Apta superaque was adopted as the school’s rallying cry back in March of the previous year, and the exigency at that time was to sort through the rapidly changing ‘guidance’ being provided by governmental and health authorities to determine the manner in which Ridgeview would remain open to the greatest number of students for the longest period of time.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford, in officially recognizing Black History Month, called on Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Ridgeview has for many years now welcomed students to school each morning—not by greeters, but by administrators and board members. Each morning we say hundreds of hellos, but our hundreds of hellos are of late only rarely returned. Not only is there the absence of a verbal response, but eyes rarely meet, and smiles are rarely seen. The pandemic has mitigated our once determined civility. Faces, half hidden by masks, social distancing, and remote attendance disjointed by latency have caused our estrangement with one another to grow deeper and our sociability more stunted and strained. This is not an insignificant deficit.

As we inch forward, it bears briefly reviewing some of the lessons we have learned since last March.

Shakespeare has Macbeth deliver a nihilistic soliloquy that begins, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.” When death waits for each of us, what can be the ultimate meaning of our lives regardless of how floridly or cleverly they are described in exquisite language?

Please read this seasonal message from Mr. Anderson.

We want to provide you with a brief update about our school’s operations during the pandemic.

For students, the first day of each new school year is generally fraught with a mishmash of anxiety, giddiness, and weariness. For most adults, a memory of these distinct feelings persists.

Welcome parents and students, faculty and staff, friends, neighbors, and all others who are joining us today to celebrate the achievements of these students.

This Mother’s Day both mothers and their children may have gotten a bit more of one another than either bargained for. Too much contact, too many frayed nerves, too much taken for granted. We ask a lot of mothers all year round, but we invariably ask more of them during times of uncertainty.

Leadership is a word that has been subject to abusive overuse in education circles for the better part of decade or more. Like so much else that schooling is supposed to provide, every student is to be prepared as a leader just as every student is supposed to be above average in all his accomplishments.

Over the last two weeks, our seniors have presented their theses much as their predecessors have for the past twenty years. Of course, the notable difference was that all of the presentations this year were streamed live.