of pride and regret mingle as we all recognize that few things will be the same but that an outcome for which we have all awaited has finally arrived. From the moment a child is born, he or she creates both a sense of loss and of joy. With heralded first steps come a certain amount of freedom and a loss of dependency which parents ironically mourn. How much more does the departure from home to college yield nostalgia for those days of adolescence and dirty socks which parents have just barely learned to tolerate?

It is especially hard to let go of this bunch of characters because they have been so good together and so supportive of GDS and other members of the community.  However, no sooner than I went on sabbatical than they charged into the first assembly proclaiming on their t-shirts, “We run this ship!” At the After Prom, their t-shirts boasted, “We ran this ship!” I had warned Kevin of the possibility of mutiny but since he had never read about it in Moby Dick, he didn’t see it coming.

Many of these students have been together since their very early years at GDS. Indeed 30 members of this class of 115 started in the prekindergarten or kindergarten. Five of these soon-to-be graduates have survived their years at GDS as children of faculty members.  And, setting a record, this class contains 5 sets of twins. Perhaps it was inevitable that these students would share strong relationships. During their high school years, they have annually bonded over a special Thanksgiving meal, a tradition unique to this class. They also initiated a class bonfire in December. It is probably impolite to note that they also bonded together when they lost in the finals of the Powderpuff football game to the upstart Junior Class. The Dean of Students comments that “we could not have asked for better examples of leadership, good judgment (most of the time), sensitivity, and school spirit than we enjoyed from the Class of 2008.” She even remarks that “they maintained the cleanest space in the Forum this year,” though the competition for that title was not very intense.

The Class was instrumental in competitions outside the school. Their leadership was key in many sports accomplishments throughout the year. For the first time in the same year, women’s varsity soccer won both the ISL A Banner and the ISL A tournament.  Women’s varsity basketball tied for 2nd in the A Division and then won the A tournament. Women’s varsity softball came in 2nd in the A Division and then won the A tournament. Men’s varsity soccer placed 2nd in the John Warring tournament. Men’s varsity Cross-Country took 2nd in the MAC Championship. Wrestling placed 3rd and Men’s Track & Field placed 2nd in their respective championships. When the Men’s 4 x 100 meter relay team took 1st place in the Potomac relays, they were renamed by local press, “the 4 Hoppers of the Potomac-aclypse.” Several members of this class were named to all league teams for their sports, among them a young woman for the second time, a feat accomplished by only 2 other GDS athletes in the past 17 years. But the award GDS and the scholar/athletes of this class can be most proud of is winning of the ISL Sportsmanship Banner, which has never before been received by a coed day school.

Concern for others and the community has been strongly evident in this class. In community service, 36 seniors recorded 100 to 150 hours, 8 served 150 to 200 hours, and 14 worked over 200 hours, with one young woman providing 522 hours of commitment.  Their work has been local and international, practical and activist, and individual and collaborative. The GDS trips to the Horn of Africa, to New Orleans, and to a Navajo reservation have been models of ways in which our students can learn in cooperation with and in service to others.

The Class of 2008 will be remembered by their initiation and enhancement of some movements that have the potential for long-term impact on GDS. With their advisor, seniors helped activate the Environmental Club and sponsored the high school’s successful first Environmental Awareness Week. Likewise, other student pushed the effort to Save Darfur. And seniors led the 3rd Annual White Privilege Conference at GDS, which attracted students and adults from throughout the region. Your involvement and leadership were also essential to our key assemblies, diversity events, and cultural presentations. Most of all, your example of civility set the tone for student life.

In the classroom, you demonstrated an interest in inquiry and learning which enhanced the educational experience for your classmates and teachers. You are an intelligent group willing to take on challenges. Of those of you who took Advanced Placement exams in your junior year, 84% earned the score of 3 or higher, 63 % received 4 or higher, and 31% achieved the top score of 5. In taking the SAT I with critical reading, math, and writing, you scored 490 points above the national mean for college-bound students. A quarter of the class received recognition by the National Merit Scholarship program.

Your skills and talents have been acknowledged by the 169 different colleges and universities which accepted at least one GDS senior. As a result, you will be going to 74 different schools throughout the United States and Canada. One of you will take a gap year in France, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The variety of these choices is both healthy and a measure of your thoughtful effort to find a school that is the right fit.

