A Victim, A Soldier, An Activist: Memorias de protesta | Memories of Protest
By Salomón-G. Díaz-Valencia Translated by Mark Connolly Bien decía Rousseau: “Ofrecemos nuestros sentimientos cuando hablamos y nuestras ideas cuando escribimos”1. Las ideas se transforman cuando adquirimos la capacidad de analizar diferentes perspectivas. Quizás por causas del destino nací en un país en el que la guerra civil subyugaba y aun hoy no encuentra su fin. He vivido ahí la mayor parte de mi vida. La memoria más fuerte y clara que guardo de mi niñez se remonta a cuando yo tenía 4 años. Mi padre tenía un taller de electrónica en un local que era parte de la casa. Un...
Read MoreFrighted by False Fire: A 14-Minute Talk on Money for Class I, May 7, 2013
Why don’t we talk more about money? We complain about it often enough, but as conversation, nothing summons up boredom, embarrassment and helplessness like money. To be clear, this is not an anti-wealth talk. I’m asking us to think more about money and ourselves without casting judgment on wealth itself. As seniors, you are beginning a lifelong relationship with the most mundane internal monologue of adulthood. Like the animated house in D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” we tell ourselves: “There must be more money…there must be more money.” But how do we wrap our...
Read More“What do you mean, ‘curriculum renewal’?”
Heather Sugrue, math department chair, along with the faculty in her department, have undertaken a comprehensive review of math at Milton. Math is taking the lead in a renewal process that every department at Milton will conduct, in sequence and at regular intervals. “Ongoing, rigorous, curriculum renewal” is a key tenet of the Strategic Plan adopted by the trustees in January 2013. One of the central architects on the Strategic Planning team, Heather co-chaired its Student Life Task Force. Heather is pioneering the first major example of the process the plan intends. Milton’s priority...
Read MoreA 14-Minute Talk For Seniors: A Reflection on Spending Time
By Lisa Baker Some of the very best moments of my year have been running with Malia. She’s my daughter, 10 years old and coltish, limby and awkward, ankles poking out of her pants, her foot already a women’s size nine. But she’s all-girl, too—breathless and silly, amused by her sister’s potty humor and still willing to snuggle. “Wanna go for a run, honey?” I say to her after school, and she says, “Sure,” every time. Running had become a tedious routine, the washed-up athlete in me needing to hold on to the daily run, an efficient way to keep in shape, to claim a little for...
Read More“Please take care of yourself, and take care of your friends.”
On Wednesday, November 16, our students contemplated the fate of “Todd” and “Amy”—the players in a courtroom drama that had unfolded during assembly. High school students don’t lightly sacrifice their recess period; yet, that morning, second period bled into the precious 15 minutes of free time, and no one even noticed. That morning’s speaker, attorney Brett Sokolow, had appointed our students as the jury of a complicated, real-life case involving college students, alcohol, and a sexual encounter. Presenting the facts of the case, he charged the “jury” with deciding whether...
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 themselves now because they’ve been Milton students? This...
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