Graduation 2007: At The Crossroads With Choices To Make

On Wednesday next week, 430 Newtown High School seniors will each don a gown, which evokes the formality and solemnity of the occasion, and a joke-of-a-hat mortarboard, which invites creative construction and less-than-formal expression, and they will wait patiently through a full schedule of pomp and circumstance at the O’Neill Center at WestConn to receive the diplomas they worked so hard to get. They will listen as they are repeatedly told, with varying degrees of eloquence and humor, that they are at a crossroads and have some choices to make.

When we look at their faces, which can be seen in The Bee this week on pages B10-15, we remember that every NHS graduation is a crossroads for our community as well. We have choices to make.

As you look at the photographs of the graduating seniors, remember that every picture tells a story. Success, failure, grace, awkwardness, self-confidence, self-doubt, talent, ineptitude, fidelity, loneliness, fitness, sickness, insight, confusion, inspiration, frustration, triumph and tragedy… these are not so much the various titles of the 430 stories, but chapter headings for each of those stories. A developing child seems at times to be a chameleon in a kaleidoscope. At graduation time, we are amazed that a single system of public education has once again managed to engage and educate so many moving targets.

The choice we make as a community to take on this challenge year after year requires our commitment to be there, standing in support for every chapter of every story — not just for the happy ending on graduation day. As in most communities, families take on the toughest work in this task. Martin Luther King, Jr, had it right: “The group consisting of mother, father, and child is the main educational agency of mankind.” But from Plymouth Rock forward, communities in this country have also recognized a responsibility for educating the young.

We tend to measure success with success stories, putting achievement and talent in the spotlight as we do at commencement. The depth and durability of our success, however, is better measured by our commitment to those out of the spotlight, struggling to achieve even modest goals and doubting their own abilities. When we choose to support a system of public education that reserves a seat at graduation for all — no matter what their story — the celebration on that day becomes a true community celebration.

So as we think about crossroads and choices on Wednesday evening, let’s remember that the process of choosing is continuous and not just a one-time adolescent thing. Let us congratulate the Class of 2007 and maybe even ourselves. Then let’s get back to the task. The Class of 2008 is on its way.