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The Youth Movement


We have all been moved by the events at the most recent tragic school shooting in Florida. A week later, we find ourselves still struggling to comprehend the suffering of the affected families and wondering what action should take hold in the future. Upper School Director Ted Smith reminded us the day after in assembly that we could never let such an event “become normalized,” and it does not feel like that has happened – in our community or in our country. At least, not yet. Whether you have followed the news, watched the televised town hall meeting with the affected students, or generally followed the student-led reaction to this tragedy, this feels different for some reason.
Whatever opinion one holds on the complex issue of gun control, it is a powerful sound byte when a high school student looks at a lawmaker and says: “We are the children. You are supposed to be the adults.” While one might argue that this surge of student action is emotional, if not reactionary in nature, it does remind us that children do in fact have access to power in an age of social media and new modes of organization. While I am not writing to suggest the solution that would ultimately protect our schools more comprehensively, I do feel that we have to appreciate a political moment where student voices are driving a national conversation in more powerful ways than I can ever recall.
This national example also reminds me that, more than ever, we need a world equipped with young minds truly supported by a deep appreciation of virtue and useful knowledge. As John Phillips famously said in informing the missions of Andover and Exeter: “Though goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and that both united form the noblest character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind.” What I love about Berwick Academy’s particular twist on this theme is that we both elevate goodness to the realm of virtue while qualifying Berwick’s desired knowledge with the word “useful.” On this Hilltop, we put a particular premium on knowledge being applied into the real world rather than merely as a source of abstract or philosophical debate.
As more and more young people call us to action, and hopefully lawmakers are compelled to take action, we need leadership that can blend the moral and the practical in creative ways. And while the adults will likely be the ones who will need to implement the action and change, we are reminded this week of the raw power of a passionate adolescent voice: ready to root out hypocrisy and offer a simplistic wisdom. I hope that we will continue to see great examples of adolescent leadership in the days ahead – both within the Berwick community and across the country as a whole.



   

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