In the Literature Department at Golden View we’ve just completed the celebration of our annual Shakespeare Festival, which I believe to be the highlight of our year. Years ago the commemoration started small with movie nights and some mischief at lunch (flashmobs, speeches, staged murders). Every year this tradition grew to be increasingly remarkable. And this year was, you should know, very special. We hosted a seminar on Macbeth for parents, we had a troupe of High School students performing Shakespearean improv, and we had an essay contest, a painting contest, and a sonnet contest. Also, new this year, we handed out Valentines cards with Shakespearean compliments (and insults, too!). Romeo and Juliet and King Lear were celebrated with performances for other students. Upperclassmen were also served a 7-course meal featuring the distinct Shakespearan cuisine.

The week is large, stressful, and tremendous fun. Why do we do it? We host the Shakespeare Festival to celebrate what we have read.  The learning for students is why we make art part of our lives. Shakespeare's works have been revered by people for centuries, provoking thought and conversation such as “Am I more like vain old King Lear, or that valiant King Henry?” or “‘The course of true love never did run smooth’ – how true!."

The effect of any great work of art should shake us out of our boredom and humdrumishness and remind us that the world is vast, and intricate, and worth being in. This is how we become more creative and interesting people: by letting these books reintroduce us to our own world on terms that are at once new, and true, and enchanting. That is the central work of the Literature Department at Golden View. We aim for it in small ways, every day, in the classroom. And, here and there, we break out and celebrate it with a meal, or a contest, or a ridiculous valentines card. 

From Mr. Atherton, Upper School Humanities Teacher

Wrestling is one of the best sports in the world for developing character. It is physical in a way that no other sport pretends to be. As Olympic gold medalist Dan Gable once said, “Once you have wrestled, everything else is easy.” Between the nosebleeds, the black eyes, the cauliflower ears, the fatigue, the fingernail scratches, and the mat burns, there is little to keep a new wrestler coming back, other than the promise of his first victory. But once that first victory is achieved, nothing else could be more thrilling. 

Perhaps the most exciting part of wrestling is the prospect of a pin.  No matter how far behind you might be on points, you are never so far behind that you could not win suddenly by supreme effort. There is never a point in the match when all hope is lost; as long as the match endures, there is the possibility of a reversal and a fall. Just as Ben Franklin observed about the checkmate in chess, the prospect of a pin contains one of the most vital character lessons: it is possible to reverse the tide suddenly if you simply never give up. 

Another unique quality of wrestling is that, unlike football, basketball, or baseball, there is no prospect of a professional career in wrestling. Wrestlers know the trajectory of their sport: high school, college, and maybe nationals or the Olympics if you are good enough. But wrestling has no equivalent to the NFL, the NBA or MLB. Wrestlers wrestle purely for the love of the game. 

Wrestling also incorporates all the best elements of team and individual sports. In the gym, every teammate is a training partner. On the mat, you face your opponent one-on-one, but with your entire team behind you. The feeling of comradery that it creates to train as a team but wrestle one at a time is without parallel. Although a teammate’s win or loss may not affect you personally - as it might when a teammate drops a ball - it affects you as emotionally, and sometimes more. You personally live the ups and downs with each member of your team. 

But beyond these lessons, more than anything else, wrestling teaches grit. The general rule of life is that there are neither easy paths nor shortcuts to lasting success. The only way around is through, and the only way to get there is to bite on your mouthpiece and willfully exert yourself to exhaustion. This is the heart of what it means to wrestle, and a metaphor for all of life’s challenges. 

From Mr. Summers, Political Philosophy Department Chair and Head Wrestling Coach