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Ethical culturE FiEldston school FoundEr’s day Program may 2, 2008 Ethical cultur E Fi ldston s Iam Canamus 3 Oh grassy banks and wooded ways, Oh hillsides echo ...

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Founder's Day Speech 2007 | Ethical Culture Fieldston School

Ethical culturE FiEldston school FoundEr’s day Program may 2, 2008 Ethical cultur E Fi ldston s Iam Canamus 3 Oh grassy banks and wooded ways, Oh hillsides echo ...

Ethical Culture Fieldston School

Founder’s
Day

Program

MAY 4, 2007

Ethical Culture Fieldston School

Iam Canamus

3
Oh grassy banks and wooded ways,
Oh hillsides echo with our praise;

Iam cantate, jubilate;
Shout giant oaks that touch the sky,

Ye massive rocks below reply,
Iam cantate, jubilate;

Iam canamus, jubilamus, gaudeamus.

Oh woods receive these man-made halls,
Lend grateful shade unto these walls;
Iam cantate, jubilate;
Ye aged rocks imbedded near

To rough-hewn stones give welcome here;
Iam cantate, jubilate;

Iam canamus, jubilamus, gaudeamus.

Here may each eager worker find
A workshop for a thoughtful mind;

Iam cantate, jubilate;
May youth by service nobler grown
Give life to brick and quarried stone;

Iam cantate, jubilate;
Iam canamus, jubilamus, gaudeamus.

Page 1

WELCOME

Tony Hileman
Senior Leader, New York Society for Ethical Culture

Good morning. I’m Tony Hileman, the Senior Leader of the New York Society
for Ethical Culture, and I’m here to welcome you to a very special event—
the 131st iteration of Founder’s Day. So, I extend a warm welcome to Head
of School Joe Healey and the faculty and staff of the Ethical Culture Fieldston
School, to the trustees and alums, to the students and parents, and especially
to the graduating class of 2007.

It’s always a thrill to see this auditorium filled with such enthusiasm. This is
a grand hall that houses and stands in representation of a great institution and
movement. Shortly after founding Ethical Culture on May 15, 1876, Felix
Adler—who peers at you from over my right shoulder—began a free
kindergarten which grew into the Workingman’s School that in turn grew
into a great institution in its own right, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.

At the time of the school’s founding, Adler said “The ideal of the school is to
develop individuals who will be competent to change their environment to
greater conformity with moral ideals.”

That’s a pretty heavy responsibility he laid on you, to bring our culture closer
to moral ideals. Are you up to it? Well, Adler thought you were, I think you
are, and I imagine your parents and teachers would agree with me—for you
are our tomorrow.

You are our tomorrow and your time to lead may well come sooner than you
think. How many of you feel our culture could stand a bit of improvement?
The college campuses you are heading for were once bubbling cauldrons of
social change kept a boil by a burning desire to preserve and perpetuate what
Felix Adler called, “This blessed land of freedom.”

Exactly one hundred years ago, another local religious reformer, Walter
Rauschenbusch, who was for eleven years pastor of the Second Baptist Church
in New York City’s “Hell’s Kitchen,” thought that the conditions of life in
America had combined to form an intense social struggle. He had this to say
about the state of affairs in this “blessed land of freedom” in 1907:

“The vastness and the free sweep of our concentrated wealth on the one side,
the independence, intelligence, moral vigor, and political power of the

Page 2

common people on the other side, promise a long-drawn grapple of contesting
forces which may well make the heart of every American patriot sink.”

Well, that pretty much describes the situation today, a century later, so no
one can dispute the “long-drawn grapple” of Rauschenbusch’s prophecy.
And that is indeed enough in and of itself to make a compassionate heart
sink. I bring up this history not to depress you on this joyous occasion, but to
remind you that a proper understanding of the past is needed if we are to look
wisely toward a better future and act prudently in the present in order to
bring it about.

In seeking to unlock the secrets of the past, we see that the progress of the
last century has brought prosperity to many while at the same time leaving
an unconscionable number in poverty—a social plague unabated by progress
and perhaps even caused by it. And we also see that the unseemly accumulation
of wealth for wealth’s sake is still with us.

