April 15, 2008 8:00 AM

Senior Surge

Frequently, it seems, we focus on the predilection of seniors to tone things down in the spring after four years of labor and the news of college acceptances has arrived. This is a myth though, I feel, especially with the current class of seniors, who have opted to achieve as much as they can prior to graduation rather than finishing in a lackluster repose. There is something of a senior surge taking place where these students are working as hard as ever and achieving as much as ever before.

I think, for example, of a Fifteen meeting the other night where the students were engaged in a very earnest and productive discussion of a book they read beyond the requirements of their ordinary curriculum. They were passionate about their viewpoints and articulated one of the best Fifteen discussions we have had all year--a stellar year, by the way, for the Fifteen. I think, too, of an independent study I am advising where a student has been tracing out Emersonian influences on such writers as Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson, Frost and Stevens--This student has remained compelled by her investigations into the mind of Emerson as the trajectory fans out over two centuries of seminal American writers. Her critical engagement with the material operates very much on the college level in terms of sophistication.

I observed last weekend some marvelous performances by seniors at our home track meet, while seniors in other sports are also turning in outstanding athletic accomplishments. Seniors in leadership positions continue to drive the school culture effectively and productively. Rather than performances falling off and seniors becoming complacent, I see a group of students who are coming together as a class and thriving. The work they are doing in the classroom is some of the best of the year as they ready themselves for the AP exams. As they study for English, math, art history, etc., they are stretching themselves as much as they possibly can.

Personally, they are at their height of maturation as well. They are thinking seriously about themselves in the context of Mercersburg as they prepare to say farewell and the context of the larger universe as they prepare to embrace it. They are thinking about the final impact they will have on this community and what their legacy will be, and they want it to be an admirable one. They worry about the future of the school after they leave it, hoping the best aspects of the school grow stronger and whatever weaknesses exist in their view are remedied. They have grown up in a lot of ways here and at this most prosperous moment feel very much alert to that growth and are harvesting well. They are gearing up (not down) for graduation.