Upper School Convocation 2017
Source/Author: Raffi Darrow, Ebytes Editor
August 18, 2017
Upper School opened the year with the annual Convocation ceremony in the Janet Root Theatre. Mr. Dillow, Head of Upper School, spoke about the recent violence in Charlottesville, VA, and rise in American hate speech. He urged students to seek out knowledge and know their history without sanitizing it, because facts matter. "We cannot solve the problems in our communities if we don't know how they came about in the first place. 'Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it,'" he quoted.
He introduced Malcom Gladwell's interpretation of moral licensing, a social phenomenon where people do good things as an excuse to do bad things afterwards. For example, "I dieted all day, so I can eat a brownie before bed." Or closer to the point, "I have a friend of another race, so I can get away with saying something prejudiced because clearly I'm not racist." He left the students with much to think about relating to the Core Values embedded into our school culture: responsibility, respect, integrity, knowledge and compassion. [Read his speech on the Shorecrest blog here.]
Mr. Murphy offered advice on how to "Be More," and gave examples of exemplary figures students could learn from in order to understand what it means to become more than what is expected and more than what may be noticed on the surface. In addition he echoed Mr. Dillow's views regarding respect toward all people at Shorecrest, and reminded students that the Shorecrest community is no place for racism.
Senior Kyle Mullins addressed the student body as President of the Honor Council about the importance of upholding the Honor Pledge. He reiterated the best Honor Council is one that doesn't have to meet because the community is doing their job of upholding their moral standards. Seniors then added their signatures one by one to The Honor Book, a pledge to uphold our Honor Code. Underclassmen signed The Honor Book the next day during Community Time.
Photos from Convocation are here. Some photography thanks to Kanaley C, Class of 2020:
He introduced Malcom Gladwell's interpretation of moral licensing, a social phenomenon where people do good things as an excuse to do bad things afterwards. For example, "I dieted all day, so I can eat a brownie before bed." Or closer to the point, "I have a friend of another race, so I can get away with saying something prejudiced because clearly I'm not racist." He left the students with much to think about relating to the Core Values embedded into our school culture: responsibility, respect, integrity, knowledge and compassion. [Read his speech on the Shorecrest blog here.]
Mr. Murphy offered advice on how to "Be More," and gave examples of exemplary figures students could learn from in order to understand what it means to become more than what is expected and more than what may be noticed on the surface. In addition he echoed Mr. Dillow's views regarding respect toward all people at Shorecrest, and reminded students that the Shorecrest community is no place for racism.
Senior Kyle Mullins addressed the student body as President of the Honor Council about the importance of upholding the Honor Pledge. He reiterated the best Honor Council is one that doesn't have to meet because the community is doing their job of upholding their moral standards. Seniors then added their signatures one by one to The Honor Book, a pledge to uphold our Honor Code. Underclassmen signed The Honor Book the next day during Community Time.
Photos from Convocation are here. Some photography thanks to Kanaley C, Class of 2020:
