Good Evening Students, Parents & Coaches:
I write to you this evening speechless. The events over the past 7 days have left us all confused, scared, and upset. The rhetoric surrounding both North Korea and Charlottesville are forcing us to ask fundamental questions about our society and our values as Americans. In these times, it is easy to get caught up in the 24-hour news cycle, the tweets, the protests, and the talking heads. It is easy to be quick to judgement, quick to discredit, and quick to polarize. It is easy to lose touch with who we are.
Even in the wake of these ongoing events, it is important to ground ourselves in our resolve as members of a community that centers itself around morality, happiness and productivity. This evening I found myself reading Lee Hark’s “The Durham Academy Graduate: A Mission-Driven Life,” in the Summer Edition of the DA Magazine. In his writing, he writes:
Defining what we meant by wanting our graduates to be moral, happy, productive people and how that manifested itself in the daily lived experience of 1,200 students ranging in age from 4 to 18 constituted the bulk of our discussions. It wasn’t an easy task. What qualities would we identify as universally important, regardless of the age, stage or tenure of a student? After innumerable debates on meanings, connotations and implications of words, we identified the following as the shared characteristics of a moral, happy and productive Durham Academy graduate. While “portrait of a graduate” is a title widely used by other schools, the word “portrait” itself felt too static, too fixed in time, and not future-oriented. The group wanted a tittle that would imply that student were hopefully infused with these characteristics while at DA, but also that we are just as interested and invested in the adults they will become and the citizens they will be as well are we are when they are our students. In the end, “The Durham Academy Graduate: A Mission-Driven life” seemed to capture all of those elements: a sense of striving, a set of characteristics that spoke to every division and values our alumni would carry with them throughout their lives.
One word stuck out to me: integrity. Out of the 15 characteristics highlighted above, integrity is the only one that is also one of the core values of the National Speech and Debate Association. All of these values are important, but I was moved by this writing from the NSDA on the significance of integrity:
Members recognize that integrity is central to earning the trust, respect, and support of one’s peers. Integrity encompasses the highest regard for honesty, civility, justice and fairness.
As members of the NSDA - as members of the DA community – as Americans – we must focus on preserving and exhibiting our integrity. What we do in this activity is critically important to the development of our character. From the PFer who is reading the news coming out of the Korean Peninsula with anticipation - to the Interp Student threading their piece in order to share their voice – we must have integrity. From the Extemper who is wading through countless news sites in order to find articles that are focused on analysis, and not histrionics - to the LDer who is determining whether or not we have a moral obligation to serve our nation – we must have integrity.
Every event that we participate in is about encouraging some element of civil discourse that our citizenship demands of us. It is about developing our ability to speak to one another – no matter how much we don’t see eye to eye. It is about sharing not only our own voice, but the voice of those who are voiceless. It is about exhibiting the highest resolve of moral character, of happiness and joy, and of drive and resilience. Every event that we participate in pushes us to exhibit and exude the characteristics of a mission-driven life. Every moment of our time in this activity demands integrity.
This year, we will be tested. We will question ourselves. We will have to lean on each other. We will understand what the true strength of our family is. But, we will have integrity. We will have integrity because this activity grooms us to function with honesty, civility, justice and fairness. We will have integrity because our DA community demands it of us. We will have integrity - because more than anything else - it is what we need now.
Crawford
Week of August 14th Announcements
I write to you this evening speechless. The events over the past 7 days have left us all confused, scared, and upset. The rhetoric surrounding both North Korea and Charlottesville are forcing us to ask fundamental questions about our society and our values as Americans. In these times, it is easy to get caught up in the 24-hour news cycle, the tweets, the protests, and the talking heads. It is easy to be quick to judgement, quick to discredit, and quick to polarize. It is easy to lose touch with who we are.
Even in the wake of these ongoing events, it is important to ground ourselves in our resolve as members of a community that centers itself around morality, happiness and productivity. This evening I found myself reading Lee Hark’s “The Durham Academy Graduate: A Mission-Driven Life,” in the Summer Edition of the DA Magazine. In his writing, he writes:
Defining what we meant by wanting our graduates to be moral, happy, productive people and how that manifested itself in the daily lived experience of 1,200 students ranging in age from 4 to 18 constituted the bulk of our discussions. It wasn’t an easy task. What qualities would we identify as universally important, regardless of the age, stage or tenure of a student? After innumerable debates on meanings, connotations and implications of words, we identified the following as the shared characteristics of a moral, happy and productive Durham Academy graduate. While “portrait of a graduate” is a title widely used by other schools, the word “portrait” itself felt too static, too fixed in time, and not future-oriented. The group wanted a tittle that would imply that student were hopefully infused with these characteristics while at DA, but also that we are just as interested and invested in the adults they will become and the citizens they will be as well are we are when they are our students. In the end, “The Durham Academy Graduate: A Mission-Driven life” seemed to capture all of those elements: a sense of striving, a set of characteristics that spoke to every division and values our alumni would carry with them throughout their lives.
One word stuck out to me: integrity. Out of the 15 characteristics highlighted above, integrity is the only one that is also one of the core values of the National Speech and Debate Association. All of these values are important, but I was moved by this writing from the NSDA on the significance of integrity:
Members recognize that integrity is central to earning the trust, respect, and support of one’s peers. Integrity encompasses the highest regard for honesty, civility, justice and fairness.
As members of the NSDA - as members of the DA community – as Americans – we must focus on preserving and exhibiting our integrity. What we do in this activity is critically important to the development of our character. From the PFer who is reading the news coming out of the Korean Peninsula with anticipation - to the Interp Student threading their piece in order to share their voice – we must have integrity. From the Extemper who is wading through countless news sites in order to find articles that are focused on analysis, and not histrionics - to the LDer who is determining whether or not we have a moral obligation to serve our nation – we must have integrity.
Every event that we participate in is about encouraging some element of civil discourse that our citizenship demands of us. It is about developing our ability to speak to one another – no matter how much we don’t see eye to eye. It is about sharing not only our own voice, but the voice of those who are voiceless. It is about exhibiting the highest resolve of moral character, of happiness and joy, and of drive and resilience. Every event that we participate in pushes us to exhibit and exude the characteristics of a mission-driven life. Every moment of our time in this activity demands integrity.
This year, we will be tested. We will question ourselves. We will have to lean on each other. We will understand what the true strength of our family is. But, we will have integrity. We will have integrity because this activity grooms us to function with honesty, civility, justice and fairness. We will have integrity because our DA community demands it of us. We will have integrity - because more than anything else - it is what we need now.
Crawford
Week of August 14th Announcements
- SENIORS: Please RSVP for Senior Retreat via email if you haven’t done so. That event is Wednesday, August 23rd at 4:00PM.
- I have RSVPs from Bhamini, Thomas, Olivia, Jeanne, Sarah, Hebron
- Meeting for ALL Returning Members will occurThursday, August 24th at 3:45PM
- All members must resubmit your information on the team website if you haven’t already done so this summer.
- Information Sessions for New Members will be:
- September 5th at 3:45PM
- September 6th at 6:00PM
- September 7th at 3:45PM
- Signups are due THIS FRIDAY (Friday, August 18th) for these tournaments:
- If I have a pending application from you, you are listed next to the tournament
- Grapevine (Thomas/Hebron)
- Yale (Davi, Emily D)
- Laird Lewis at Myes Park (Thomas/Hebron, Luci/Shan, Andrew/Adriana)
- Holy Cross (Emily K)
- If you want to go to any of these tournaments, you must sign up by the EOD on Friday the 18th.
