Page 64 - 2000 Wardlaw Hartridge

48 IHEADOFSCHOOL
THE WARDLAW-HARTRIDGE SCHOOL
Dear Class o f 2000:
Mr. Paoll, at Step Up Night in your junior year, took the risk of addressing you as “the Y2K class.” I know that resonated with you in a variety of ways, and 1 cannot fulfill Gaurav's and Lauren’s welcome assignment to write this letter to you without acknowledging the road you have traveled. You came to appreciate Mr. Paoli's point, but you were waiy at first that he might be criticizing you —another of the perceived slights that you had sensed over the last five years. You are, let the record show, the last class to be in the Upper School for five years -- and no, you didn’t need the extra year. Nor did you need twm years of Peer Leadership; but you went through it twice, learning from the Class o f '96 and then teaching the seniors in the Class o f '97.
You have been a class that, as Student Council President Khalid Latif told me when he was a sophomore, has been proud of being different, of being iconoclastic individuals. You did not, he said, automatically welcome newcomers; people had to prove their mettle. Some of you weren't sure what standards you valued or what loyalties you had, w'hile others felt isolated as you focused on your goals. And your loyalties and values have been tested.
Yet as seniors your class has exhibited the most spirit of any class in my six years. You gleefully won the Spirit Week contest; you organized a wonderful semi-formal; you responded to the devastation of Bound Brook; you developed a nature trail, took countless photographs, organized the Valentine's Day flower sale, assured the success of the fall play for two years, presided over a Standing Room Only Cabaret, and have such talented actors, singers, artists, and musicians!. I think of the ways you have triumphed over adversity —your indefatigable response to an 'unfeated' football season, which proved you were winners, or the changing fortunes of the boys basketball team, which you embraced as an opportunity to play and enjoy the game (and generate a “Dog Pound” following). 1 think about the senior leadership on the girls New Jersey Prep B State Champion swim team - and the ways you supported each other after an unfortunate car accident.
Mr. Paoli talked about Y2K in terms of promise, of the future, of your opportunities in a new millennium, and of our confidence in you. We began this year talking about the Scholar Athlete Hall o f Fame that opened in Providence, Rhode Island, a year ago. I quoted inaugural honoree Ken Dryden as saying, “The best kind of learning came with play, and the best kind of play came with learning.” You have been a playful, exuberant class. I hope that you have discovered here the exhilaration of demanding, playful learning and of balance and proportion. I urge you to take from this place the knowledge that your individuality does not need to be threatened by community but is in fact strengthened by it. I think that you have discovered that trust and relationships are hard work but worth the effort. 1 hope that you will continue your playful learning, and that you will return often to tell us how your century is progressing.
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