2020 Commencement Address
Tess Flanagan ’14 A Windward alum is invited each year to speak at Commencement. Tess Flanagan ’14 spoke to the eighth and ninth grade graduates on June 15. Tess is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, where she majored in scientific and philosophical studies of the mind, and she is pursuing her PhD in human development at Cornell University. Below is a copy of her speech [edited for length] that she delivered.
H
ello Class of 2020! I have a little story to tell you all. My brother, Sean ’13, attended Windward before me, and I was insanely jealous of him. Not because I knew that the classes were great, that they cater learning to the child, that they teach us adaptive strategies, etc. I knew none of that at the time. I was jealous of him for the one thing that at the time I thought was true, that Windward was Hogwarts. All I knew about the school was that it had an odd name, was in an oldlooking building, was for kids with different needs that a typical school can’t provide, and, as my mom put it, “What they did there was magical.” As any 6 yearold would conclude, it was Hogwarts. As disappointed as I was to find out that it was in fact not Hogwarts, looking back now I can see that it was magical. It didn’t have wands, a sorting hat, or trolls for me to fight, but it did have one of the most valuable things I received in my life: the confidence to ask questions with no bounds. At Windward, I was grateful to have teachers and classes that encouraged asking questions. I remember I had a whole science class dedicated to us asking what really separates a fruit from a vegetable (the verdict is still up for debate, by the way)! And the best part of it was, I wasn’t afraid to speak up and ask questions, because I was surrounded by students like me— students that wouldn’t laugh at me if I messed up a word, students that wouldn’t be upset if I asked the teacher to review a topic one more time, students that understand that sometimes things take time to fully comprehend. Asking questions is not easy, speaking up for yourself is not easy, pushing the boundaries is not easy, and even more so when you have a learning disability. But Windward showed me that it can be done. I was excited to take what I had learned at Windward to my new school, Holy Child, in sixth grade. I was fortunate enough to start a new school with two other girls from
Windward. We didn’t know each other well at Windward, but we started at our new school with an unspoken support system; I don’t think I would have succeeded without that. That support system inadvertently taught me that if I want to speak out for myself, I need to speak out for others. There are going to be people at your new school who have no idea what dyslexia is and people who think learning is the same for everyone. I remember in sixth grade, during our free reading time, one student was reading a book about a girl with dyslexia, and she described the girl as being stupid. My friend from Windward spoke up and taught her what dyslexia is really like. That moment has inspired me to speak out for all language and learning disabilities moving forward. When those friends left for a new high school and I stayed at Holy Child, I found my support system in other ways. I made friends with the other students in the extended time testing room. I met with my teachers outside of class and explained what I struggle with, and I asked if they could teach me in another way. I mentored incoming students and told them openly about my disabilities. There were definitely times that I struggled in middle and high school, like almost failing my ninth grade biology class, but having a support system that is built on speaking up for ourselves and each other made it a lot easier. When I got to college at Franklin & Marshall, I was surrounded by people who excelled in middle and high school. At first I thought those people would excel the same way they did in high school. But here’s a little secret for you all, no one excels in college courses. They are difficult! And I saw those students with great high school GPAs struggle to even pass a class. And I think their issue was that they didn’t know how to ask questions. They knew how to memorize keywords, how to write a grammatically correct essay, how to solve a math problem, but they didn’t know how to say “I don’t know, can you explain it to me?” Windward taught me
“Windward not only taught me how to speak up when I don’t understand something, Windward also taught me how to speak up when I wanted to push something further.”
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The Compass Winter 2021