I hope the families of this class have had a chance to see some of the publications for which your students have been responsible: the Auger Bit, the Menagerie, Grasslands, and Babel Fish. Each has exhibited the skills of organization, quality of work, and attention to detail which is required to engage the reader. Likewise, the artwork of this class has been remarkable as the April Art Exhibit demonstrated. In the Congressional Art Awards, 3 members of this class have received honorable mentions and one was first-place winner for 2008. Five seniors have been National Scholastic Art Award Gold Key winners, one receiving two such awards in two years. 

The Blackbox Theater was enlivened by your dynamic participation in the performing arts. In the fall drama, Our Country’s Good, in the winter One-Acts, and in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, you demonstrated your intelligence, your sensibility, your dramatic and comedic sense, and the value of effort and training.  Likewise, your choral performances conveyed the strength and spirit of our programs.  The Lab Band and Jazz Ensemble, together with the Orchestra, gave ample opportunity for you to express your love of music, both in improvisation and in classical presentation. That the Dance program has benefited from the new studio and from association with our resident company was clear in the dance and Fata Morgana performances.

So many other clubs, organizations and events were blessed by your participation and leadership. The Math Team, strengthened by senior brain power, placed in the top 5% of schools in the National Math Contest. Two of you placed 1st and 2nd in the Jim Mayo Scholarship for the Arts in theater monologues. Model Congress presented one of the largest teams in 30 years. Cabaret Night to benefit MetroTeen Aids was a success in its first year. And many more group and individual efforts on the part of this class have made GDS proud of all you have offered and accomplished.

Before I let you go, I have to confess my jealousy of the Class of 2008. Now it is only natural for the old and infirm to envy the youth and energy of the next generation. But this class stands at a unique moment in the life of our country. For the past weeks, we have been hearing much of the historic nature of the primary contest between Senators Clinton and Obama. We are now facing an even more historic contest between Senators Obama and McCain. I apologize for my remarks to the Libertarians and the Ron Paul devotees, of whom, given GDS, I am sure there are at least a few.

I envy this class because you will have the great opportunity to be engaged as freshmen in college in the dynamics and excitement of the fall election. You will be faced with dialogues and debates, not only over the comparative merits of the contestants but over the difficulties and opportunities of our political, economic, cultural, and social systems.  Many of your current assumptions and beliefs, including ones you have been taught by your parents and GDS, will be challenged. You will learn things about yourself and others which may be troubling but often will be life-enhancing. Don’t hide from these challenges. College is a time for entertaining new perspectives. But, on the other hand, do not easily abandon your own beliefs and values. Just because an idea is new or popular does not mean it is right. Surely you have learned that lesson at GDS. And be prepared for ideas to be expressed with less civility than you were expected to maintain at home or at GDS.

The Election of 2008, because of its unique character and because of the sense by both parties that it could be a watershed election, is likely to be hotly contested. Issues of race, gender, age, religion, and class have all been raised so far, and often in an ugly and mean-spirited fashion. But none of these so-called historic characteristics of this election is new. Twelve presidential elections ago, a skinny and very naïve kid from a public high school in Northampton, Massachusetts, wandered into an elite private men’s college. There I found that the reformist senator from my home state, whom my father opposed, was also opposed in the most vicious fashion for his political and religious beliefs by conservative boys from some our best private schools. I began the election as a lukewarm Republican by birth and ended up an argumentative social activist. During those next four historic years before my graduation from college in 1964, I watched the election of our first Catholic president, the Bay of Pigs, the rise of the Civil Rights movement, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the assassinations of both President Kennedy and his assassin. However, I was unaware of the beginning of our undertakings in the Vietnam civil war which would so shape the subsequent four years and lead to the historic election of 1968. 

No one can accurately predict your future, or even your next four years. All of you have the capacity to make a significant difference. I was reminded of the truth of that well-worn graduation remark by the recent death of Edward Lorenz who developed the chaos theory in which the flapping of a butterfly’s wing can have a significant effect on a tornado. Engage yourselves in the issues of the moment, whether political or scientific, whether economic or cultural. Your energy and integrity are needed. One thing we do know about the future is that it is coming. Some determinists argue that its shape is already certain. As a historian, a humanist, and a grandfather, I cannot agree. For good or for evil, humankind has had too great an effect on our past not to be able to affect our future. Take hold of that responsibility as soon as possible. You have so much to offer.

