What We Really Lost

By Ishan Kapoor Excess

Published on May 28, 2009 in CXXXII no. 13
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According to Mr. Murphy, “We lost something today as a community” during last Wednesday’s All-School Meeting when students interuppted the beginning of Mrs. Chase’s speech. We lost something carrying out a slightly obnoxious tradition that I have known for four years. A tradition that made me longingly wished to be a Senior when I first saw it so I could stand in those shoes and celebrate myself for making it through four tough years.

I think we have lost far more as a community this year. I think Andover has become a poster school. It seems to me that everything we do is for the applicants, is to put on a poster, is to solicit a donation, is to make Andover look better to the kids who aren’t even here yet or to the parents who will never be here. Andover will always be a community, that is the best part, but only if it is allowed to form naturally as a reflection of the people in it and their mentalities. I feel like this year there has been so much discussion of this sacred community that it has become fake. It has become the place where according Mr. Hoyt we can cheer “THANK YOU ANDOVER, WE LOVE YOU” at the beginning of our Senior year.

This all seems fake. Honestly what high school teenager would you truly expect to say that after three tough years. Whilst we may love Andover, we put up with a lot. After three years I think it is fair that we would rather celebrate ourselves for once. Scream our names and relish the fact that we did it. Graduating is an accomplishment.

The Paresky Commons building is fantastic. Kudos to everyone who worked on it. But flat panels in the lobby, marble countertops, a brick oven. These things seem to me like perfect photo opportunities. Perfect selling points for the school. To me it all reeks of excess, excess that photographs very well.

I think we have lost much more. I think the effects of fundraising are so much more evident now. The Den: it was named after Ryley, a man with a brilliant story, the name expendable because he never donated. Would the school change the name of Morse too if it received a sizeable donation?

I think we have lost far more this year, or maybe I have just noticed it. I think we have lost what Andover truly is: a place where people create things and find their own way. I feel now more than ever as though we are being forced into this poster version of Andover so that it will sell better to those who aren’t and may never be here in our shoes. We will always find community. It doesnt need to be forced upon us.

We are high schoolers. We are young and stupid. Disrespect at an ASM to me is no sign of community. Community is far more than that. It is the conversations at the dinner tables. Smiles after sports games. Tears at Graduation. And I am afraid all that is being lost in an effort to have Andover fit some ideal that makes it sell a little bit better.

What felt like a complete loss of community was on Tuesday night when at the Chases’s Senior Party, Mrs. Chase asked me if I had been here for four years. I am not exactly a quiet kid, I had posters with my name on them all over school last year, people still wear Vote Ishan shirts. That is a loss as a community. This new Andover, it all seems too fake. It seems to me that looking like something great and actually being something great are inversely related. It’s time Andover forgot about looks.

Ishan Kapoor is a four-year Senior from Andover, Massachusetts.

ikapoor@andover.edu

Comments:

Maybe the loss to which Mr. Murphy was referring was the clear loss of respect that was so evident during the last ASM - you can intellectualize all you want about senior traditions and the fact that you believe Andover has more important losses to the community to consider, but two wrongs do not make a right - you believe that Andover's emphasis on 'photogenic-ness' is a wrong, yes? Why try to shift the focus back to that when the true problem is this lack of respect that you seem to defend?

The real issue here is that this senior tradition is obnoxious and downright rude - the senior class interrupted Ms. Chase's clearly carefully prepared speech. Hell, if I were her, I'd be angry my speech was interrupted by a bunch of rowdy, immature-acting teens, too. So what if it's 'tradition' - it's disruptive, disrespectful, and definitely not becoming at all of a school like PA. Is there no other tradition in which seniors can take part that is a little less... infantile?

Student   9 months ago

Kudos for writing this article, Ishan. Someone needed to say it, and props to you for having the courage to be the one. Keep fighting the good fight.

Ryan Sullivan   9 months ago

I do agree with what you say with one exception. I do not think that the entirety of the school is as you described, I know many very hard working and dedicated faculty. I think that the majority of the people in charge of the school, those how make the big decisions, have lost their sense of what Andover really is. Hopefully, in the years to come, we see many great changes to restore Andover its rightful image.

Anonymous   9 months ago

I think Mr. Murphy was referring to the gum snapping, which was pretty disrespectful. I don't think Mrs. Chase minded the cheering so much as the gum. Anyway the rest of the article is, I feel, true. I think the administration feels like their job isn't to be the students' friends; their job is to 1) discipline students and 2) worry about the higher-ups: the donations, the appearance of the school to outsiders, etc. And the school does need these things. But the saddest part, Ishan, is that what Mrs. Chase said to you will probably stick with you more than anything else about PA for the rest of your life. I would feel awful and insignificant, which should NOT be the case at a school like this. You are absolutely right- for this place to be a true community, everybody needs to be involved. The administration can still make money for PA and run the school, but all it would take is a little extra effort (which they ask students for all the time) to connect in some ways with the students too.

Anonymous   8 months ago

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