PHOTOGRAPHY BY HIGHPOINT PICTURES
Two graduates are better than one: Rick and Lynne Breed with school monitor siblings Mary Stuart and Rich Breed and their sister Ashley ’98. 䉳 The last graduate ever to receive a Taft diploma from Lance Odden, Kristen Zwiener takes a bow with the headmaster.
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f I have learned anything in life, it is that I know very little. This much I believe: That we are unreasonably lucky to be here among the most privileged in all of the world and that with that privilege comes the obligation to give back.
I, a failure in second grade, owe everything to Mrs. Dennison, my third grade teacher who held me after school and made me practice phonics to overcome mild dyslexia. In today’s world, I would be given Ritalin, denied the opportunity to overcome my disability, and to develop the habit of hard work. When I wrote to thank Mrs. Dennison after becoming headmaster, she made me feel like the gift giver. Say “thank you,” and you will feel good. In tenth grade, my Algebra II teacher wrote my father at the end of the winter term saying, “If Lance cared about scoring points in math as he does goals in hockey, he might pass.” When I suggested to my father that my teacher was disorganized, boring, and considered the worst instructor at Andover, my father, uncharacteristically, got mad. He said, “Never blame anyone for your own shortcomings. In life, you will have poor
Lance Odden helps head monitor Tarik Asmerom lift the Class of 2001 stone during the commencement ceremonies. Given the distance to Centennial dormitory from the gym, Tarik did not have to place the stone in the wall.
teachers and ineffective bosses. Your job is to get the job done, not to complain. In the end, you are responsible for yourself.” Great advice. Remember it when you are parents. My Andover hockey coach was tough, perhaps, even a tyrant by today’s standards. He believed that if the conditions of practice were more demanding than those of competing under the pressure of games, you would perform well and win. We worked so hard we almost never lost. The end, in fact, does depend on the beginning, which is part of why I have always loved Horace Taft’s quote that “Sports are important because of the unselfishness and self-suppression they enforce. That the grandstand player or the one who only trains when the coach’s eye is on him is not the one who will be successful in life.” The harder you work, the luckier you get. Taft Bulletin Summer 2001
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