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From the Principal: Kevin Barr, High School Principal

(Text not yet available)

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Faculty Speaker: Chris Thompson, High School English Teacher

Peter, Kevin, Barbara, Gloria, esteemed colleagues, supportive families, and most of all, the beloved class of 2008:  I am honored to be asked to give this speech today on this very important occasion.  It is perhaps fitting that we are met in an auditorium on a college campus, for we here get a glimpse of the larger world we will all face, in one way or another, come the fall.  

There is also apt geometry to our presence in this room…here sit the class of 2008, eagerly looking toward your future, and at your side, sit those who have been at your side these four years.  When I started my career in teaching twelve years ago, my mother-in-law, June Marquis, a career mathematics educator, told me an old teachers’ adage that when we are doing our job well, we are not acting as a “sage on the stage,” but rather as a “guide on the side,” looking at our subject with our students, not being the subject itself.  Well, for the next few minutes I have to try to be the sage on the stage, but I’d rather you be thinking of those who are indeed at your side today, for that is where we, your teachers and coaches, still belong. 

But there is more to the geometry of this room.  Class of 2008, when this ceremony is over and you turn to process out, you will be facing those now behind you, those who have always been behind you, even when you forgot they were there. The families and friends here to support you today will in a short time receive you back from us, from the people to whom they handed you some 12 or 13 years ago, teachers in whom they had to place a trust, a trust you will only fully understand one day in the future when you have to let go of a little hand yourself and tell a little boy or girl of your own “It’s going to be fine,” and “You’ll  have lots of fun,” and  “I can’t wait to hear all about it this afternoon,” and you then turn and head back to the car with a lump in your throat and needing the kind of windshield wipers they just don’t make. 

A bond of trust began that day between your folks and my colleagues, a bond that comes to fruition here this day, as we who have been at your side turn you back to those who are and have been behind you all these years, and whose eyes might again be a little misty.  Hands long ago parted will grasp once again today, bigger hands, grasping with the firmness and confidence of adulthood and a more certain future. And although you are about to get what is truly a valuable diploma, Ralph Waldo Emerson would tell you that your future will not be made by the road you have been on, or the road you next travel, but by the person who is on that road. 

And who is on this road today, standing at this intersection of past and future? All of GDS’s graduating classes have had discernable characters of one sort of another, and the class of 2008 is no different.

It’s hard for me, who is a teacher and a parent of a graduating senior in this class, to come up with a summary statement about the class of 2008. I have come to know so many of you so well, and you are such memorable individuals, that some sort of mass proclamation of your virtues just isn’t going to cut it. So I’ll choose an anecdote that I hope can paint a picture of you as a class, as I have seen you in my heart during these years together. 

Last June, for the second year in a row, I had the privilege of going with a bunch of GDS kids to do community service in New Orleans. Our job this year was to do drywall renovations on a house in St. Bernard parish, a house newly owned by the Du Plessis family. Their original home had been destroyed in Katrina, and this house had been damaged and gutted, and we were making it livable so they could move in. The Du Plessises were very friendly to us … they came every day, often bringing lunch. They had a teenage son, Antoine, junior, a high school football player who had just finished his senior year. Antoine showed up the first day to check things out, and he was a little shy, but our kids were so warm and welcoming and friendly that he soon fell in with us, and came back every day to work alongside GDS. Antoine’s mom told me that this was such a blessing for him, in that all of his high school friends were dispersed by Katrina, and his new high school was far away, so he had really no friends to hang with. Our GDS kids took him in with such grace and warmth, inviting him to spend time with us in town in the evening, and asking for permission to invite him to our big dinner out our last night there. You all would have been very proud. I sure was.

