CCHS Class of 1998 Graduation Commencement Address
by Mr. Denis Cleary, Social Studies |
School
Committee person Nancy McJennett School Committee Person Carolyn Musicant Superintendent Dr. Thomas Scott Principal Elaine DiCicco Esteemed faculty and staff, family and friends, the class of 98 - ah, yes The Great '98 Don't you find it a tad unnerving to be serenaded by music from the Titanic on your graduation day? So this is your commencement. Commencement? -- the commencement of what? This is not a beginning but an ending, a completion of your day to day relationship with Concord-Carlisle High School. For me, it's more like an Irish wake, a time for tearful goodbyes, a few laughs, maudlin stories and then we'll pack it up and be on our way. Let us begin to reminisce and say our farewells. Concord Schools and Concord-Carlisle High School have been blessed by outstanding leadership over the last ten years due in large part to the ministrations of Dr. Thomas Scott, our Superintendent. A community should never take for granted the contributions of its public servants. Some of them are irreplaceable. The highest accolade I can offer to Dr. Scott is that l'm sad for all of the youngsters in town who will attend a school system without his guiding presence. I feel badly for teachers recently hired and those yet to be employed by our schools who will not know the sincerity of his concern for their success and especially the booming laugh of the finest audience a teacher could have in the back of one's classroom. Soooo the class of 98's executive committee has made the courageous political decision to include Dr. Scott in the graduation rolls of the Great 98. You are now officially a member of the Class of 98. Thank you for your service to our schools and this community. A word, if I may, to the parents in our congregation today. As your beloved graduates prepared to leave for today's festivities, the following plaintive remark l'm sure was heard in more than one household, "You are not going in that are you?" And the response was something along the lines of, "Look, Mom/ Dad, this is my graduation, I'm going to do my graduation in my own way." But, you knew the tuth- graduation is a day of thanksgiving and relief, celebration and pride for you. Eighteen years or so ago a love shared so intensely it knew no bounds created this person who sits before you. The nurturance, the worry, the love from that day to this have known few bounds as well. It may take a village to raise a child, but where was the village chieftain when the kid needed to get up for school at 6:15 a.m.? That was your task--you were the one on a Saturday evening in an Emergency room waiting for the doctor's verdict on a fever that would not break, a soccer injury that was not healing. You were the one who had to calibrate the level of praise you would offer one of your children for an A studded report card while a sullen sibling with C's and D's looked on. "That C- is marvelous dear -- such a difference from the D+ last quarter. It shows growth." How to explain away the pains of adolescence knowing you'd been there yourself, but realizing that a deaf ear was turned to your advice whenever it began with, "When I was your age..." When to get involved, when to back off, when to know failure or disappointment is a more important lesson than a success based on parental intervention. So settle back parents and after all the friends and relations have vacated the premises, congratulate yourself and try to relive that love that began this journey. Now for the graduates--the great 98. I'm reminded of a story. When John Kennedy was President, he invited all the American Nobel Prize winners in literature, economics and science to dinner at the White House. When the time was appropriate he rose to offer a toast, "This is the finest assemblage of talent to dine at the White House..." The guests preened themselves reveling in their apparent greatness when he continued, "Since Thomas Jefferson dined alone." So let me now say to all those of, you assembled here today. "This is the finest assemblage of talent to grace CCHS's hallowed soil in one place at one time since the entire faculty met last Monday." You may be the Great 98, but always remember who made you that way. I first came into contact with the class of 98 in the spring of 1994 when you were 8th graders. Each spring for some reason I've never fathomed, the 8th grade visits CCHS-- to calm their fears of the high school, we're told. Well, of course, it usually does just the opposite. Some of you were very small when you were 14 years of age. The upperclassmen, both male and female, were as usual on their worst behavior that day. Application requests for Concord Academy, Middlesex and God knows where else surged after this reassuring disaster. Well, it seems I was on the top floor of the Library explaining all the marvelous possibilities afforded by the Social Studies curriculum for an incoming 9th grader. You can take World Cultures and Civilizations first semester and World Cultures and Civilizations second semester. I knew I had you in the palm of my hand and that you thrilled at the multitude of possibilities. Then I had the following memorable exchange-- "Any questions?" A hand was raised. A shock--no one asked questions at these question and answer