But that is just one of the social and cultural ills that could use some attention
today. We’ve yet to learn the lesson of war, that hitting and killing do not
settle differences but only bring about new ones. Many in our global
community enjoy few human rights and not everyone in our nation enjoys
equal liberties. We’ve yet to attain a universal respect for the worth and dignity
for others not like us. We see in our cultural today how the many pay for the
ignorance and arrogance of a few. That makes the heart sink.

But the political power of a democracy does not belong to the few but to the
many. The political process works best when it’s reminded that others,
especially others unlike ourselves, are equally deserving of dignity and respect.
And nations, like people, are at their best when mindful that just ends demand
equally just means. Social reform, moral improvement, is often initiated by a
caring, capable few. And that’s where you, the class of ’07, come in.

You have the independence of mind and will, you have the intelligence and
the education, you have been schooled in ethical ideals, and you have within
you the capacity for a moral vigor so lacking and so desperately needed
today. You are our tomorrow and that gladdens my heart.

When you speak to others from my generation, they will often tell you that
some of their most satisfying social involvement began during their college
years. That spark still glows on campuses today. That you can and just might
reignite it, that you can and just might rekindle the flame of social justice,
that you can and just might relight the torch of moral guidance in this blessed
land of freedom makes my heart sing.

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It is with pride that I anticipate—with no less expectation than Felix Adler—
the contributions and accomplishments of the Ethical Culture Fieldston
School’s Class of 2007.

GREETING AND INTRODUCTION OF
KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Joseph P. Healey, Ph.D.
Head of School, Ethical Culture Fieldston School

Good Morning and welcome to all of you.

This celebration is always one of my favorite times of the year. Gathered here
at the Meeting Hall of the Society for Ethical Culture, we are reminded of our
roots in the Society and in the belief of our mutual founder, Felix Adler, that
individual human beings are innately good and capable of creating a more
moral and ethical world. This is the heart of our mission as a school and of
the message we are trying to teach.

I would like to welcome in a very special way the graduating class of 2007.

Each year at this meeting it is the custom to acknowledge those members of
our faculty and staff, who will complete their service at the end of this academic
year. In ascending order of their years of service I would like to thank them,
and before I do so, I would ask you to withhold your applause until the very
end, when I will ask all of them to rise.

They are:

Alice Grievo, sculptor and wood shop teacher at Fieldston Lower since 1987;

Diane Churchill, artist, the inspiration behind the wonderful tile project, and
art teacher at Fieldston Lower since 1987;

Art Jacobs, print shop manager at Fieldston since 1986, who has made the
history of printing alive to today’s students;

Linda Graev, a lover of word games and, appropriately, reading/language
and learning specialist at EC, since 1985;

Page 4

Elizabeth Saenger, community organizer and ethics teacher at Fieldston Lower
since 1983;
Linda Shannon, a great traveler, reader of mysteries, and longtime teacher at
EC;

Colleen Garnevicus, writer of the Fieldston Lower school song, and music
program director at Fieldston Lower since 1974; We’re so glad you started –
and stayed at Fieldston Lower School.

And last, but certainly not least, the incomparable
Alejandro Nivon, Fieldston ethics teacher since 1970.

Now, will all the faculty just mentioned please rise as a group and be
acknowledged for all your good work and years of service to ECF.

Now I want to tell you a little about Jack Amiel, a graduate of the class of
1986, who is our honored speaker today. As befits a Hollywood scriptwriter
and producer, he has come with his own entourage – although in this case, an
entourage equally familiar with ECF: his dad, Joe Amiel, Class of ’55, his
mother, Linda Mirkin Amiel, Class of ’58; his sister, Andrea Amiel, Class of
’83, here with her husband, Jeffrey Tepper; and his cousin, David Jacobs
Class of ’80, here with wife Robin Jacobs.

When I first met Jack, I was struck by three things:

• his passion for the school and all it did for him
• his considerable talent and creativity
• his keen sense of humor and recognition of the foibles of human

nature.