Now, as it happened, we were there for a changeover of the Americorps volunteers who lead the work teams. On Tuesday, Megan, a volunteer who had become very close to the Du Plessis family, had her last day, and we had a big lunch, and there were a lot of tears and hugs and promises to stay in touch. Coming on board that day was our new Americorps volunteer, Kim, who was shier than Megan and obviously walking into a tricky situation … replacing a favorite, and having to pick up working with people she didn’t know on a project already underway. But she did fine. The GDS kids were again warm and accommodating, and as Kim soon discovered, very diligent, and Kim got into the swing of things very well.  On our last day, as was customary, Kim gave a little speech over lunch, about what good workers we were and how pleased she was with all we gotten done. When she was finished, one of GDS kids, Anier Woodyard, sensed it was time to give a little speech of his own. He said:  “Kim you know you came into a difficult situation here. Everybody loved Megan, you didn’t know us or what we were like, but you stepped in and you stepped up and led us and made this a very successful week. You have the heart of a lion.”  

I was sitting next to Mr. Du Plessis at that moment, and he leaned over and whispered to me, “Where do you get kids like this?” 

Where do we get kids like this? Well, we get them from you, moms and dads, who trusted us 4 or 7 or 12 years ago to provide fertile ground for your saplings to grow in—and eventually out of—and they have done so, which we acknowledge in this ceremony today. They have grown in skill and in confidence and certainly in the classical virtues of diligence and brotherly love. 

As a virtue, brotherly love doesn’t really mean loving your kid brother, although you should, no matter how annoying he is. Being annoying is his job, after all.  Brotherly love here means sympathy and kindness, and it is perhaps the virtue that matters most to us as a progressive school, and which best characterizes the class of 2008. It is the virtue that I saw so clearly on display not just in New Orleans, but every day at school, in the senior corner, in our classrooms, on our regular community service days, on the crew team … everywhere in evidence was an extraordinary warmth and friendship not just among the class of 2008 but in your relations with the faculty and even with the underclassmen in the school. 

So, in conclusion, let me say that in addition to the people at your side and the people at your back, there are in this room, most important of all, 115 extraordinary young people. Class of 2008, we have all done all we could for you these past four years, but my sense of you as a group is that you have done as much or more for yourselves. It is telling that in your yearbook pages there are endless overlaps of groups of friends. The class of 2008 is notable for your cohesion, your good humor, your caring for each other, your learning from each other, and your willingness to be a force of both conscience and good will at GDS. Speaking as both a parent and a teacher, I can say that I have never known in my teaching years a more socially adept, socially graceful, warm-hearted and considerate graduating class. Paraphrasing Emerson again I will say that although this day is an intersection of a road ahead and a road behind, it is not the road itself that matters most; what matters most in this world is who is on that road. And with you on the road toward our nation’s future, I think all of us in this room can take heart.

The road you are on today will soon take you up five steps to this stage. Think of those first four as the four years of education you have had put before you, like hurdles, by us on the faculty at GDS … but think of that last step as the one you, as individuals and as members of this amazing class, made for yourselves and with each other in these last four years, through your diligence, cooperation, and kindness. It’s this last step that brings you for one last time into our embrace before we hand you off to your families and your futures. 

You can truly never descend from this stage … the diploma and all that it stands for is yours, and will be part of you forever. But know this: as we say goodbye to you, high school students for just a few minutes more, in this college auditorium on this day, our hearts break, but from these broken hearts angels fly and they are angels that will be with you all of your days. Class of 2008, have the heart of a lion. Godspeed and God bless you always. Go in peace.

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Class of 2008 Speaker, Jacob Ansbacher

Thank you to my family who supported me, to my teachers and administration who challenged me and to Robert Asher, my parents and Don Baer for helping me with my speech.  I also owe a special thanks to Nick Baer, who helped me with the comma placement for my speech and also for making sure I went to bed at 8:30 last night so I could be well rested for today.

I’d like to begin with a story.  I was a young lad sitting at the kitchen table eating raisins from one of those little red boxes.  At this point in my life, I enjoyed playing with my food as much as I enjoyed eating it.  AND apparently these raisins were getting close to my nostril area because my Mother said,

“Jacob, don’t stick that raisin up your nose.”

In response, I glared back at her, held the raisin in plain sight and with one swift motion…stuck the raisin as far up in my nose as I possibly could.

 At this time, in case it is necessary, I would like to remind the audience that at GDS the graduation speech is not necessarily delivered by the valedictorian.

