TO TH E E DITO R
Dear Editor, I just read the spring issue of Andover and feel compelled to express my discomfort at the extremely doctrinaire, “politically correct” tone, particularly as exemplified by the “Diversity Glossary.” I am a fair-minded person in favor of recognizing and accepting diversity of all kinds, but it appears that the school administration has made this a crusade. Which causes me to wonder if this “our way or the highway” approach to student social life also applies to academics. Is diversity of thought still valued and encouraged in the classroom? I sincerely hope so.
—Joan Synnott Ardrey ’59 Greenwich, Conn. Dear Editor,
—John Ordeman ’48 Nassawadox, Va. Dear Editor, Andover magazine regularly describes Phillips Academy pursuing a progressive path within its traditional educational structure.
These designations are unsound. Heterosexuality is the world’s “normal” sexual orientation (normal both in statistical and functional terms). And, one’s sex is “recognized” not “assigned” at birth with gender dysphoria (transgender’s authorized name) signifying a disorder of self-assumption with an ominous prognosis. A campaign to impose these new expressions threatens to silence moderating voices that must exist within the faculty, student body, and alumni. Fearing social ostracism, these people may wait to hear from others what they’d like to say themselves. Consider, from a friend, a radical proposal. Perhaps there’s just too much talk about sex and gender for a high school. Sex is for adults and tough enough for them. Adolescents have their own developmental tasks and their own thought world wherein to man-
ERRATA Spring 2015 Seeing red! Mike Moonves ’62 alerted us to a shock of red ink in the spring issue: a gaggle of Exeter golfers somehow flew beneath our proofing-radar and landed on page 61. Our apologies to the Andover golfers who attended the annual A-E Golf Day in Jupiter, Fla. in March.
Dear Editor, The spring issue of Andover says the trustees abolished PA’s scholarship work system in 1965 [see timeline, page 34]. Not being informed of this I continued to work my five hours per week scholarship job junior year, delivering mail and making myself marginally useful in the athletic office.
Macro Mystery Can you identify the campus location of the item below?
As a lower, I worked in Commons every third week, serving desserts, filling milk dispensers, cleaning tables, and putting (most of) the unused butter in a container for midnight re-molding by Bob Leete. I returned to Commons as a waiter in the faculty dining room the next year, Dr. Grew believing I should have been able to perform my duties at least as adequately as a mediocre Parisian waiter. I did not. Since it now comes to light my services were not required to earn my scholarship, it seems reasonable they should have been paid for; therefore, a debt is owed to me by the Academy. A back-of-the-envelope calculation using minimum wages, ordinary tax rates, inflation, etc., puts this at $5,130. Seems like a pretty good deal for three years at PA. I’ll tell you what—toss it back into the scholarship pot and save me the trouble of figuring it out on my taxes next year.
—Rick Stewart ‘69 Cedar Rapids, Iowa [From the writer: My apologies for faulty reading of a dissertation. PA eliminated “scholarship jobs” and instituted campus-wide work duty in September 1968, not in 1965. You’ll be happy to know that PA tries to ensure that today’s scholarship students are not treated any differently than full-pay students. —Amy J.M. Morris ’92] Dear Editor, Thank you for a memorial tribute to Valleau Wilkie Jr. (spring issue, page 128) and his long, distinguished career, which began as an instructor at Andover. In my senior year, I was scheduled to take a survey course in U.S. history from the legendary Fritz Allis. When he was called to Washington on short notice to work in the Eisenhower Administration, Wilkie was asked to take the class. We weren’t sure what to expect. The first day, he began by describing the experience of a young airman shot down over Europe in WWII and forced to endure the rigors of a German concentration camp. When Wilkie told us he had been that airman, we were “hooked.” That was the start of a fascinating and demanding year of study that helped influence me to adopt U.S. history as my major at Harvard.
If you think you know, send your answer to: andovermagazine@ andover.edu
Congratulations to the winner of the winter 2015 Macro Mystery: Richard Ira ’16
(first correct answer)
Dave White
The spring issue on Equity and Inclusion, however, suggests things may have gone a bit too far over matters tied to sex and gender. What began as an enterprise in tolerance seems to have turned into a campaign of thought control. One can choose from several examples, but note how the closing “diversity glossary” (akin to a drill book in Orwellian Newspeak) characterizes “heteronormative” as “a worldview that naturalizes heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexual orientation” and “transgender” as “people whose gender identity…differs from… the sex they were assigned at birth.”
*See Editor’s Note below
—Paul McHugh, MD, ’48 Baltimore, Md.
Jill Clerkin
I want to distribute the information on Equity and Inclusion to several schools at which I served as headmaster. Would you please send me four copies? They will be put to good use. Congratulations.
age them. Better leave the adult thought world to their future while they garner the strengths to meet it.
The clock sits above the door at the southwest corner of the Dole Reading Room in the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library. Formerly the main lobby, the room was endowed in 1989 through a gift from Alexander W. Dole, Class of 1920. For many years the Dole Reading Room housed circulations; today it is used for instruction and collaborative study.
—Fred Fenton ’53 Concord, Calif.
*EDITOR’S NOTE: Since the publication of this letter, the editorial staff has been part of several meaningful discussions on campus. While we welcome diverse opinions in the letters section, the views expressed in this particular letter are inconsistent with our institutional values of equity and inclusion and we regret the decision to publish it. Our letters policy states: “the opinions expressed in letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial staff or those of Phillips Academy.” Moving forward, we will make this policy explicit by printing it in every issue of the magazine.