In so many ways he exemplifies what a Fieldston education can do. Jack and
his writing partner, Michael Begley, worked for a decade on the staffs of
numerous network sitcoms from Empty Nest to Malcolm in the Middle while
writing pilots for ABC, FOX and the WB. In 2000 they made their break into
feature film with several independent projects before writing the Disney film,
Raising Helen, directed by Garry Marshall, and starring Kate Hudson, Joan
Cusack, John Corbett and Helen Mirren. Their second feature was The Prince
and Me, which starred Julia Stiles, Miranda Richardson and James Fox. They
are now in preproduction with “Hell on Earth” a TV pilot described as a
back-from-the dead comedy, and they have a half- dozen projects in
development at most of the major studios. Last, would you be surprised to
learn that Amiel and his partner plan to direct a film themselves?

Page 5

Of course, Jack describes himself a little bit differently. He sent me a funny
and candid assessment of his life and work, all of which I cannot share in this
very public arena, but here’s a sampling. According to Jack, he was “a
consistent underachiever” at Fieldston and eventually went on to the University
of Wisconsin of Madison, where he majored in – I quote again — “history
and laziness.” He met his writing partner, Michael Begler, at college when
they participated in a longstanding musical comedy contest, which they did
not win, but which, he says, made them more popular with girls. From these
lofty beginnings and motivations, Amiel and Begler charged full steam ahead
into the entertainment industry, and you see where it has taken them.

Jack’s energy and creativity inspires me, and actually makes me a little tired.
Let me now turn the stage over to Jack Amiel, class of 1986.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

“The Virtues of Failure”

Jack Amiel

Class of 1986
Distinguished Screenwriter and Executive Producer

“It’s not working out.” The words hung in the air for a minute as I processed
them. Then it was said again. “I’m sorry, but it’s just not… you know, working
out.” A deafening silence filled the room. I sat there, my heart dropping into
my stomach, as what was being said began to sink in. I was being fired. Not
“laid off,” or “let go,” or “outsourced” or any of the other dozen euphemisms
that people come up with to make it not seem quite so bad, no, I was being
fired.

This was seven years ago. I was 31 years old, a writer on the staff of a new
series for a big network, a sit-com that I knew was sure to be a hit, and I was
being told by my boss, the showrunner, that he didn’t want me to be a part of
it anymore. Furthermore, he was so sure he wanted me gone that he was willing
to pay me a lot of money to go.

If you learn anything from what I’ve just said, it should be these two things.
First, always start a speech with an opening that grabs your audience’s attention.
How’d I do?

The second thing you should learn from what I’ve just said is–it sucks to get
fired. It sucks to fail... at anything. It sucks to screw up. It sucks to be

Page 6

humiliated. And, most of all, judging by the look on my mother’s face right
there in the audience, it’s going to suck to be me in about 20 minutes because
I can tell how just how thrilled she is that I used the word “suck” six times
within my first two minutes of being up here.

I guess I was asked to come back here to speak because despite lousy grades
at Fieldston and lousy grades in college, I’ve gone on to have some pretty
decent success in film and television in the twenty years since I just barely

graduated from this school. But I’m not going to talk about my successes–

besides how successful can a guy feel when he’s spends his life writing chick
flicks and talking-dog movies? I’m here to talk about how the setbacks that
we all desperately try to avoid can actually be the thing that most helps you
succeed.

But before I continue discussing any more of my humiliating failures, I should
really stop and thank Joe Healey and James Thompson for inviting me back,
and though I’m sure they’re now starting to regret it, I’m grateful for the
invitation. Even though I now live in Los Angeles, ECFS was, is, and will
always be, a huge part of my life. I was the eighth person in my family to
attend either Ethical or Fieldston. My father met my mother at Ethical. My
dad has been on one alumni board or another at the school for the better part
of the last 30 years. And now their granddaughter, our third generation to
attend, is in kindergarten here. I believe so strongly in what Ethical, Lower,
and Fieldston have to offer. This isn’t just a school or a place to simply get a
diploma. Over time, I’ve come to see that I left here with a philosophy firmly
imbedded within me, and it has been a guiding force in my life.

