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Features
3 - The Bell October 2005
Imagine being stuffed onto the
bleachers in an auditorium on a nearly
90-degree day with 100 other kids you
have never met. A scary set up for a
16 year old entering a new school. The
people surrounding me were either just
as skeptical as I was or stunned by the
heat. I sat back and waited for the older,
experienced, and intimidating proctors
to begin their introductory show.
My nerves calmed down a bit
when the proctors came gallivanting
onto the gym floor dressed in bright
orange and singing a cheer about tigers.
Their enthusiasm and willingness to
act goofy made me think to myself,
“Hey, maybe they don’t bite!”
After this show of spirit, I was
ready to show a little of my own. We
were split up into groups of around ten
people, and went out onto the lawn.
My orientation group consisted of three
proctors and a few kids who looked
just as out of place as I felt. Our first
impressions were probably all the same;
wondering which of these strangers
HOT
New Student Orientation
Tsuneko Jarris ’08
Marginalization
Matt Doup ’07 & Ana Santos ’07
Have you ever witnessed
someone being treated unjustly due
to how they look, act, or what they
believe? Have you ever been the
victim of such discriminatory behavior?
It is a stereotype of independent
schools that everyone comes from
similar racial, financial, and ethnic
backgrounds; this is a common
misconception. At Suffield Academy,
there are a number of differences among
both students and faculty alike: as our
mission statement notes, we serve “a
diverse student body of day and boarding
students from across the United States
and from many foreign countries.”
Headmaster Cahn observes that
outside the school, “People are excluded
from the mainstream in both overt and
subtle ways.” He wants our community to
tolerate differences. Our theme this year,
marginalization, was chosen in order to
bring sensitivity to these differences and
to make the community more aware of
common behavior that can be offensive.
Many of the events throughout
the school year will be focused on
this central theme. Over the summer,
students, faculty, administrators,
and staff read the community text A
Lesson Before Dying by Earnest J.
Gaines. It focused on aspects of racial
discrimination, which Jefferson, an
African American man on death row,
The First Rule About Fight Club Is..
Cool Eyes
Skunking
Weeks of Six
Risk
Terry Schiavo
Going to the Brook
The Luau
Being a Senior
Still Mario Kart
Hurricanes
would turn out to be our closest friends
and what the year had in store for us.
As the day went on, we played
a series of get-to-know-you games such
as swapping shoes with group members,
figuring out what we have in common
by shouting out interests, and, of course,
the classic Name Game. By the time
our hour was up, we knew each other’s
names and hobbies and were comforted
by the fact that we had something in
common with each member of this
group. (At the very least another kid
in my group also loved the color pink.)
My proctors turned out to be human, not
just The Big Scary Older kids. We joked
around, got familiar with one another,
and laughed quite a bit. As impossible
as it seemed at the beginning of the day,
all this talk about Suffield Academy
being a community was becoming a
bit clearer. The day ended on a high
note, with a scavenger hunt that may
or may not have been fulfilled and a
bunch of friendly faces to get to know.
encounters. A number of other summer
reading books also tied to this theme and
created a way to begin the school year
already immersed in the topic. Other
events, such as chapels, the money from
school charities such as the Dance-athon,
and a senior English Elective
(Literature From the Margin) will focus
on the idea of increased awareness. The
Laramie Project, this year’s fall play,
is about a young man named Matthew
Shepherd who was victimized and
killed because of his sexual orientation.
It is hoped that the accumulation
of all of these events and additional
activities will help raise awareness about
the things that are done intentionally
to offend. Additionally, the objective
is to bring attention to the way in
which people are marginalized through
unintentional acts. Mr. Cahn emphasizes
that “the leadership of our school is not
telling people what to think, but rather
helping them figure out what it is that
they think and being more aware of
things.” Additionally, he feels strongly
that, “exposure to forms of difference is
a great source of strength for our school.”
Marginalization: it’s not a
butter substitute, it can’t be found
on the periodic table, and it doesn’t
grow on trees. However, it is
important to realize that it occurs on
a daily basis – maybe even to you.
