Student Perspectives on Tunnel Vision and Community Spirit

Teaching at Darlington combines two rich rewards: educating young people and working in a community built on relationships. The payoff for the hours of planning, grading, coaching, and dorm duty lies in the meaningful connections we make with students and colleagues, connections that feed us intellectually and spiritually. Recently, two students showed me the extent to which they, too, recognize the connection between our intellectual work and our community.

Over the summer, the AP English Language students read and wrote about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s speech “The American Scholar." I hoped that this challenging essay would invite reflective, critical thinking from my students. I also wanted them to connect personally with Emerson’s assertions—his belief that varied experiences cultivate the intellect, that we must seek “facts amidst appearances,” that learning should be a springboard to independent thought. 

Indeed, their journals were full of creative thought, personal reflection, and broad connections to everything from history to sports. In the two pieces I have excerpted below, Rachel Hudson and Caroline Hunt connect their readings of Emerson directly to life at Darlington.

Ralph Waldo Emerson says early in "The American Scholar," "you must take the whole society to find the whole man. Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all." Thinking of mankind as a whole rather than broken up into social classes or levels of importance was a new concept in 1836. Emerson continues, saying, "the gods...divided Man into men, that he might be more helpful to himself; just as the hand was divided into fingers, the better to answer its end." The men are working to better mankind, and the fingers work to help accomplish the job of the hand. This concept applies to our lives now, over 100 years later, especially in the Darlington Community. As a student, it is so easy to be wrapped up in only your own grades and studies. One student does not seem to benefit from the work of other classmates, so why waste time worrying over the good of the class rather than simply focusing on individual outcomes and personal scores? This corrupted thinking destroys the spirit of community Darlington inhabits. If students work hard to accomplish their own goals in the classroom with the hope of helping their entire class at the same time, a much more positive outcome can be reached. This is the exact concept that Emerson portrays in his metaphor of fingers all working for the same purpose, to benefit the hand. It is the idea that working for a greater purpose other than yourself is what will keep mankind thriving.  

                  —Rachel Hudson, Class of 2015

As Emerson delivers the speech to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge University, I reflect on its comparisons with the Darlington community and the changes that will inevitably come to our campus in the near future. Like Emerson, we as students, faculty, and staff will be challenged to explore our minds, reflect on our accomplishments, and set high expectations for our future. As the Board of Trustees searches for a new leader, we must remember Emerson’s quote, “Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.” New leadership, students, and faculty will play a vital role in continuing Darlington’s tradition and academic achievements. As Emerson describes a new chapter, we too will experience a new year full of excitement, learning, and perseverance. We as students must answer the challenge, embracing the scholars who feed our mind so that, as we continue moving into the next millennium, we can face the challenges of today’s ever-changing and complicated world. Emerson describes man as metamorphosed into many things. We as students also experience a type of individual metamorphosis, such as becoming a scholar, an athlete, a musician, an artist, a mathematician, a scientist, a writer, or an actor. Some will fall into what Emerson describes as seeing only one area of expertise. However, we must accept the challenge not to view the world in tunnel vision but to experience the other gifts that our Creator has given to us. Since the campus encompasses such a diverse group of students of over 30 nationalities, we are faced with a challenge of merging as one student body with similar goals and challenges. As students, we are not only challenged to learn but also to become life-long learners. Faculty members must meet the challenge of educating the students in a way that will enhance their knowledge, but also create unique individuals who possess honor and integrity in every aspect of their lives.

                 —Caroline Hunt, Class of 2015

Both girls’ perspectives poignantly state what I, too, believe about Darlington. I was impressed by Caroline’s recognition of what the Head of School Search would mean for her school (a meaning we are very excited about now that Mr. Brent Bell has been named as our new leader). But more than that, these girls’ summertime reflections reveal maturity, thoughtfulness, and community-mindedness that remind me how blessed I am to teach and learn from these and all of the amazing young people that make up our student body.