So, I opened with the story of how I was fired off a TV show. Even worse, it
did end up a huge hit, and I knew I was going to see it everywhere for the next
seven years. It crushed me. Depressed me. Angered me. Enraged me… and it
was the single best thing that ever happened to me in my professional life.
Yeah, you heard me right… getting knocked on my butt was the best thing
that ever happened to me in my professional life. Because, when I was down
there, I had two choices. I could wallow in self-pity, whine about how unfair
life was, and complain to anyone who’d listen. Or, I could stand up and start

over again. I chose to stand up–which, with my knees, isn’t as easy as it

sounds.

My old football coach at Fieldston… yes, I was quite the football hero back
during the days of the Reagan administration… used to say “It’s not a sin to
get blocked. It’s a sin to stay blocked.” Now, I’m not real big on quoting my
old football coach, especially because he said everything with a huge wad of

Page 7

chewing tobacco in his mouth and the thickest Cape Cod accent you’d ever
heard, and some of his other quotes included the immortal line… “Fellas,
Principal Bah-ton says I gotta let some of you outta practice tomarrah on
accounta some holiday. You sure you boys can’t practice on this Rash
Hashana?” Okay, he wasn’t exactly a rabbi, but on this one thing, the getting
blocked and staying blocked thing, he was right on target, because it’s inevitable
that something’s going to get in your way, whether it’s fear, or heartbreak, or
virtually anything else, and your job is to make sure it doesn’t stay in your
way.

You guys are an amazing generation. You really are. You’re smart and
accomplished, a whole lot better behaved than we were, you get along better
with your parents than we did, and you seem to understand the world in a way
that we probably didn’t when we were your age. But you’re also the generation
where everyone gets a trophy. The generation whose parents are only a cell
phone call away any time you encounter a problem or need just about anything.
You’re the generation that gets what they want instantly… text ’em, email

’em, Google it, FedEx it, fax it, IM it, Tivo it, microwave it, and–of course

you’re all probably experts in the one technology that’s the single fastest way

human beings have found to get something from one place to another–Chinese

food delivery. Seriously, it’s like they make it in your elevator or something.
You half expect to open your door and find two guys there, one handing you
your food and the other cleaning the wok.

But, along with this society of instant gratification you guys are thriving in,
comes the expectation of instant results to go along with it. Instant success. A
superstar right from the start. And why shouldn’t you think it’s supposed to
happen that way? “American idols” can be made in only 12 weeks and, frankly,
I’m surprised people can actually wait that long. The other element at play
here for you is that so much disappointment has been engineered out of your
lives that you can’t help but think things should always be easy. What I’m
worried about is how you handle it when things really do get tough. What
happens when you hit that big hurdle? The truth is, and I guarantee this, every
single one of you is going to have lots of successes in your life… but I also
guarantee this… every single one of you is going to have lots of failures, too.

Now you’re saying to yourself, “Of all the speakers we could have gotten, we
end up with this moron who comes here and bums us out. Why couldn’t we
just skip this dude, sing Ian Canamus and get the hell outta here so I can go
see Spider Man 3?” No, instead I got this guy who wrote a lousy talking-dog
movie telling me I’m going to be a failure.” Well, that’s not what I’m
saying…what I am saying is that to be a success in anything–as a friend, a

Page 8

parent, a spouse, an athlete, a scholar, an employee or anything else–you’re
going to have to overcome both your failures and your failings to get there.

They once asked Thomas Edison what it felt like to fail over 1000 times
before he finally invented the light bulb, and he said “I didn’t fail a thousand
times. I have successfully found 1000 ways not to make a light bulb.” Now
let’s forget for a moment that Thomas Edison was a rabid anti-Semite (sorry,
I couldn’t quote him without at least mentioning that) and let’s also forget for
a moment that Edison didn’t actually invent the light bulb, but rather he
improved it, which was still a pretty neat trick in and of itself. But, let’s instead
focus on what he did that was truly impressive. He kept trying. Failures, fires,
electrocutions, shattering glass bulbs, over and over and over, and yet he still
kept at it. Each time he learned from the time before. Each time he was able to
evaluate where he went wrong and tried to correct it.

