A Portrait of the Class of 2016

On June 10 the Class of 2016 was celebrated in words, songs, and pictures. The festive graduation ceremony featured speeches by all of the graduates, as well as tributes from administrators, teachers, and students. It was a fitting end and a warm send-off for students about to embark on the next phase of their education.

Each year, the 8^th grade class chooses a faculty member to be the keynote speaker during commencement. This year, that faculty member was Math Teacher Lee Bissett. Here is his speech in its entirety.

 

 

A Portrait of the Class of 2016

By Lee Bissett

 

The title of my speech today is supposed to be “A Portrait of the Class of 2016.” A portrait. An image. A story. A story about who you are. In writing this speech, I had to think about all the time I’ve spent with you, from the twice-weekly visits to your 4th grade classes all the way up to preparing you for your 8th grade Algebra 1 final exam last week. We’ve spent a lot of time together over the last five years, and I had a lot to draw on while writing this speech. So who are you? Who. Are. You?

 

Like all interesting math problems, we have to clearly define the terms in the problem before we can even approach it. If we’re talking about “you” in the singular sense—“Who are you?” as a question to ascertain your individual identity—well, that’s not even my question to answer. Answers to that question have to come from you and no one else can—or should—answer that question for you. How you answer the “Who are you?” question is your decision and your decision alone to make. Now some of you may not even know how to answer that question yet. It’s possible that your answer has changed over the last few years, maybe even the past few months. Almost certainly it will change during your high school years and beyond. But, if we’ve done our job well here, if we have truly delivered on our promise of being an inclusive community in which each individual is valued and respected, then we’ve helped you begin to answer that question.

 

From your very early days in Pre-Primary, throughout your journey in Primary School, and now writing your final chapter in Middle School, we’ve helped you begin to figure out who you are. We’ve pushed you. We’ve helped you navigate difficult situations. We’ve helped you discover what you’re passionate about. And, yes, we’ve given you tests to complete and essays to write and so on, but all of it with the intention of helping you discover yourself and what works for you as a student, learner, and individual. Over time, these discoveries will be instrumental in how you formulate your answer to the “Who are you?” question. What I can do today, however, is answer the question “Who are you?” in which “you” refers to the collective class of 2016.

 

So who are you as a group? Well, about the only way the world has ever really made any sense to me is when viewed through numbers and equations; that’s probably the reason you all came up with the Mathman alter ego for me. Nick, Aidan, Storm—I’m still waiting for my costume, although I’d settle for a drawing. Anyway, all that to say that for inspiration I first looked at the most natural place I could, your class year—2016. The first thing that jumps out to me is that it’s divisible by 3. It’s also divisible by 7, and as you all know—as you all should know—numbers that are divisible by both 3 and 7 are also divisible by 21. And since the 21 of you sitting here today are thus a factor of 2016, well, it seems reasonable to carry on and keep looking within 2016 for inspiration to paint your portrait.

 

2016 is 2 to the fifth power times 3 squared times 7. It has 36 different factors, which is too many to list and discuss here, but some of its more interesting factors are: 4, marking you all as Lowell’s 4th eighth grade class; 7, representing the 7 of you who are Lowell Lifers; 16, representing the 16 different high schools to which you will go next year; 24, the number of ounces in each bottle of salad dressing you made in third grade; 56, the one multiplication

fact Emily made sure you all memorized; 63 since 2016 is actually the 63rd triangular number, confirming some theories some of you may have about triangles and interconnectedness amongst seemingly random things.

 

2016 is a polite number since there are 5 different ways to write it as a sum of consecutive integers, and I’ve always considered you all to be a very polite and respectful group of students. I could always count on each of you to greet me in the morning, probably because Dave, Sara, and I made you do it every day in 6th grade as part of our Delta morning meetings. 2016 is also a practical number since every whole number less than 2016 can be written as a sum of selected factors of 2016, and you all are a very practical group, always focused on getting things done. When it came time to do independent work, you were one of the most focused and diligent groups I’ve seen in my career.

 

Perhaps most applicably, 2016 is an abundant number since its proper factors add up to more than itself, which makes me think of two things. One, the abundance of memories I have from my five years of working with you all. I know we all remember when the mouse bit me during your 6th grade math class and many of you can recall the hand injuries sustained by creating the dancing raccoon Math Art mascot. I still remember during your 5th grade year when many of you came down to Parkside on Thursday afternoons to work on math extensions and challenges like Pascal’s triangle in different modular forms, a favorite activity that just last week one of you asked if you could do after your final exam.

 

But the abundance of 2016 also makes me think about that mathematical definition of abundance—its factors add up to something more than itself. I think that is especially true with you all, the class of 2016. Each of you is a very unique component of the class—a factor if you will—and when put together, you all become something much more than what you are as individuals. You have a collective identity that is much more capable, much more determined, and, yes, perhaps occasionally much louder, than what your individual identities are together.

 

You built stoves together and helped workers in a village in Costa Rica have an easier life. Together you put on and hosted Amateur Night on the dance floor during the “Smush Year” when we were at our most limited in terms of our spaces, options, and therefore ability to host. You all absolutely crushed the hike to Annapolis Rocks during our 6th grade Calleva trip—no group has ever completed that hike more quickly or with fewer setbacks than you all. You took care of each other by providing encouragement on both the climbs and the zip-lines. During that trip you all stepped up and shouldered incredible responsibility by belaying each other on the second day of climbing. In all my time climbing, it has been rare that I’ve trusted a group of 11- and 12-year olds to belay each other, and yet you did it as if the additional responsibility was no big deal, just something your group identity prepared you for and made you able to handle.

 

Your collective identity is one in which you all become a tour de force capable of achieving great things that you otherwise would not be able to as individuals, and when you all have set your mind to something, well, it’s been fun to watch what you’ve accomplished. Today is your graduation day, often times called a commencement. Commence. From the Latin roots com and initiare. To express intense force and to begin. Thus, a beginning.

 

There’s a funny thing about life. Beginnings cannot exist without endings, and endings cannot exist without beginnings. We only know that Chapter 2 begins because Chapter 1 ends. We only know that 2016 ends because 2017 begins. So, today marks the end of your time at Lowell, but only because the next chapter of your life—high school—is beginning. And with that beginning, that abundant tour de force that is created when the individual members of the class of 2016 congregate will be created much less often; we’ll only get to witness it at the Bazaar, the Picnic, and alumni reunions. From today, you all will begin your next chapters at 16 different schools and begin to further answer the “Who are you?” question we analyzed at the beginning. You all will find new friends as you transition to a member of the class of 2020 at your new school. New experiences, new memories, new ideas. But never forget what you were a part of here at Lowell, what you experienced, and what you did.

 

While many things will change, you all will forever be a part of Lowell’s class of 2016, the polite, practical, and abundant tour de force that I have had the pleasure of teaching every year I’ve been here. I’ll miss each and every one of you. Come back anytime; Lowell will forever be your home.