sessions. "Yeah, my middle school teacher (I will not reveal the teacher's name) says that the high school won't be like the Middle School. We won't be able to get away with anything up here, people are not very nice and the teachers won't care for us like they do at the Middle School. Is that true?" I was taken aback, my knees turned to jelly as I thought of the bravery, openness and honesty demonstrated by this young waif-clearly a middle school student. No high school student in their right mind would ask such a ridiculous question. How to reassure, how to touch this child's fragile psyche and calm his fevered brain "To prepare us for the next stage of our life. " "And what stage is that?" I asked, "Hell?" It was the "world of work" comment that floored me. This child definitely needed the high school. I hope that person and each of the rest of you were, in fact, cared for at this high school, not because of the color of your skin, not because of your religious background, not because of your socioeconomic status--not for any of the categories of humanity you have been taught to use to identify people. I hope you were cared for because an adult saw a dream capable of being fulfilled in you. Ralph Waldo Emerson, from a small village just outside Boston called Concord, once wrote of his hope that we all meet someone who will help us be what we can. That is my hope as well for you today. Concord-Carlisle High School is a repository of dreams--you know, on such a day as this, religious imagery is better--CCHS is a cathedral, a temple of dreams--some dashed, some deferred and some fulfilled. Each of you knows his or her own story of your own dreams. I hope a teacher, I hope a coach, I hope an advisor was there for you when you tried to articulate your dream. If that has happened we have accomplished our task. If it has not, stop in one day and help us understand what we might have been able to do to know your story and appreciate your dream. Future generations of Boston, Carlisle and Concord students will be better served for your honesty. Why should I care you might ask, I'm outta here. But you see you will always be a part of Concord-Carlisle High School. Emerson again speaks of a great soul, Christianity speaks of a Communion of Saints, Jewish tradition revels in a tribal memory, Lincoln called it the "mystic chords of memory"., which bind us together forever. Last March Concord-Carlisle celebrated Distinguished Graduates Night. Mr. Eric Parkman Smith entered the high school in 1923 and graduated in 1927. He has gone on to have an illustrious life and career. When he came back for this evening ( he is well into his eighties), he spoke of teachers and friends and classmates, without notes, for 15 minutes. He remembered it all, he forgot nothing. That person will be you 71 years from now in the year 2069. For good or for ill you are bound to CCHS for the rest of your life. Incidents--the moments before you took the stage in the musical, the base hit in a close game against A-B, the trembling hands before you gave your speech in the Moot Court finals, the pride at seeing one of your artful masterpieces being studied by a complete stranger at the Concord Art Association, the satisfaction of an A or a B on an assignment you could have just mailed in. All of these took place within those walls or on these playing fields. Perhaps, you will stay on to see your own children inhabit these halls, or maybe life will draw you to exotic places like ... New Jersey, but you will forever be linked to us and us to you. It is a marvelous sight looking up that hill and seeing the maroon and white in all its glory march onto this field. Years ago a group of students asked the Department Chairs and Ms. DiCicco if it could decorate their graduation gowns so that they could make a distinctive statement. I'll always remember the principal's response--"for one day let us all be one--regardless of rank in class or stature in the community, let us all be one." She was right. To be here on this day means that you, each of you, have responded to the appropriate expectations of people your age. Don't let Uncle Egbert deflate you with the comment, "Now you enter the real world." You have been tested, analyzed, criticized, put under a microscope for four years and not been found wanting. How do we know that? You are here today. Celebrate that fact. A graduation speech should end with a ringing call for future greatness. It is an intriguing world in which we live. Find your own niche. Some of you in Steinbeck's phrase, "will be damned to greatness" on a national even international stage. Others of you will make your contribution at the local level leading a group of 7 year olds to a soccer or basketball championship or within your own family taking care of an elderly relative. All I encourage you to do is to find time to be reflective, ask goodness out of your heart, forgive slights, love and cherish your family, your friends and your community. What a marvelous life it will be. One last remark--the halls of CCHS will reverberate to your laughter long after you've left them physically. You are part of the one great soul that is Concord-Carlisle--visit us often, keep us in your thoughts, as we keep you in ours. God bless the Great '98!
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