academy secondary schools commencement
A Coach and a Winning Team
Cory B. Boyce
I
cannot name everyone in this room, but I want you to know I am speaking to
you. For we several hundred are a team, gradually assembled by a common
purpose. This morning we have occasion to observe a bright, promising
moment, something in which, one way or another, we each had a hand.
Some of you may have joined this team only last year, while others appeared
a few years before. Several of us were abruptly recruited about 18 years ago
when these beautiful people entered this world and into our lives. Regardless
of your tenure on the team, today we all have something to celebrate.
Although I stand here mostly as Jency’s proud dad, I spend a large portion
of my life with the people seated to my right in their strange academic attire
[the faculty], and also with the esteemed, exceptionally well-dressed group
gathered on my left [the graduating seniors]. This privileged experience is
what I would like to share with you.
So let us consider this idea of a team. I like sports analogies, but I recognize
they don’t resonate for everyone, so imagine any group – a band of musicians,
athletes, a spiritual growth group, a business venture. Teams all have a few
things in common. They seek to understand what they are doing, they share
a common purpose, and they care about that endeavor. Let’s label those three
ideas, “understanding, purpose and affection,” and then consider them more
closely.
One of the delights of my career has been teaching Senior Project with
my colleague Kyle Genzlinger. If you are not familiar with that class, please
ask either one of us about it and we will talk your ear off. Early in the course,
I discuss understanding, affection and purpose with the students, and refer to
them as “what you know, what you love, and what you do.”
In a workshop I once attended, New Church educator Sylvia Parker asserted
that the best educational experiences engage all three domains. Think about
that. We have all sat through dry lectures that touched only our understanding,
in which we felt little affection for the material or failed to see opportunity to
apply it. I can only suppose, on an off day, that even my riveting lesson on
differentiating inverse trigonometric functions could fall a little flat. And while
you may identify with this scenario, we have also each been in a class that hit
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