After a short trip to the hospital and one valuable lesson learned, I came to the realization that this was not just a mere lapse in judgment but instead a sign that I was born to be a GDS student.  I had a sense of curiosity for things I didn’t understand and I challenged authority with regard to what I thought was right, and most importantly I learned a lesson about empirical research.

But seriously, in my fourteen years at GDS I have been part of a class full of individuals who aren’t afraid to be curious or confrontational.  And in sync with these students, GDS has been an institution that challenges the mind and accepts change.  Where else would students choose to take a challenge course in either science or math when you get the same amount of credit for taking the regular course?  Where else would the administration hold an assembly just so students can point out the faults of the school, and where else would students perform a sit-in in the library with the sole purpose of extending library hours after school?  Not only does this prove that our grade is a bunch of dorks but it also shows that we have a respect for learning and the ability to see what is wrong and to try to fix it.

BUT, even more than that, each of these examples is about appreciating the here and now and making the most out of life while we are living it.  This brings us to an important question, FOR THIS MOMENT:

How do we continue to live our lives with these ideals as we move on and accept more responsibilities?  How do we live in the now and continue to appreciate each moment when everyone seems to be so focused on the future?  Today is a day of reflection on which we look back upon our accomplishments and prepare for what lies ahead.  But mostly today is just a day… and so I ask you for the next few minutes not to look forward or reflect backward but instead to bask in the gloriousness of the present — right now.

Many of these epic moments are overlooked because we are all so stressed about college and getting good grades.  So, next time Nina Prytula makes a comment and all of a sudden an entire book finally makes sense, cherish it.  When Jon Burghart’s booming voice makes every passage seem magical, even if it’s because he’s attached to a microphone that he’s unaware of, cherish it.  When Anthony Belber cheers you into the finish line, and even though you’re gasping for air and in my case, sweating profusely, you still manage to run just a little faster, cherish it.  And when Laura Rosberg does all those theater things, I’m sorry I don’t really know what goes on in theater, but cherish it.

Then of course there are those ridiculous moments, like seeing Harold Newton wearing a harness for the first time as he belays you up a climbing wall.  Cherish these moments too, because they are burned in your memory anyway.

When I heard that I was to be the speaker for today, I did what any sensible person would do in the situation.  I looked through my book of poems.

And, eventually, I came upon “The Station” by Robert Hastings, which captures what I believe it means to live in the moment.  Come on, my Father e-mailed me this poem a few hours ago.

But here it goes…

“When we reach the station, that will be it!" we cry. "When I’m 18." "When I buy a new 450ST.  Mercedes Benz!" "When I put the last kid through college."  "When I have paid off the mortgage!” "When I get a promotion."  "When I reach retirement, I shall live happily ever after!"

"Sooner or later, we realize there is no station, no one place to arrive.  The true joy of life is the trip.  The station is only a dream.  It constantly outdistances us.”

If you know me at all you know that my motto has always been to leave tomorrow for tomorrow.  And if you don’t know me you’re probably thinking, “Who is that kid?” 

BUT SERIOUSLY I like this poem because it reminds us that happiness is not so far away.  It is with us as we sit here together, amongst friends and family and enjoy the festivities of today.  Hastings reminds us so eloquently to “climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more, cry less.”

This poem reminds me of another renowned artist’s work.  The Ataris’ song, “Here in this Diary” reminds us to cherish each moment, because our youth is what we make of it. 

The chorus goes, “Being grown up isn’t half as fun as growing up, these are the best days of our lives.”

This is not to say that I have a problem with growing old.  I can’t wait to learn a trade, start a family, and eventually eat dinner at 5:30 and wear my pants real high on my waist. 

AND, BY THE WAY, at this time I would like to thank my Grandfather for coming to see me graduate today. Hearts Poppy Hearts!

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Class of 2008 Speaker, Joanna Rothkopf

Good afternoon. Before I say anything else, I just want to take a moment to thank Peter, Kevin, the faculty, and all of you parents and friends. 

