Faithfully,
John
P.S. Could you get me some sort of board consensus on the Seven Schools decision when it is convenient?
J.
26 February
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Greeve
14 Bingham Drive
Tarrytown, New York
Dear Val and Frank,
Thanks very much for your nice offer to have me come down there and relax for a weekend. For what sense it makes, I don’t have enough energy to gear up for a weekend of relaxation. Nor, I’m afraid, the time.
If the truth be known, things are not quite going smoothly here. We’re getting thrown out of our athletic league for good sportsmanship, we are being taken to court for practicing consistent discipline, and I have just received a long, passionate letter from a man from Jersey Standard who says I need to learn about the real world.
This is a depressing time of year, extra depressing due to school circumstances, extra depressing due to personal circumstances. Everywhere I look I see mess.
I have no business writing in this mood.
Another weekend?
Write and tell me about Hugh, Jill, summer plans?
Love,
John
28 February
MEMO
To: Tim Spires
Hallowell House
Tim:
All we need!
Why not give the boy one more chance, alone, with you, to say where he got the stuff and who else at Wells was involved. Although it all sounds relatively straightforward to me, please write down a thorough account of how you found him and his explanation for what he did, etc. When your are finished with him, bring him to me.
Extra effort much appreciated.
J.O.G.
28 February
MEMO
To: Phil Upjohn
Director of Studies
Phil-
Tim Spires walked in on a Hallowell Boy, David Weisman, smoking pot in his room. He’s worked him over pretty thoroughly, and in an hour we’ll know about all we’re going to know about it. Would you please assemble the Student Court and the Faculty Discipline Committee. They ought to meet at their earliest convenience, tonight if possible. I will see to isolating the boy and calling his parents.
Wonderful timing eh?
J.O.G.
28 February
Midnight
Mr. Jake Levin
R.D. 3
Petersfield, New Hampshire
Dear Jake,
Good to get your letter. Sorry to have been so long out of touch, but things have been a little crazy here since I got back.
It’s a little strange, actually. The problems have been quite ordinary, which is not to say unimportant, school problems, but for some reason they won’t be resolved. Even when the right answer is obvious—at least obvious to me—it seems impossible to get a consensus, to act. That of course sounds vague, but I’d have to tell you too much more to make it any less so.
I have spent the earlier part of this evening interviewing a boy who was caught smoking pot in his room, after which I had the unsettling experience of talking to the boy’s parents, both on the line at once, two of the most wretched-sounding people I have ever encountered.
I must be losing my heart for this work.
The first annoyance was my realization, when the boy was led into my study, that I didn’t know him, that although we are a self-professed intimate community (our catalogue says so), I could not recall ever having laid eyes on this boy before. If I had I would like to think I would not have allowed him to enroll. The overall impression was somehow assignably canine. There was a lot of nose and chin and closely set dark eyes. He slouched when he stood, slumped when he sat, avoided looking at me. His attitude may have been surly or it may have been his natural way of expressing unease. Perhaps it was the pot. He was guileless in a way that made me wish he had guile. Yeah, he said, I was smokin’. Yeah, he said, I know the rules. Yeah, he said, I thought about getting caught. I smoke pot, he said. I like it. Only then did he look directly at me, a look that was not quite defiant, but was at least detectably sure of itself. When I asked him where he got his pot, he told me: I found it around somewhere. Where? Around somewhere—outside. When I asked if he smoked with anybody else, he said no, never. He lied in the same flat, thick manner in which he told the truth. He was impervious to intimidation, also to instruction, also to inspiration. And the worst of it is that I didn’t feel the slightest bit moved to try to intimidate, instruct, or inspire him. Although that is my professional duty. I sent him to the outer office and went through his file. He is a fourth former, entered as a third former. He had C’s in his local middle school, where his guidance counselor noted that he was a good citizen who responded well to encouragement. Our admissions officer wrote: “seemed uncomfortable in interview, parents very aggressive, stressed how many other good schools were on their itinerary.” Testing: top of bottom third independent school norms; derived I.Q. 118. Grades at Wells: 60-70 in all subjects except Spanish, which he fails each term. Activities: went out for third-form football, was a back-up lineman, a reluctant practicer, quit mid-season claiming injuries. Discipline: quartered for smoking cigarettes last winter; minor discipline for failing to complete dining-hall assignments, Student Court for mauling, with others, a new third former this past fall. Expended to date at Wells: $14,000. Attainments: none.
