Volume 10, Number 3
HEADMASTER'S NOTES by Norman C. Wakely *The Headmaster of a school, along with the faculty and administration, has the special privilege of sharing with your parents in seeing the general development, over the course of several years, of a boy into a young man . There is an element of appreciation and of pride because the Headmaster gratefully acknowledges his privilege in being able to share in this development. Perhaps you would like to know what we thought we were doing and what we hoped to accomplish, with what measure of success we do not yet know. We have encouraged you along the road from childhood to young manhood, expecting you to face responsibility, frustrations, the pains and the confusions, the joys and the disappointments, which this entails. We've challenged your minds with the excitement of discovering new ideas. We've made you think, even when you did not want to. We've made you work when you would rather have taken it easy and ju.st coasted along. We disturbed you when you were too sure of yourselves, and we've called you down when you got out of hand . We've challenged your limited views and made you broaden your horizons, until they included new things and new ways. We've pushed you to work harder even when what you had accomplished was already good because we would not be satisfied with anything less than the best you were capable of. We knew that, painful as it might sometimes be, you would not be satisfied with less either. We have tried to teach you the difference between right and wrong, but even more, we have encouraged you to act on what you know is right, to make you men of integrity and character, who will act courageously and instinctively to do what is right. And we consider this aspect of our responsibility .to you at least as important as anything else that we do. You have criticized us, and perhaps your criticisms of us have been fair. We have been strict when we could have been more relaxed. We have appeared
Special commencement prizes were awarded this year to those students, whom in the eyes of the faculty, were outstanding in specific areas. Christopher Joseph King, senior class President and School Leader, was awarded three of these prizes. They were the Senior Prize, the Hinman Prize, and the Pannaci Memorial Award. The Founders Prize was awarded to Jon James Leonard (Bedford, N.H.) and Dennis DeJuan Revere (Beverly Hills, Ca.). The Caldwell Prize was awarded to Josiah Eliot Miles (Arlington, Vt.); and the Addison Memorial Prize for Creative Writing was awarded to John Patrick Murphy (Melrose, Ma.). Two special Faculty Prizes were added to the list this year, and were awarded to Dennis DeJuan Revere, and senior class Treasurer, Larry Davis. difficult when we were merely tired . At times we have been quick to judge and slow to listen. There were times when we proudly defended . our views even when we were wrong. Perhaps at times we were concerned about rules when we should have been more concerned about individuals. These are our faults and we admit them; but they are human faults, and so perhaps we may be forgiven for them. Perhaps you have not thought about this before, but you have done as much for us as we have done for you. Education is a process of giving and taking, of learning from each other. You have challenged us with questions ... some foolish ones, some never-ending ones, some sincere ones which made us think, and you challenged us to become the best sort of teachers we could be. You have contributed your wisdom, leadership, vigor, youth, and enthusiasm to the life of the school and have made it what it is.
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You have made us, painfully aware of how much we have to do to keep up with you! I shall not make long and hopeful statements about the future, neither of its opportunities nor of your responsibilities. You should need no reminder of this, for if we have taught you anything, it is that the future is your.s to do with as you will and as you are able. We trust you will do so. Cardigan has come a long way in the past few years, but its growth has been deliberate and carefully considered so that woven into its heart and built in to its foundation is the attention to• the individual; it is this that we have offered, and it is this that we shall continue to offer to each student who shares life with us here.
*Excerpt taken from the address given by the Headmaster at the 1979 Senior Banquet.