Headmaster Addresses Undergraduates

Blair undergraduates assembled a final time at the end of May to recognize classmates who garnered prizes and to hear Headmaster Hardwick’s parting words – words that provided a look back at the school year and wise suggestions for the summer months away from campus.

Closing Remarks by Headmaster T. Chandler Hardwick
Undergraduate Assembly 2006

These remarks shall be brief but I hope shall help all of you develop a course of positive action for the summer months ahead, as well as give you some issues to ponder as you recollect and evaluate the year completed with the close of the last exam book tomorrow.

So, we come to the end of an unusual and, at times, difficult school year – one that has undoubtedly bound us together in many ways, but not easy or always positive ways. Still, we have learned a great deal about coping with loss, being sensitive to each other, and thinking on life outside of the focused little world of “Self,” a world that the faculty and I inhabit as well as you.

At some point this summer, perhaps when you are outdoors and it is quiet and calm, let your mind go back to this year and consider again how you felt and how you managed your feelings and reactions to all that went on at Blair. This reflection is a good way to think on yourself because it is not selfish or lost in the moment, but gives you perspective, the chance to – as the Greeks say – “know yourself,” and there is nothing wrong with self-knowledge.

Of course, there are practical and active choices for your summer. Some of you will travel, study for your SAT’s, play in a summer league, and some of you will work, either for pay or as a volunteer. All of you should strive to be helpful to your family in the many ways you can be. Perhaps the most important way to help your family is to communicate frequently and openly with them.

And I urge each of you to analyze your feelings about things and determine to commit to having, or continue to exhibit, a good attitude – and I mean about nearly anything: cleaning your room, keeping your music at a reasonable volume, helping with chores, seeing a movie that appeals to your little brother but not you – all that family stuff. So much of life’s success or failure comes from developing and maintaining and practicing having a good, positive attitude toward daily life. And if you work on that away from Blair – where you might invoke the stress of academic life for acting badly – then you will be better able to maintain that good attitude next year.

If you think back on this year, you can remember people – let’s say some just graduated seniors – who had various attitudes towards life at Blair. I hope you could tell that those seniors who were generally positive and enthusiastic about being here were among the most successful in their class, and you could not hope for a better role model for a positive attitude than the one that Kurt offered us every day of his life.

In addition, I hope you will stay in touch with your Blair friends and that includes faculty. At graduation, quite a few 2005 alumni were back, and each of them seemed eager not only to see each other and the graduating seniors but also their old advisors and teachers. This desire to talk with us was a strong and positive characteristic of their class, and I would encourage you to keep those lines of communication open. Remember this: those boys and girls who freely and frequently engage in discussions with a faculty member not only avoid many problems associated with adolescence, but also develop habits of communication that support their success throughout their lives.

And read. Read anything, but especially daily papers for national and international news, magazine articles on subjects other than movie and rock stars, and certainly some books. My generation frequently complains that your generation is not as articulate as you should be, and if that is true – and I supposed it is debatable – then it directly relates to the likelihood that we read more as children and adolescents than you do.

Technology has allowed us to communicate faster and more inclusively, but it has not raised the quality of that communication. You will learn, if you have not already, that just passing along snippets of fact or humor in your communications will carry you only so far. Ultimately, saying something important, something emotionally honest, something persuasive – all require subtle understandings of language, and reading builds that understanding.

So, in fifteen Tuesdays, we shall have the first school meeting of the 159th Blair school year. And, Class of 2007, remember that it is your year.

Good luck and best wishes. The faculty and I are very much looking forward to working with all of you next year.

Posted 6/2/06

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