HOT or NOT
by Ned Booth ’06 and Rob Logan ’06
NOT
Not many high school
s t u d e n t s
can say that
they have
published,
or even
written, a
book, but
C h e l s e a
Lessard ’06
has done
both. She
completed
a young
adult novel,
entitled Old
Mann Rock,
at age thirteen and published it two
years later. At a recent book signing for
local authors at the Enfield Barnes &
Noble, Lessard spoke modestly about
her book. The story, which takes place
during the 1870s in Vermont, is mainly
a love story, although various events
such as murder, deceit, and a trip down
the Connecticut River to Enfield add
excitement and suspense to the story.
While a thirteen-year old
might take this on challenge only
due to a class assignment, Lessard
had been writing plays and books on
her own from a young age. She had
Fozzie
Welcome Back! Now that we’re
settled in, let’s talk about this year’s
theme: marginalization. I’ve been
musing about it, and have decided
that SA is ready to take on this
serious and controversial subject. In
fact, we can grow from exploring
own responsibilities toward others.
When I first heard about it,
I wondered how could we handle
such a serious theme? The word
“marginalization” reminds me of all of
the various hate crimes, phrases, and
acts I have seen in movies and in real
life. What could one school do to stop it?
I was also skeptical about the
fall play, The Laramie Project. The
play presents interviews performed
by a theater group to the population
of Laramie, Wyoming, the town where
21-year-old Matthew Shephard was
beaten and left for dead on October
6th, 1998. I was unenthused hearing
about the subject matter; then I learned
Matthew Shephard was a homosexual.
This level of controversy isn’t
Robert Paulson
College
Blowouts
Week of B
Monopoly
Helen Keller
Going to Morocco
Not getting your song played
Knowing youʼll be a freshman next year.
Still having college applications
Terrorism
Published Author at Suffield Academy
Sarah Brislin ’06
always loved thinking up new stories and
characters.
While there
was no
specific place
from which
L e s s a r d
r e c e i v e d
inspiration
for Old Mann
Rock, she
was largely
influenced by
the music she
would listen
to while
photo Sarah Brislin ’06 w r i t i n g .
She found meaning behind the lyrics
of the songs, whether it was a country
ballad or ‘80s rock. Writing was only
half the challenge, though. “I ended
up sending it to about forty publishers
before I found one that wanted to publish
it,” Lessard recalled. The process took
two years but was worth the wait.
A senior now, Lessard plans to write
more books and plays when she is older.
For now she is focusing more on the
performance aspect of theater and hopes
to major in theater in college. You can see
her in the fall play The Laramie Project
or performing in Chamber Singers.
illustration: Christina Frazerio ’07
something I’m accustomed to facing at SA.
Now that my mind was opened
to the possibilities of the theme of
marginalization, many ideas came into
my head. By thinking in terms of how
marginalization affects a community, I
realized that it is more involved in our
school’s life than I thought. For example,
what right do seniors have to enact their
power upon the new students? I, myself,
am a four year senior, but I do not feel it is
necessary to degrade students by banning
them from the senior corner, by cutting
them in the snack bar line, or merely calling
them “freshman” in a derogatory way.
As seniors, we should not simply
walk around with our heads held high.
New students need guidance more than
anything else in their first months at
Suffield. Without becoming comfortable
in their environment, how will they cope
in the next four years? Being a senior does
give us some power in the community, but
it should ultimately give us the right to be
the best citizens Suffield has. Remember
when you were a freshman and were
treated unfairly; it wasn’t a good feeling.
So I leave you all with this: Being
a senior has its benefits, but you should
be mostly concerned with your new
responsibilities. New students of all ages
need our guidance, and just because we
get to leave early to get food at the hot bar
or that we get our own little room to hang
out in, we should not push them away.
We only have eight months, but they have
four years. Our time is almost over, but
theirs has just begun. Let’s have a good
year, and let’s be seniors, with class.
Fozzie