Which brings me back to that really embarrassing story I started with. Getting
fired. After I got over the initial anger, I began to realize where I was to blame
in the situation. I forced myself to be honest about my own human failings
and where I went wrong. More importantly, I realized how I could do it
differently the next time. It changed my life. I mean, it’s bad enough to get
fired, but the real shame would have been not learning from it. To paraphrase
Edison the brilliant inventor and–yes–anti-Semite: I wasn’t a writer who’d
been fired, but rather had successfully found one way not to be an employed
writer. That’s when I really decided to start writing movies instead. And before
I knew it, I had a whole new career that was even better than before. Like I
said, professionally, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. Now after
seven years, with all of the knowledge and experience I’ve gained from my
time in film, I’ve decided to go back and start doing TV again, as well. And
this time around I’m making none of the mistakes I’d made before.

In preparation for this Founder’s Day, I did my research and, by research, I
mean I just Googled Felix Adler and ended up at Wikipedia. And, it was there
that I learned there are actually three famous Felix Adlers who were all born
within about 30 years of each other. Of course there’s the founder of The
Ethical Culture Society, then there were two others, and here’s the best part
and I’m not making this up… one of those Felix Adlers wrote for “The Three
Stooges,” and the other worked for the Ringling Brothers circus and was known
as “The Greatest Clown on Earth.” But it was the “Ethical Culture” Felix
Adler I was interested in, so I hit Wikipedia hard.

Unfortunately, the folks at Wiki clearly haven’t learned my lesson about having
an opening that grabs your attention, so within seconds I was skipping down
the page to the second half of the article to read about all of Felix’s

Page 9

accomplishments–and they were numerous… he founded the Ethical Culture
Society when he was only 24. He founded the kindergarten that would
eventually become this school when he was only 26. He received a professor’s
Chair in Ethics from Columbia, he forced tenement reform, he worked for a
precursor to the ACLU, and he was one of the first organizers of the Urban
League. That’s one seriously impressive résumé. And, man, Felix made it
look easy. That guy cruised. Then something caught my eye that I hadn’t
noticed before because, of course, I had skipped to what I thought was the
good part–the accomplishments. But, buried back in the first part was
something quite interesting. Prior to all the amazing stuff that Felix Adler
eventually accomplished, he had also been a 23-year-old professor at Cornell
and, get this, he had been fired. Felix was my boy. Wikipedia doesn’t actually
say “fired” they use a euphemism and say he “left” Cornell because they
thought he had a “dangerous attitude.” But, to me, it sounds a whole lot like
he got fired–or at least he “wasn’t asked back” and we all know what that
means. But here’s the interesting part–I know you were waiting for the
interesting part, so here it is–after getting fired, he began to change how he
saw the world and himself in it. He decided not to follow in his father’s footsteps
as head rabbi at Temple Emanu-El and, within months of the firing, decided
to start his own philosophical movement, The Society for Ethical Culture.
Now, I’m sure Felix was pretty bummed when he left Cornell, but he got back
up and learned from it, and I have no doubt that he soon came to see that
being forced to leave his professorship at Cornell was one of the best things
that ever happened to him.

Are you guys seeing a trend here? If you’re not, then your parents should
totally ask for their money back from this school. Or maybe it’s my fault and
my parents should ask for their money back. Now if you still don’t believe me
when I tell you that learning from setbacks can turn them into blessings in
disguise, then look no further than that other Felix Adler I told you about, the
one who was known as “The Greatest Clown on Earth.” Turns out that guy
only realized he wanted to be a clown after he failed out of pharmacy school.
Without that failure it’s pretty sure that the world would never have seen
Felix’s “Big Bad Wolf” routine, or his famous ladder-climbing piglet. Yeah, I
know, I can’t imagine a world without those things either.

