Welcome, friends, family, students, and faculty to the eighth grade graduation exercises of The Barnesville School. This morning we celebrate the joys and successes of our eighth graders as they complete their years here at Barnesville and prepare for the next step into their secondary schools of choice.
Eighth graders – perhaps in your lessons you have learned about the Greek mythological hero known as Odysseus. Odysseus, sometimes known as Ulysses, was the King of Ithaca, a small island west of mainland Greece. Odysseus is known for his intellect, his bravery, and his cunning. He joined the Greeks to fight in a battle known as the Trojan War, a legendary battle between the Greeks and the Trojans that took 10 years to fight. It was Odysseus’s cleverness that ultimately won the war, when he designed the Trojan Horse, a large hollow statue of a horse in which the Greek warriors hid. When the Trojans, thinking the horse was a gift to the gods, brought it into their city, the Greeks later snuck out at night and ransacked Troy.
As I mentioned, Odysseus and the Greeks fought this war for ten years, and at the conclusion of the war, he and his fellow soldiers began the long journey home to Ithaca. That journey took another ten long years, as he and his men were besieged by angry gods, attacked by monsters, and trapped by witches. Odysseus loses all his men, his worldly goods, and finally washes ashore on the island of Phaeacia, bruised & battered, having lost everything, more a homeless drifter than a mighty king.
He is discovered and brought before King Alcinoos who houses and cares for him. One evening, the king hosts a party which Odysseus joins, and a singer begins to sing about the heroes of the Trojan War. Odysseus hears the song of the Trojan War – the war he fought, the men he stood beside – and he weeps at the story. He reveals himself as Odysseus to the assembled party, and soon after, Odysseus is returned to his native Ithaca, 20 years after leaving for Troy.
The drama and the pathos of the story - the hero travels across the sea to battle, then spends a decade trying to return home – has endured for millennia. It’s an enthralling story, and Homer’s Odyssey remains planted in the literary canon as a “classic” in all senses of the word.
But what about the opposite? What about the hero at the beginning of the journey, uncertain of direction or purpose? Not the story of the brave warrior who returns, but the young hero who sets off? What about this unwritten epic, the beginning of the great adventure?
This is your story.
Of course, your story may feel a little less like The Odyssey and a little more like another famous tale, Alice in Wonderland! As you recall that story, Alice is a girl a little younger than you, sitting on a river bank, bored, tired of reading her book and watching her sister, when she sees a rabbit. No ordinary rabbit, but one wearing a coat and top hat and holding a pocket watch, worried about how late he’ll be. The rabbit jumps down the hole, and Alice follows suit, thus starting her adventure in Wonderland.
But what if there’s no rabbit hole? Or no rabbit in a top hat? How are you even to know which way to travel?
One thing you do know is where you will be starting school come September. Our 8th graders head off to a variety of schools this fall, spanning a wide range of missions and compositions. From Connelly School of the Holy Child, a small single-sex private school of 400 girls, to Thomas Wootton High School, a large public institution with over 2,400 students. From St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, a mere 20 miles away, to the International School of Brussels, 3700 miles away.
(By the way, SSHL, where Anna will be attending in Sweden, is actually 100 miles farther away, but I was afraid I’d mispronounce the name of her school. Feel free to look it up in your graduation program.)
As you begin this new adventure, what will you have to guide you? Assuming you don’t have Greek gods to point the path, nor white rabbits to chase, how will you know which direction to go?
Perhaps we can buy something to help us. Perhaps, as the ads keep telling us, there’s an app for that. After all, Apple has just unveiled its new iPhone on Monday, with all the fancy new features and applications. New to this phone is a built-in digital compass, which will allow you to orient yourself with one touch of the screen. At this rate, I’m positive that with the next iPhone release, your phone will not only tell you where you want to go, but will also tell you where you ought to go. So before you can even text your friend “Party at Suzie’s House”, it will say, “don’t you think you should be heading home and studying now?” Perhaps this new app will have a catchy name like the iParent – or, maybe, the iNag!
No, I argue that technology is not enough. The next iPhone can point you north, but it can’t point you in the right direction for life. But there’s good news, 8th graders…
While you don’t have a map, you do have a compass.
Your compass wasn’t cheap to purchase, but I promise you it won’t wear out. It’s non-transferrable, but it will last a lifetime. Your compass, of course, is your Barnesville education.
Throughout your years here at Barnesville, you have been taught many lessons. Most of us think about these lessons as the academic, athletic, and artistic curricula – math, Spanish, art, science, physical education, etc. But there is another curriculum – a curriculum of character. We prepare you not only to be a good student, but to be a good person.
At last week’s Arts & Academics Night, our 1st & 5th graders presented a rap about some classroom rules – “follow directions”, “feet & hands to yourself”, “work together, don’t fight and you’ll have good friends”. Perhaps some of these rules may seem simplistic to a sophisticated 8th grader, but the simple rules are often the most profound. I ask our audience today, adults and students alike - is it important to follow directions? Is it important to keep our feet and hands to ourselves? Is it important to work together? I thought so.
But beyond rules, we have sought to instill principles, character, and an ethical mindset to help you make difficult decisions. This is your moral compass. Our character words are the building blocks – kindness, service, perseverance, respect, initiative, courage, cooperation, responsibility, honesty. You have had opportunity to practice these character words through service projects, field trips, exchange programs, but also in the daily routine of class. Walking down the hallway, how can you show kindness? What lessons about courage can be learned on the soccer field? How does your 8th grade research paper teach you about initiative? Or honesty? Or perseverance?
Remember – while you don’t have a map, you do have a compass.
You will face moral dilemmas in your journey forward. These will be dilemmas in which you will consider not what is quick, or easy, or the least trouble, but what is fair, what is right, what is just. Facts will help, but facts won’t be enough. These dilemmas aren’t about right vs. wrong, but about right vs. right. As you make decisions, you will need to apply your principles and justify them. This is hard! But again remember - while you don’t have a map, you do have a compass.
Be certain – you are not entirely alone in the woods with your compass. You can look to leaders who have blazed the trail ahead. Consider putting yourself in their shoes. Think to yourself, “what would Miss So-and-so do?” “Would Mr. So-and-so act this way?” You can also look for trusted guides, people to accompany you on your journey. These might be old friends, new friends, family, people you’d want along side of you as you set out on new territory. And, you can look to the wisdom passed down by those who have come before. Consider this maxim from Sir Francis Bacon: A conscience is worth 1000 witnesses. Words such as these can be your guides. But ultimately, the journey is yours to make and choose.
When I was young, just a few years younger than our soon-to-be graduates, the Choose Your Own Adventure books started to come out. The first one was called The Cave of Time. I thought that this was the coolest book ever. It begins with a boy who stumbles upon a cave at his uncle’s ranch, and he soon discovers that the cave is a portal to time and space. He can travel to the Middle Ages, to the age of dinosaurs, to the future – you name it.
For those not familiar with the Choose Your Own Adventure books, it put you the reader into the story and allows you to make decisions every few pages, with each decision leading you to a different ending. “If you choose to go back home, turn to page 7. But if you choose to wait, turn to page 11.” The greatest part, of course, was that once you had followed your path to the end of the story, you could start all over again, and follow a completely different course for your adventure.
Life, of course, is not so tidy. 8th graders, you will not have a choice of two paths, or three, but hundreds, thousands. Choose wisely, and remember:
While you don’t have a map, you do have a compass.
Finally – 8th graders, in your travels and journeys, may you always find the time to visit your alma mater, The Barnesville School. Godspeed, Class of 2009!