A few weeks ago, on the last day of English class, our amazing teacher Louise [Brennan] sat us on the floor and read to us. The book she chose to sum up all our years at GDS was The House at Pooh Corner. She read to us about when Christopher Robin has outgrown Pooh and his other friends and is ready to leave them and the Hundred Acre Wood behind. Now, the idea that the culminating literary work of our GDS careers was Winnie the Pooh may seem a little disappointing for some of you … it might seem like we could have aimed a little higher, ending with a vigorous discussion of the works of James Joyce, Toni Morrison, or some other author with a little more heft, or at least some book with fewer pictures. 

But for me, it was perfect. It was an ending that brought me right back to the beginning.

Fourteen years before, in pre-K, one of the very first things I remember doing at GDS was a production of Winnie the Pooh. I remember vividly the day the play was cast. My big break. My teacher, Elaine [Ogden], carefully scanned all the kids in the room, looking us up and down. She took one look at me and apparently concluded, if there is one kid in this class is who perfect to play a clinically depressed donkey, it’s that little Joanna Rothkopf. And so sweet cheerful little me was cast as Eeyore. But it gets worse. Because when I was little, I had a bit of a lisp. Okay, I had a lot of a lisp. And Eeyore … well, Eeyore’s favorite things in the world were “thistles.”  “Thistle, thistle, thistle ….”
 
Try that with a lisp. After 14 years, I still can’t say it. Thanks a lot, GDS.

Now, of course, I’m pretty smart. I know what Louise was getting at. She read to us about a right of passage, of Christopher Robin moving on to another phase of his life. But another thing that struck me was that just like Christopher Robin, we’ve all been on a kind of amazing journey full of strange characters that has left us completely changed. Of course, that’s undoubtedly true for every school and yet I can’t help but feel that for every school it is also different. Every school has its own character, its own personality. 

For instance, St. Albans, with all its ivy-covered walls and blue blazers, has its tradition … and, of course, National Cathedral has its Cathedral. Sidwell had Chelsea Clinton and Maret … well, Maret is, uhh … very near the zoo. And GDS … well, I was looking for the right word to describe GDS, and of course the first thing that comes to mind is “weird.” But that’s a little overdone around here—so what can I use? Last week, interim SSC president Julia Pockros classified GDS-like moments as “we would” moments. But this speech isn’t about her—it’s about me. And by that I mean it’s about all of us. But who are we? What makes us different? What description catches that thing in GDS’s DNA that makes us a breed apart? Would you call it “quirky?” Offbeat? Slightly odd? I don’t know. However, it is clear that what sets GDS apart is not only that we’re set apart but we’re glad to be set apart. Of course, some of us are less like everyone else than others, but now is not the time to address that. You know who you are. I mean, for example, at your average high school I suspect there is not—as there is at GDS—a raging debate about whether we are even weird enough, whether we have lost our weirdness, gone soft … worse, gone mainstream. It is the GDS form of existential anxiety. We are weird therefore we are. Here it is 2008 and we still have a grasshopper as our mascot, think ourselves too good to give students extra GPA credit for little things like taking AP or honors classes, and still don’t have a football team, cheerleading squad (aside from Cheerquest All Stars, who were excellent), or even a cafeteria. We are hyper political, artistic, a little bit hippie 40 years after the 60s, and constantly searching for new ways to make a statement.

Okay, I know some of you are sitting there at this point thinking HEY! That’s not me! I actually am actually pretty normal. But to that I respond with the words of Topher Dunne: “Cancel my subscription, ’cause I don’t want your issues.”

With all our quirks and characters, obsessions with maroon stripes and beautiful junk, sometimes things may seem a little crazy around GDS … but I would say no. Because as Robert Frost once said, “A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.” So I would say by that definition that we are perfectly civilized … more than that, we are an example for everyone. We don’t just tolerate eccentricity, we celebrate it. We don’t just celebrate it. We grow it right here, providing a constant supply for Washington, DC, and for the world.

Now, normal teenagers thrive on conformity. I know this not because I am normal but because I have a TV. But I like to think of GDS as a kind of alternative universe, one in which we celebrate the out-of-the-box thinkers … even when, in the class of ’06, it led a couple of boys to actually spend a week living inside a box as their senior quest. I guess they wanted to see what the rest of the world might be like. But this place has been fighting popular trends since the day it was started. After all, what could have been more conformist and widely accepted back in 1946 than the American-as-apple-pie idea of segregated schools?

