View From the Back Porch

Back Porch 2013.06: Suddenly it’s Spring …

Posted May 17, 2013

… and just as suddenly the year is over.

But while it lasts here at Stevenson it is thrilling to watch individuals and teams display the wonders of youth and the hope for the future. I’ve proctored a number of Advanced Placement tests recently, and it occurred to me as I observed 26 juniors and seniors engrossed in AP Biology for four hours that here in all their wonderful diversity were the answers to all our problems. Give them to these people, with their amazing energy and optimism, and they will work them out.

In the past several weeks we have seen the spring theater, dance, and music productions, all outstanding in every way; the fine arts exhibition; Keckstock III, the annual talent show; and athletic contests of one sort or another, all attesting to the creativity, joy, enthusiasm, and talent of these young people whose lives we share for a while, and whose brilliance becomes part of our personal and institutional memory.

Long into the future, teachers and staff will meet at the lunch table in Reid Hall and speak of this or that graduate of the Class of 2013, or 14 or 15, or of 1983 or 88, or 92 or 97; and memories will tumble forth and connect the people spoken about to those who didn’t know them, but who through the stories capture the essence of this place. Which is, of course, the students and teachers who gathered here at any given time to learn and grow.

The Class of 2013 has been a great one in terms of its leadership in school life and in its loyalty to the principles the School stands for: personal conduct, hard work, contributions to the community. And most importantly, they are friends with each other and will remain so long into their lives. As Dostoevsky urges, “let us remember how good it was once here, when we were all together, united by a good and kind feeling which made us better perhaps than we are.”

And what a spring term it was in sports! Track and Field had its best showing in memory, winning the MTAL Championship final meet by one point over King City even though losing the overall Championship by not scoring as many points as King City over the season; Lacrosse came on strong to beat Carmel in the final game of the season and win the league championship; Tennis made it to the second round of the CCS Championship; Golf won the CCS Championship for a record-setting fourth straight year; Baseball, the Cinderella story, won its final three games by shutouts (including a 12-0 victory over Carmel) to be seeded 16th in the CCS and went on to defeat 3rd seeded St. Francis (Watsonville) by a 3-2 score in the first round of CCS; and with “No Pool No Problem” emblazoned on their sweatshirts, our boy and girl swimmers, with access to water only two days per week while our pool is under construction, finished in 2nd and 4th place in the MTAL. “He who learns must suffer.”

Go Pirates!