On Happiness
Recently, I have been weighed down by adolescence. The mood swings, erratic frustration, and chronic sarcasm were constant reminders of my growing up. I was complaining to my parents, nagging my brother, ranting to my friends. People say that these years define who we will be as adults: Is this who I will become? The more I struggled with finding myself, the more nostalgia I felt for my childhood innocence. To sort out my own happiness, I read Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project. In her best-seller, the author pursues happiness through...
read moreOn Making Things
When I was trying to figure out my Class IV Talk, one of my friends asked me what I like to do. After a fairly boring list, I announced that I like to make things, and break things. While I can assure you that breaking things can be a lot less frustrating and more fun than making things, people usually think of it as destructive, although I can’t imagine why. For that reason, my Talk is about making things—some interesting things that I’ve made, some famous inventors who have actually made important things, and what we can learn from...
read moreFictional Characters Complicate the Lives of Fifth-Graders
Grappling with the experience of a fictional character often opens doors for readers. A close range, intimate look at a character’s challenges and decisions can aptly teach about perspective. Jenn Katsoulis’s fifth-graders not only consider writing styles and develop analytical skills as they study literature. Through the books that she and librarian Joan Eisenberg choose, Jenn aims to help students look at the world from another person’s point of view. “I choose books that force the reader to do that,” Jenn says. Book by book, her...
read moreAn Exhortation to Cum Laude Inductees
From Carly Wade, as she enters the stage of the “Forest Dweller” I’ve been thinking a lot about changes recently. I always think about changes at this time of year. Many of my students will graduate next week. Others will move on to other classes and programs. Are your questions for yourselves anything like mine for my students? What will come next for them? What will they learn that delights them? That consternates them? What will they take with them from Milton? What will they leave behind? Especially, what do they know about...
read morePritzker Science Center Dedication May 6, 2011
On May 6, 2011, Brad Bloom, president of the board of trustees, welcomed faculty and staff, students, donors and the Pritzker family at the dedication of the Pritzker Science Center. The ceremony honored those whose dedication and philanthropy made Milton’s exciting new building possible. Milton science students addressed how the building’s design inspires science teaching and learning. J.B. Pritzker ’82 noted that faculty-student relationships are the root of all great discovery at Milton. At a Thank You Celebration that evening, Milton...
read moreMy father’s gifts
I arrived at Milton in 2009, but Milton was not new to me. My family’s legacy here is a source of pride. Few heads of school can claim that their existence is attributable to their school. My parents met and fell in love at Milton during the spring of their Class I year. Several members of the Class of 1958 claim that I am a gift from them to the Academy (though they may choose a less flattering term). Onward from that spring, my family’s journey is not a storybook tale. Many remember it more with a sense of sadness rather than joy. In the...
read moreA Win-Win Proposition
Alumni athletes are volunteer coaches Athletic coaches at Milton motivate, mentor and challenge their student athletes. They are also masters at multitasking—dealing with schedules, injuries, equipment and travel logistics. Some teams are getting additional help from alumni athletes who return to campus as volunteers. They assist team coaches in a variety of sports. Word of mouth, chance encounters and individual initiatives have increased the alumni presence in coaching over the past few years. “They are a nice addition to our athletic...
read moreWhen the rubber meets the road, can I pursue science?
When I first stepped onto the Milton Academy campus in the fall of 2007, I thought I knew exactly the trajectory my high school career would take. And just as I had a vivid picture of where I would sit in Forbes, and what I would wear to my fi rst school dance, I entertained romanticized visions of myself in the science lab. Long white coat and gloves, in case whatever extremely dangerous substance I was studying should stray from the test tube in my steady and capable hands. I thought I knew what it meant to study science, and I knew that was...
read moreCommencement 2011
One of the reasons why addressing you on this day of days is such an utter privilege is that I know what a brilliant, diverse, engaged, curious bunch of people you are. I have talked to your teachers. I have talked to some of you. I have heard the stories. Graduations are so momentous not just because of what has been achieved today but because of the accumulation of what will be achieved in the future. Look around you, seniors. Your classmates will go on to study and unravel the human genome, to write novels and hilarious television shows, to...
read moreGraduates’ Weekend 2011
The walls of Wigg Lawrence Coburn ’61 Future Miltonians Shade next to Straus Paul Schmid ’61 Faith Howland ’61 Macy Lawrence Ratliff ’76 and Anne Myers Brandt ’81 Nat Barbour ’61 Musical friends Sascha Greatrex Proudlove ’91 and family Schwarz Student Center, transformed Michael Lou, history faculty, leads the discussion Regine Jean-Charles Asare and Ohene Asare—both Class of 1996 Down the green, around the hoop… Jack Reardon ’56, trustee Sallie Thompson...
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