So, GDS was born bucking a trend and here it is today—still celebrating its rich diversity every time we sing, in our gay pride assemblies and drag balls, and most important, in the wide range of ideas we cook up. What can you say about all this flagrant idiosyncrasy, all this rampant contrariness, all this bright green, mightily hopping GDosity? Well, all I can say is hallelujah!

The English philosopher John Stuart Mill once wrote “the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and the courage it contained.” Do you hear that? Every time you go out and do something unconventional, every time you say the thing no one else dares to say, every time you color outside the lines, you are a genius—a brave, vital genius. And that’s why while many of the kids who graduate this year and every year seem eager to break out of high school and let the world wash over them and change them … while they seem so enthusiastic about casting off what they were in high school to become like the people they meet in college or in the workplace … while the main thing that is celebrated in most graduation speeches is how the school prepared them for the world … I leave GDS with (are you surprised?) a completely different idea in mind.

I leave here—and I encourage all of you to leave here too—with the idea not that we should become more like the world, but that we should work hard, work all our lives, to make the world more like GDS … as tolerant as GDS, as happy as GDS, as caring as GDS, and yes, just as weird, as quirky, as eccentric, and as gloriously different as GDS. 

Not only does the world need to be a lot more like us, not only does the world need all of you out there making it more like us, but if we succeed, then we never really have to leave this place—we can bring it with us … we can plant seeds of it here and there, we can keep what we have gained, and what we have learned and what we love, with us for the rest of our lives.

Now, you may remember that when I began, I mentioned that Louise read to us a few weeks ago from The House on Pooh Corner … and that’s where I would like to conclude:

“If anybody wants to clap,” said Eeyore, “now is the time to do it.”

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Susie Gelman, Parent Speaker

When Peter asked me to be the senior parent speaker at this year’s graduation, you could have knocked me over with a feather.  After all, the list of previous speakers reads like a veritable Who’s Who of official Washington: Alice Rivlin, the first woman to be appointed director of the Office of Management and Budget; Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author; Norman Ornstein, political scientist, quintessential Washington pundit, and aspiring stand-up comedian; and Martin Indyk, former US Ambassador to Israel, to name just a few.  The only traits I have in common with these individuals are that we have all been GDS parents and we are all Jewish, which I realize at times may seem redundant.

Anyway, once I recovered from the initial excitement, the challenge of delivering appropriate remarks became apparent.  I was given certain instructions: “be funny,” which I took to mean be funny according to GDS standards—sardonic, but not sarcastic; witty, subtle, and piercingly incisive, but not silly, trite, or obvious; erudite and au courant, but not overblown or pretentious. I was also told “don’t be cheesy,” whatever that meant. And of course, above all—under no circumstances was I to say anything that might cause the slightest tinge of embarrassment to a certain graduating senior.

Then I thought about the setting. Not only would I be speaking along with Peter, Kevin, and Chris—one former history teacher and two seasoned English teachers—but I would be sharing the podium with Jacob and Joanna AND making my remarks in front of Georgetown Day School’s entire English faculty. Talk about pressure!

So I did what any sane person would do: I Googled commencement speech do’s and don’ts, to see if I might glean some inspiration and find some practical suggestions for approaching this daunting task. Naturally, there are all sorts of commencement speech texts and quotes available online, and if one is really desperate (I swear that I am not making this up!), one can go to Speech-Writers.com which offers, for only $19.97 (that’s down from the original price of $39.00) a package of nine sample high school graduation speeches plus a bonus package of three sample concluding poems and some tips on speaking in public. I have to admit that I was tempted.

But I resisted the temptation, as I’m sure all of our graduating seniors have done when facing a blank computer screen mere hours before the deadline for handing in some critical paper or report.
 
By this point, I figured that I would have spent almost half of my allotted time talking about the speech instead of actually saying anything, therefore reducing the time necessary to say something serious, such as offering advice or other observations about life that are the sum and substance of commencement speeches. This is, of course, a tactic well known to students and to the teachers who review and grade their work; it’s called “filler.”

