Photos by John Capen
Clockwise from top left: Will Norton ’17, Paul Michaud ’18, and Jack Fanikos ’17; Jack running solo; Noah Aaron ’18, Cherian Yit ’17, Jack McLaughlin ’17, Sammy Malholtra ’18, Lars Caspersen ’19, Jack, Matthew Higgins Iati ’17, Will, Paul, Westby Caspersen ’17, and Christopher Ye ’17
done for the year. I grew as a result of this. The general principles are painfully simple: review and memorize. These both require attention. That is the most important thing I learned in my French class in Third Form. Sure, I learned the present and past tenses and some basic vocabulary, but if that is what a Groton education is, then my parents could have saved a lot of money and bought Breaking the Barrier and a dictionary. Also, no college will ever say to me, “You took French 1? You’re in!” All that is just fluff. II. The Art of Assuming at a Moment’s Notice a New Intellectual Position
When I arrived here, I was a socialist. Not a wannabeBernie Sanders-break-up-the-big-banks socialist, but a nationalize-everything socialist. In Fourth Form, a founding member of the ironic Young Marxists, Alaric Krapf [’16], was my prefect. Shockingly enough, we debated a lot. Should we have state-run factories? Would a brain-drain ensue if we depressed the wages of doctors and lawyers?
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Winter 2017
Would the march of society freeze in a Communist nation? It is obvious to me now what the right answers are, but at the time I fiercely defended my extreme leftist views, and I was pretty good by this time. I even held my own against this famed president of Debate [Society] on some occasions. But I was wrong, and if it weren’t for Alaric, I would still defend the state-run economy. Sometime in spring term, I was analyzing a particularly bad rhetorical beating when a thought flashed through my mind: “I am a socialist. It is a part of my identity.” I realized that I had lost. It had taken months to understand my error, but it was there plain as day. I had been a socialist for years. I confused my opinions with myself. They are two separate things. You are not a dot on a spectrum between liberal and conservative. You are not a treatise. You’re a person. So debate some ideas regarding the school, government, and ethics. Have your ideas challenged, and be uncomfortable. Do your best to win, but also know when you’ve lost, and be willing to take up a new, better opinion. It is hard to do so, but it is necessary. Nobody likes some stubborn blockhead.