Evals #5: Document Declarations

As with all the designations, the definition and consequences of the Document have evolved.  “Back in the day,” it meant that you sat in the audience during commencement exercises and watched the proceedings.  In more recent years, Document recipients have delivered speeches.  (In any case, no one in the audience is aware of the various graduation designations.)  Historically, the Document has signified  a significant shortfall typically involving violations of school ethics or considerable dishonesty in either daily affairs or during the Evals themselves.  There are four Document declarations at Bath this year:

I place myself at document at the moment because while throughout the year I feel like I have had some really positive moments, I feel like they are overshadowed by the negative ones. This year for me has had it’s ups and downs. I struggle with holding my peers and especially my close friends accountable, as well as myself. I would like to be at a certificate level by the time I graduate and to do that I will need to step up in a lot of different Areas such as dorm life, in the class room and on the sports field.

I put myself at Document because even though I feel that I have discovered much about myself this year and worked beyond my limitations, I do not understand or trust this process. I have had many reservations throughout the year regarding the strange and uncomfortable methods that Hyde school uses to build character. However, I strongly believe in my own character growth through my own means and I feel like I have grown immensely since coming to Hyde.

I would like to change my place from certificate to document. After talking to Mr. MacMillan this morning and going out to work, I came to conclusion that I wasn’t fully honest with people and myself. Although I thought I was genuinely interested in my character in beginning of the year, I realized today that I’m just not there yet, that frankly I was more concerned about looking good than building my character. I’m struggling right now to find a constructive motivation in character building and I don’t think I belong as certificate senior.

In the senior meeting I had decided to put myself at document. The reason for this is for all of fall term and half of winter term, I wasn’t taking myself and others around me seriously and I wasn’t acting like a senior even though I am. Even though I turned my attitude around, I feel like it was too soon for me personally to declare myself at certificate. To get to certificate I need to continue on the path I am and make myself more “public” and by taking more leadership on my sports team and in my dorm or in the classroom.

At Hyde, the graduation designation is not as important as the process of honesty that goes into arriving at it.  The hard look that these students are taking at themselves and their time at Hyde might sting momentarily, but it will serve their future best interests.

Onward,  Malcolm Gauld