Now here’s the part where I take all this seemingly random information I’ve
thrown out at you and I desperately try to tie it up with a big, pretty bow that
makes you think I knew where all this was going the whole time. So, here
goes…

The moral of the story is that I want you to all go out and fail! No, actually,
what I really, really, really do want is for you to go out there and try. Try, try,

Page 10

try. Try new things, get out of your comfort zone, don’t be afraid to lose or
fail or be embarrassed. You’re not supposed to be perfect. We all want to
please our parents and have flawless records, but you also have to get out
there and do things that you’re probably going to be terrible at. It doesn’t
matter if you get knocked down, get your heart broken, get your feelings hurt,
get your hopes dashed, all I care about is that you learn to get up and that you
keep getting up and you keep learning from it, because one day–and it
eventually happens to all of us–in some way, shape, or form, life will knock
you on your butt for real, and by then I truly hope you’ll already know how to
get back up. Because you don’t have to be the Founder of a wonderful school
like this one, or an anti-Semitic light-bulb-inventor, or “The Greatest Clown
on Earth” to know that if you can get back up and learn from it, you’ve got a
much better chance of finding that greater success that’s right around the
corner.

It has been an honor to be here today in this place that means so much to me
and my entire family. Thanks for having me.

AFTERWORD

Joseph P. Healey, Ph.D.

Thank you, Jack, for that wonderful address.

Now it is my pleasure to introduce your current PAC presidents Henry Decker
and Samantha Levine.

Henry Decker
Class of 2007

Founder’s Day presents the PAC presidents with an interesting opportunity,
because unlike with most speeches we make there are pretty much no
guidelines to this one. Past presidents have used this day to publicly clear
their minds about Fieldston’s campus, culture, community and everything in
between.

With such a broad range of topics available for discussion, I was at first at a
loss as to what to talk about. After spending days and days searching my
heart and my brain for ideas, I eventually decided to settle on every Fieldston

Page 11

student’s favorite pastime: whining and complaining about things that we
don’t have and the people who keep them from us.

Then I decided to take things in a different direction. I decided to go
introspective. Sure, complaining is fun and easy–believe me, nobody likes to
do it more than me. But it seems more productive to take a long hard look at
myself and the job that Sammy and I have done as PAC presidents.

Now we could sit here and argue about who did and didn’t accomplish what,
but I’m not interested in that. It will get us nowhere. Thinking about my
experience as PAC President called into question for me the very purpose of
student government in the first place.

The name PAC stands for “principal’s advisory council,” with the key word
there being “advisory.” Ultimately, we have little actual power except to
agree on things that we think would be good for the school and suggest them
to the faculty and administration. The crucial flaw which most students make
in evaluating PAC is to assume that it will make ground-breaking changes
which are ultimately both unrealistic and unnecessary. At the end of the day,
Fieldston has very few pressing, major problems which require the
intervention of student government; and, because of student laziness and
apathy, many of the smaller problems never even come to our attention.

So what is PAC really good for, you might ask? Every representative’s opinion
is different but, to me, PAC should not be the giver of minor quality-of-life
upgrades. You don’t have to win an election to ask for ketchup pumps in the
lunchroom. To me, PAC serves a critical role as the medium for students to
try to protect and nurture the very foundation of their school. Student
government is inseparably linked to the school it represents. Thus, as Fieldston
changes PAC will be forced to change with it.

Look at the changing values of the school we represent (this, by the way, is
the part where I get to complain like every other good Fieldston kid). Where
once we prided ourselves on diversity, now look around the room. For
example, raise your hand if you are white or of Caucasian descent. Now raise
your hand if you are Jewish. Now raise your hand if at least one of your
parents is a lawyer. See what I’m talking about?

Where once we prided ourselves on community, this year’s bitter conflict
between the administration and the school’s maintenance workers certainly
called that principle into question. And where once we prided ourselves on
our progressive individualism, now every wildly expensive and seemingly
forced new building project brings us farther and farther from our past and

Page 12

closer and closer to Horace Mann and Riverdale. And that’s not even touching
the thoughts on censorship that one student unfortunately chose to make public
on the walls of the 400’s building.

Just as Fieldston is at a physical and philosophical crossroads, so is PAC. If
our student government is ever going to seriously improve itself or change
its direction, now is the time to do it. Now more than ever, it is critical for
PAC to add a student perspective to the rapidly changing face of our school.
Robert Hart and Raechel Shaw’s voices can shape the future of student
government, but they can also help to shape the future of this great school
itself. And they, along with every other student at this school, will need to
speak up or risk losing their chance to help define the future of this school
because, believe me, that opportunity is being extended to each and every
one of you, every single day. No pressure.