Up until now, I actually had one page’s worth of remarks.  Given that this is a speech and not a paper, I wasn’t able to use some of the well-known strategies such as slightly increasing the font size, widening the margins or adding extra spacing in order to “enlarge” the document—again, something that I am certain our graduating seniors have never done during their high school careers.

But finally, the moment of truth arrived. That is to say, I had to come up with some sort of content, instead of continuing to filibuster.  So here it is, my attempt to tread gingerly through the commencement speech minefield in five minutes or less.

I stand here as a representative of all parents of our graduating seniors. Some of us have known you, members of the class of 2008, since you were four or five years old (or even earlier, if you happen to be our own child). We have watched you grow from the cute little tykes you were in Lower School to awkward adolescents to self-assured young adults, ready to take on the world, or at least, the college or university world. We’ve watched you in assemblies; accompanied you on field trips; camped out with you at Buffalo Gap, Turkey Run, and Prince William Forest (where we survived the tick infestation); cheered you on at sports events; and applauded you at the end of concerts, musicals, and plays. We’ve spent millions of hours driving you to and from school and various after-school activities.  We’ve attended scores of curriculum nights, parent-teacher conferences, and potluck suppers. We’ve packed thousands of school lunches, filled out numerous permission slips and those annoying medical forms, and—the bane of my personal existence—rummaged through hundreds of family photographs, usually the night before the deadline for some ersatz school project. Some of us have even gotten slightly overextended by approaching the annual Lower School science fair as if it were a breeding ground for future Nobel prizewinners. We’ve dried your tears, shared in your accomplishments, supported you in times of disappointment, and best of all, we’ve basked in your reflected glory.

So here’s a bit of advice to all of you as you leave the protected womb of GDS and venture out into the world. First and foremost, never take yourselves too seriously. The world is full of self-important people whose image of themselves vastly exceeds their actual or potential contribution to society, and you don’t need to add to their rosters. Second, find something that you love to do, and do it. Whether you are fortunate enough to combine passion and profession, as your teachers certainly have done, or whether you discover an outlet through volunteer work or community activism, find some way to make this world a better place. Third, speak out against injustice, whenever and wherever you see it. GDS has given you the tools you need to be articulate and persuasive; never be silent or passive when you confront a wrong that you can help to right. Fourth, VOTE! Not just in presidential elections, but in every election; local elections are important, too, and voting is a right and a privilege that far too many people in our country take for granted. Finally, don’t think of learning as something that ends along with your formal education. For the last few years, I have been taking courses just a couple of blocks from this auditorium, with students who are literally the same ages as my kids. While my family pokes fun at my occasional bouts of anxiety about turning in papers and completing assignments (see, I wasn’t just speaking hypothetically about how to make a paper seem longer than it actually is) the truth is that there are few things more satisfying than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake—the love of learning that is one of the precepts of a GDS education. It can be difficult to appreciate this vaunted “love of learning” when you are in the midst of satisfying course requirements, whether in high school or in college, but in time, it will hopefully lose its clichéd aspect and become something meaningful and cherished that adds to the quality of your lives.

As Antoine de Saint Exupery wrote in The Little Prince, “Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to have to explain things to them always and forever.” While the author could not possibly have anticipated the technological advances that sometimes befuddle members of my generation but seem so natural to yours, we, your parents, count on you to continue to be patient with us in explaining the obvious. After all, the vast majority of us didn’t benefit from a GDS education.

Today’s graduation is a bittersweet moment for our family. Not only is our youngest child graduating from GDS, but so are we, after nineteen years as GDS parents and forty tuition years. Michael and I will always be grateful to GDS, not only for providing an outstanding education to each one of our three children—Asher, Sarah, and Rachel—but for creating an atmosphere in which service to one’s community and appreciation of those who are different are as valued as academic pursuits. Rachel, you and your classmates have set a standard of excellence as human beings that will be your enduring legacy to this wonderful school. Thank you, seniors, for the joy that you have brought and will continue to bring to our lives. Always remember just how much everyone here loves you, and may you always have fair winds and following seas.

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Read last year's graduation speeches, from the Class of 2007.

Read graduation speeches from the Class of 2006.

Read graduation speeches from the Class of 2005.

Read graduation speeches from the Class of 2004.

Read graduation speeches from the Class of 2003.

Read graduation speeches from the Class of 2002.

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