I called the boy back in and made him sit down and sit up, directly in front of me. I looked dead into his pot-bleary eyes and said: I don’t think this is going to sink in, but I’m going to tell you anyway. The reason we have strict rules against pot and other drugs is that they have taken boys we know on a one-way path to poor effort, poor performance, and bad, deep personal problems. This is not something we saw in a magazine. This is what happened to boys we know—to our school. It even happened to a boy in my family. You have not done anything special at Wells. You have been a weak student, and there are signs that you are getting weaker. You participate in very little, and you avoid assigned work. You cut corners. You disregard rules without much thought. You are doing a bad job. You are not growing up, except physically, and you are smoking pot. You smoke pot, and you like smoking pot. You like to smoke pot, and you are doing a bad job. Stop doing it. Stop doing it now.
I wished I were his father so I could have slapped him across his doggy face and shaken him till he cried. He waited me out.
They are all waiting me out, Jake.
Good night,
John
28 February
Mr. Dwight Nimroth
Editor, Poetry Magazine
1665 Dearborn Parkway
Chicago, Illinois
Dear Mr. Nimroth,
I have enclosed a poem, “Lesson,” for your consideration.
I don’t know if you require background information from contributors, but for whatever interest it provides: I am a schoolmaster and have published several poems and some criticism in magazines, newspapers and literary journals.
My good wishes,
John Oberon Greeve
LESSON
I have held you after class.
I have brought you to this dark place
Of my books and bachelorhood not to bore you
But to tell the truth:
Your work shows ordinary promise;
That is, no special promise;
That is, no promise.
Pressed for information, you volunteer
Fragments of what you have heard us say,
Of what you have, uncomprehending, read.
You stand as noise to an idea,
Inequipped to know the knock of right.
Subtlety, sides of a question surprise you,
Two answers confuse you.
The trickles of your talk
Flow from or into no known stream.
Beginning, even as a bright-faced child,
You lacked background.
Unable to assert, you guess.
>
Yet you are friendly,
You get by.
You may well be loved.
Others, pleased by your shape or smell
Will touch you and be touched.
Loosed from all certainty, often afraid,
You will assemble and speak out,
Find all of it familiar,
And sleep.
1 March
Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Weisman
12 Club Crescent
Garden City, Long Island
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Weisman,
I am writing to put formally the unhappy message I had to bear over the phone earlier today: that our Student Court and Faculty Discipline Committee have recommended that David be dismissed from Wells for smoking marijuana on campus. As headmaster, I must accept the recommendation. The arrangements you suggested for picking him up are fine; he is welcome to stay in my house till then.
I understand that it is properly parental to be upset by an unexpected blow like this, but I am concerned about some of the points you raised and would like to explain a few matters of school policy. You, Mr. Weisman, advised me that we had better “do with David as we have done with the others.” I assure you that we have done so, in that we enforced a rule, the violation of which is a published cause for expulsion, a rule David signed a pledge to observe. What all boys get who break such rules is a process, designed and periodically reviewed by the whole school. According to the process, offenders are assured of a hearing before an elected body of their peers and a faculty committee. That process, carried out as thoughtfully as we can, is what we guarantee to disciplinary offenders. During the past twenty years while we, like all schools, were trying to make sense of drug use among the young, the severity of penalties may have varied with prevailing thinking. Over the past five years, however, prevailing thinking, at least ours, has been firm: marijuana and school life are antithetical. With very few exceptions over that period, offenders, even first-time offenders, have been dismissed from school.
Your question, “Do we mainly catch Jews?” I choose to take straight. Memory tells me not, that a great majority of boys dismissed for drugs and other offenses are not Jewish. Memory will have to serve, as that is not an account we keep.
My deepest concern is that in your hurt and anger over all of this you have not responded to the possibility that David may have a problem with drugs. I honestly suspect this is the case. David came to us last year a boy with modest but acceptable potential; in short, with promise. We have seen very little development in him since then. In fact, he has appeared to us increasingly deadened, participating little, often verging on trouble. These things are as much danger signs as the joint in his hand when Mr. Spires caught him.
Believe me, these are not headmasterly pieties. We lose boys to marijuana. I have lost a son to marijuana. If David’s departure from Wells and our combined concern about him are dramatic enough, we may provide an occasion for him to reverse a dangerous course in his development.
I sincerely hope this is the case.
Faithfully,
John Greeve
2 March
REMARKS TO THE SCHOOL
This past fall it was my unpleasant duty to talk to you about some boys who had gotten themselves in trouble with drugs. There were five of them, and as things turned out, all five were dismissed from Wells. We take time to talk about such things in chapel and we make hard decisions about such things for two basic reasons. First, we want to create an environment in which learning and personal development are most likely. The second is that we want to discourage others from following the path of those in trouble.