Samantha Levine
Class of 2007

Every morning for the past six years I’ve been driven to school by an elderly
bus driver with a white beard named Carlos. That’s roughly 1,080 days or
540 hours or 32, 400 minutes. And, yet, he still asks to see my pass every
morning. I like to think that it’s not because he doesn’t remember who I am,
but because he’s committed to his job.

I found that same overwhelming commitment from everybody at Fieldston.
I find it here today as I look around this vast auditorium. I find it in all of you
who got up at 7am to be reminded of the mission statement of our founding
father in 70-degree weather, to see the seniors walk through these doors, and
to say hello to your lower school teachers who were often the first teachers to
cultivate your passions. I hear it in the soft voices of Ethical Culture and
Fieldston Lower alumni as they sing along to their former school songs and
loudly whisper their opinion as to which school “won,” and I hear it in the
speakers up on stage.

I am often amazed at how long some of the teachers at Fieldston have been
committed to this school. I’m pretty sure that some of them – most notably
Al Nivon – started teaching here while they were in the womb. I have never
had Mr. Nivon as teacher, and yet I am constantly surprised when he comes
up to me in a corridor and asks me about a facet of my life that I’m not even
sure I’ve shared with anybody at this school. Could it be that Mr. Nivon has
an alias on facebook? After all, Mr. Werner was part of the German CIA.

Page 13

Every year Mr. Nivon says that going to retire, and students are disappointed,
and every year I come back and there he is asking me a question in the corridor.
Now, I ask you, if that is not commitment, what is?

I also see this commitment in the students at this school and their determination
at showing people they can achieve their goals. I see it in my 13 fellow seniors
in the Fieldston Theatre Company who spent almost this entire year writing
and performing one-man shows, in the varsity girl’s basketball team who
worked incredibly hard and made it to states, in the musicians who are so
committed to their instruments that they refuse to put them down and,
moreover, refuse to stop playing “Blackbird,” and I see that commitment to
learn all that can be learned in class.

This year has been marked by dozens of events ranging from awareness days
on immigration, In Cold Blood, and global warming, to assemblies on the
war in Iraq, the partnership for Smart Choices, Black History Month, and
gender studies. High school is the time for discussion and learning. As we
sort through all of the information that Fieldston has made available to us,
we form our own opinions and realize our commitment to society. But, as
Felix Adler once said himself, “It is not possible to enter into the nature of
the Good by standing aloof from it by merely speculating on it. Act the Good,
and you will believe in it... action lies in our salvation...”

Many of us have experienced community service through the good works of
Angela Vassos and the community service department. The seniors who
participate in CSAB have created a strong bond with the children at Children’s
Village, a residential program for New York’s most vulnerable. I see this
commitment in my friends and in the way it informs their lives. We at Fieldston
are activists in the best sense of the word. We don’t follow the crowd – we
lead the crowd. As I look around me I’m saddened not to be greeted by Mr.
Nivon next fall or to hear Carlos say, “Pass!” in the morning. Oh, who am I
kidding? Okay, I’ll miss you, Mr. Nivon. Goodbye, Carlos.

I urge all of you to think about your social commitments - whether they be in
or out of class – and act on the words of Felix Adler as you leave this
auditorium today.

Thank you.

Page 14

Robert Hart
Class of 2008

Founder’s Day is a day to reflect on both the past and the future. We remember
the faculty who will be leaving us this year, and we celebrate the future success
of the graduating class. Just as we reflect on the pasts and futures of the
people in this community, we must also reflect on the past and future of this
institution. Our past is clear. Felix Adler started this school in 1878 as a
tuition-free kindergarten for working people’s children. He defined the
mission of this school in these words: “The ideal of this school is to develop
individuals who will be competent to change their environment to greater
conformity with moral ideals.” Time and the realities of this age may have
killed Adler’s vision of a workingman’s school, but our ultimate mission of
creating conscientious and forward -thinking students lives on.

