Isa '16 deliver The Gettysburg Address in front EHS student body

Learn the Address

Chris Hancock - Assistant Headmaster for Student Life
As one student pointed out this week, there is great irony in the words
As one student pointed out this week, there is great irony in the words “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here.”  As part of the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln did not foresee the lasting impact his powerful and poignant speech would have on a nation.  With over 7,000 dead (not to mention the 27,000 wounded and 11,000 captured or missing) in a brutal battle it would be near impossible for anyone to look beyond the bloodied horizon to a future of a country that could promise human equality and a government that reflected that equality through economic interests for all.  Yet, he stood before everyone in 1863 and with his penultimate line said, “ It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”  It was clear, the lessons of that day were for those who remained.  These tenets were to be carried forward by a united people and live vibrantly in many ways still today.
 
A small, yet powerful way in which those words take shape and is shared through a national competition to recite the Gettysburg Address.  Launched over 37 years ago at Greenwood School, a small boys’ school in Putney, VT who, like EHS, serves students with learning disabilities, the competition brings together high school students throughout the country to memorize and deliver the address. The goal of the competition is not only to reflect on this moment in our country’s history, but for a brief moment to display, as Ken Burns describes it in his 2014 film about the competition entitled “The Address”, “acts of courage that are embedded in the address.”  Stepping in front of hundreds of people to deliver this speech is not an easy task, yet it is something EHS students courageously do each year.
 
This week marked our annual school-wide competition from which a single student was chosen to represent EHS at the national competition later this spring.  Four finalists bravely took center stage in the Abby Theatre on Wednesday in front of the entire faculty, staff and student body to deliver their best, most passionate version of Lincoln’s famous speech.  Each had remarkable accuracy and emotional interpretation that captivated the hundreds in attendance.  In the end, Isa Greenberg ’16 was chosen for this year’s national competition.  She and all her competitors deserve much credit for their efforts and we certainly wish Isa the best of luck at the next level.
 
While there are perhaps more profound and important echoes from that 19th century mid-November day in our laws and culture, the significance of this simple competition on our teens cannot be overlooked.  As such, Eagle Hill will proudly host the national level competition next year and for those who can make it here on that day I encourage you to attend.
 
Of course, we must thank Greenwood School as this competition would not exist without the intentional inclusion of the address in their curriculum since their founding one score and seventeen years ago.

Click here to see a short video of our Learn the Address competition on our Youtube page.
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    • Isa '16 deliver The Gettysburg Address in front EHS student body