The New Version of Old
by Andre Heard ’93, Associate Dean of Students I am striving to become a new version of adult. As I’ve witnessed four cycles of students arrive in Class IV and depart after Class I, I’ve learned that being young has changed, and so has being old. I watch in awe as the relationships between Class I and IV students evolve. Class IV students look up to their Class I counterparts, who seem to have found balance in their Milton lives. By senior year, they have figured out what is important to them (at least during this period of their...
read moreWhen Clutter Gives You Joy
by Mary McCutcheon ’65 That infernal book by Marie Kondo has been on the best-seller list for months. I haven’t read it. I haven’t opened its cover. I haven’t touched it. I haven’t even seen a copy, but I am already barricading my mind against its painful message: decluttering. When I first arrived at Milton in 1962, I had one Samsonite suitcase (no wheels), a portable typewriter, and a copy of Webster’s Sixth Collegiate Dictionary. Aside from children’s books and teddy bears, the only other thing I owned was my nascent and...
read moreAs Frailty Approaches, a Disruptive Notion for Tender Care
by Mary Procter ’59 “Do we have another revolution in us?” former Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman asked Radcliffe alumnae, Class of 1963. At our 50th Reunion we marveled at how far women had come since the days when career options for Radcliffe graduates were limited to being secretaries in publishing houses, fact checkers in magazines, teachers and nurses. A few pioneers in our class actually became physicians and scientists, defending themselves to their male colleagues for most of their careers. But Ellen Goodman was talking...
read moreFeel Me Brave
“Dare to be true” had an appealing ring to it back in my adolescent days. For me, the words summoned the courage to connect with my authentic self — to speak and act and relate to the world from that place. More than 20 years out, I have observed how the motto stands the test of time, though now with some nuance. My younger self tended to connect to this concept of “being true” in a way that felt bold. Applying it had more to do with my academic and professional pursuits. Now, at nearly 40 years old, life has had more of a chance...
read moreA Kinder, Gentler Place: An Appeal to My Contemporaries
By Martha Rose Shulman When I graduated from Milton Academy in 1968, I did not look back. I kept in touch with close friends and a few of my teachers, and I visited the school once, but I never went to a class reunion and I never donated. Nor did my sister (Class of 1967). I always appreciated the amazing education I got at Milton, especially because I didn’t go on to lead a conventional life, and I’ve always believed that my Milton education gave me the intellectual confidence to do that. But I do not have fond memories of my time...
read more“When It Comes to Movies, Everyone Has an Opinion.”
By Ty Burr ’76 Being a movie critic can be a strange way to make a living. For one thing, everyone wants to talk about my job, but no one quite respects it. This occasionally includes me. I’ll meet someone at a party, ask what they do, and he or she will say “cardiac surgeon” or “third-world food bank coordinator,” and then I have to admit I spend my days watching movies about heavily digitized superheroes while taking illegible notes in the dark. And then someone else will walk up and want to talk about the new Hunger Games...
read moreA Complementary View
by Vcevy Strekalovsky ’56 Our culture values the practical over the artistic. Arts education is often considered a luxury, outside the base curriculum, yet Harvard’s Howard Gardner shows in his “multiple intelligences” theory that visual and performing arts awaken and engage students, leading to self-esteem and follow-through—transferable effects. Our global competitors seem to understand this dynamic. Business leaders who are liberally educated understand that they are managing much more than the bottom line. Creativity, teamwork,...
read moreA Bowl of Eggs
by Rob Radtke ’82 One of the great privileges of my work is to travel around the world to visit the programs of Episcopal Relief & Development, the international development agency of the Episcopal Church. We are the stewards of sacrificial generosity from around the United States, and we take very seriously the responsibility we have to our friends and supporters to ensure that their gifts are used as they intend. My travel helps me carry out that responsibility. Recently, when I was in northern Ghana, I visited about six...
read moreOne Little Glitch
By Luke White ’99 My mother, Pam White, retired from Milton in 2002. As a Health Center counselor, head of the peer-counseling program, and longtime leader of Octet, Pam used her vibrant spirit and warmth to touch many at Milton. Since that time, Pam enjoyed starting a small private practice as a clinical social worker, playing tennis, and becoming a grandmother three times over. As she would put it, “there’s just one little glitch”: in 2009, shortly after her 61st birthday, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Everyone...
read moreResuscitating Compromise
by Katie Leeson ’93 “Washington is obsessive.” That was the opening line of a recent NPR story about the capital city’s laser-like focus on the 2010 health-care-reform law. I laughed as I drove up Pennsylvania Avenue, wondering if the reporter could have picked three better words to sum up the city where I’ve lived and worked for the past 12 years. As a health-care lobbyist, I can tell you with absolute certainty that D.C. is flush with obsessive, passionate people seeking to influence policy and shape history. In fact, advocates...
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