Gettysburg at Greenwood :
A Historic Triumph Becomes a Modern Day Success
by Reed Duncan | Winter 2007

Lincoln’s famed address at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19th, 1863, stands as one of our nation’s most significant. The speech is important not only because it was a eulogy that was delivered on the site the United States’ most casualty-heavy battle (a statistic that holds true even today: more than 7,500 soldiers from the Union’s Army of the Potomac and the Confederacy’s Army of Northern Virginia died at Gettysburg), but also because the speech was one of the fi rst steps toward healing our newly formed democracy that had already threatened to tear itself asunder.

Each year, Greenwood boys study President Lincoln’s words and work to memorize the speech. A tricky piece of often-inverted language, the Gettysburg Address can be difficult for anyone to learn, and perhaps especially so for those for whom language is a challenge. It is empowering each year to witness the boys get up on stage in front of their families, teachers, and peers and deliver a recitation of the speech. Poise, confidence, language mastery, and hard work are all necessary for such a performance.

Graduating students are must deliver the speech as part of their graduation requirements. Underclassmen may deliver the speech if they have achieved a level of competency with it. Any student who has in previous years delivered the speech successfully at the full gathering of parents and friends may elect to recite an approved alternative speech or poem as long as it is of historical or literary merit. This year two boys chose to recite an alternative oration: Randy Leigh recited Walt Whitman’s famous ode to Lincoln, “O Captain! My Captain!”, and Ary Nabizadeh recited Robert Frost’s classic “The Road Not Taken”.

This February’s event was a notable success, as all students participating delivered memorable recitations. Local judges for the event included: well-known historian and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns; Mary Young, current member of the Greenwood Board of Trustees and mother of Matt Young, ’06; Dr. Anna Karola, Director of The Learning Center, a school for students with learning differences in Qatar; and Dr. Susan Slowinski, a founding pediatrician of Cornerstone Pediatrics in Bellows Falls, Vermont, and a neighbor of Greenwood.