Page 9 - Priorities 5

Salutatorian
Victoria Jane Groom
Vicki Groom, who plans to pursue interests in English and Philosophy, confessed that “I haven’t even graduated yet but I have already fogotten the atomic number of oxygen...am more than a little hazy on Tess of the D’Ubervilles...and, hopefully...will forget everything from AP Calculus.” These are excerpts from her talk.
Education isn’t all numbers and facts. It is, as B.F. Skinner says, “what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”
...My memories (of people and events) have survived. But what then is the specific education I have received? What is the great lesson that I will take with me to college and beyond? The answer lines
in the connection between these memories. And the connection is simply this: at these great moments I felt first a total appreciation of the goodness I saw in the people around me and second a total comfort with myself. This feeling of mutual acceptance stems from the Priory’s number one curse and blessing — it’s small, real small... I’ve learned to know people, really know people and let them know me. And I’ve learned that doing so is hard. But, most importantly, I’ve learned that doing so is worth it.
Vicki said that her education is best summed up by the advice of Mother Teresa, excerpted here:
“People are unreasonable, illogical and celf-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway...
from a sign on the wall of Shisho Bhavan, Mother Teresa’s children’s home in Calcutta
9
Led by the music of bagpipers, students and faculty march in procession to outdoor graduation ceremonies in Church Square.