When my grandmother attended Fieldston, and my mother attended Fieldston,
it was taken as a matter of course that graduates would leave and go on to
make a difference. And while it looks like our generation has lost the idealism
of our parents and grandparents in the scramble for the perfect score or
admission into the country’s elite universities, Adler’s mission lives on. It
can be found among students who give their time and effort to help others.
They spend their activity periods working for change. They embrace the
virtues of generosity and responsibility. These students are true Fieldstonians.
Our tradition of producing people like them is what separates us from virtually
every private school. Adler wanted to create students who would have the
tools and education to change the world into a place of conscience and
morality. In this way - even though we are no longer the school of the working
man – we can be the school for the working man.

To the senior class: I hope that you will take the ideals that built this room
with you; for the rest of us – we must consider why we are here at the Ethical
Culture Fieldston School and not at another school. Apathy is the enemy of
progress. Raechel and I ran largely on a ticket to re-democratize the school.
We intend to make the voices of the students heard on issues of teacher tenure
and the search for a new head of school because we believe that these two
issues go to the core of what should be our quest for a truly democratic
education. For all students in this room we must remember that this school
belongs to us, our education is what we do with it.

For the seniors, college and the world awaits you. For the juniors, God help
you – the SAT awaits you – good luck. For the rest of you, Spiderman 3
awaits you. Thank you for listening and have a good day.

Page 15

Rachael Shaw
Class of 2008

Hey guys. Good morning! I would like to begin this by congratulating the
graduating class of 2007. I have grown really close to a lot of you and I’m so
excited for you guys to be moving on. I think I speak for everyone when I
say that you will be greatly missed and next year will not be the same without
you.

There are, however, several other factors that will of course make next year
very different as well. A good way to characterize the 2007-2008 school
year will be as one of transition and experimentation. I have been a part of
the Ethical Culture Fieldston community since kindergarten and next year I
will be reacquainting myself with things I once knew quite well. With that
said, it is really important to me that some things stay the same and I’m
nervous that everything Fieldston stands for will be lost in construction.

Next year though, the drilling will have ceased and the middle school will be
in use. At this point, there is no turning back and all we can do is make the
best of the situation at hand. To me that means making sure the Fieldston
community remains cohesive and welcoming; to me that means establishing
a bridge between the newly formed middle school and the existing high school.

Personally middle school was a hard and awkward time for me socially,
physically, academically. The fact that we were not completely separated
made me feel as though I was a part of the “cool happenings” in the upper
school. I wasn’t, but I felt like I was and that was vital in my development as
a Fieldston student. This meant that I felt fairly comfortable around the older
kids thus transitioning into high school was easy.

With the physical separation that will exist, I fear that the same comfort I
had, will not be there for those in the future. Robert and I have a few ideas to
remedy these factors and hopefully they will be played out. To me, this is
much more than older kids and younger kids becoming friends. It has to do
with maintaining that which made us unique, appealing and in many ways
simply Fieldston.

Today we are here to celebrate not only the distinctiveness of Fieldston but
also Felix Adler, our outgoing Presidents and the seniors in their entirety. I
am really excited and honored to be standing here today and to hopefully
have the chance to instill some semblance of tradition into a newer, more
modem ECFS. Robert and I are eager to begin our term as PAC presidents
and next year will truly be a fun and productive year.

Page 16

CLOSING
Joseph P. Healey, Ph.D.

Thank you for your comments and thank all of you for joining us.

As we conclude these ceremonies, I am very conscious of the absence of a person
whose life and work affected everyone in this room. So, I would like to take a
moment of silence to remember and thank Bill Bertsche for everything he did and
for the great care that he took of this students.

I would like to point out that this is the first time the high school chorus is joined
by the middle school chorus and by the EC and FL sixth grades – what a fine
performance they gave. I would also particularly like to thank for all their musical
assistance Colleen Garnevicus, Julius Petty, John Dwinell, Gary Miller, Woody
Regan, Nina Simon, Kathleen Hayes, and Sara della Posta as well as our organist
extraordinaire, Gerald Ranck.

Now, seniors, will you please lead us from the hall.


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