Apparently the October incident and the October talk were not adequate deterrents. We have lost another boy from Wells, our sixth this year. The boy is a fourth former, David Weisman. He was caught smoking marijuana in his room by a faculty member who smelled it two corridors away in his own study. The disciplinary proceedings were fairly uncomplicated, as there was not much in dispute. Mr. and Mrs. Weisman are of course upset and are on their way here to pick up David and his things.
As I said, the disciplinary procedures went without a hitch. However, some troublesome issues linger on. David admits that he likes to smoke pot. I suppose he has smoked on and off since he arrived. His pot comes from somewhere, very possibly from other boys here. He has probably smoked pot with other boys here. To do so he certainly had to be deceptive. He certainly must have lied. I’m not sure how many of you know David Weisman, but we are a small school, and certainly a good many of you do. Those of you who know him—perhaps a hundred or so of you—know that he hasn’t gone in for much in the way of activities here, perhaps wasn’t invited. You know that he hasn’t done well in his studies. You know that he has been in periodic disciplinary scrapes, usually for avoiding things. And you know that he smokes marijuana. You know these things and perhaps find it hard to care about them.
I am starting to think I don’t know very much about the drug problem in our school; and as to the caring problem, I haven’t a clue as to what to do about that one. Maybe together we can work on those things. Otherwise there will soon be another David Weisman missing from the ranks, and when that stops mattering, Wells ought to shut down and sell its assets.
Good Morning.
3 March
Ms. Lucille Emerick
N.A.S.S. Records Service
Box 1000
Princeton, New Jersey
Dear Ms. Emerick,
I have received your questionnaire materials, labeled ADMIN, but I am sorry to have to decline participation. Questionnaires tempt me to lie and to exaggerate, so I always avoid them. Yours, incidentally, is the longest I have ever seen.
Good luck to you. Happily, I am not representative of SCHOOL OR COLLEGE ADMINISTRATOR.
Sincerely,
John Greeve
4 March
MEMO
To: Dave Tomasek
Personal
Dave—
I don’t think I’ve ever received a formal written document from you before!
I appreciate the thought and the quality of the deliberations you and the head coaches have gone through on this St. I/Seven Schools mess. Your recommendation certainly makes the most sense from the practical standpoint, but, unless I am missing something, it seems to back straight down from the original issue, which is the important one.
I don’t want to be prideful or stubborn about this. Between us, I phoned Fred Maitland last week and said in effect: why not come off this silliness? How about even a note to Seven Schools acknowledging a rough game in September and pledging support for better things in the future? No cigar. So I find myself in the position of not wanting his pride and stubbornness, just because they are firm, to carry the day. See what I mean?
I know you and your staff did not arrive at your position lightly, Dave, and you certainly could not have presented it more graciously, either in the conference, or in what you have written. But I am afraid I can’t see it. Its justifying principle seems to be “the game must go on,” which is good but not quite good enough.
This is not to say that you aren’t right or even that you won’t prevail, but it is to say that your solution is not one I can stand by in good faith as headmaster.
John
5 March
MEMO
To: All faculty and staff
Re: Pre-vacation cautions
Colleagues:
The alluring prospect of Spring Recess is upon us, and if tradition holds, the greatest incidence of disorder, bad feelings, snags, snarls, and tears will fall about now, unless we hedge against fortune in the next ten days.
As usual, Marge, Phil Upjohn, housemasters, and I have put up heroic resistance to the barrage of parental requests to remove their boys, for compelling family and financial reasons, from Wells to the world’s more vernal parts. Because we always say no, it is essential that we run full steam here until the 15th. Classes must meet and meet productively until noon on Friday
and dorm staff must be on hand for an hour or so after that to pack off their tenants. I will assume this to be the case unless I hear otherwise from you individually.
Some reminders:
1. Collect all late work and papers and sit boys down for make-up exams and quizzes before the Recess. Letting these slide until afterwards is a source of unending trouble.
2. Observe schedule of testing dates, so that boys aren’t all doing tests and handing in papers at the same time. If there is a log-jam we haven’t detected, see Phil Upjohn.
3. Collect all outstanding fees, fines, and library books. Peg Detweiller tells me that the library stacks have never been more depleted due to overdue books and to books never checked out. I have trouble seeing why the latter is not simple theft. Would you please, both as teachers and advisors, urge boys to comb their rooms for books and to return them? It would be nice, at least for me, to avoid fire and brimstone on this one.
This has been a tough, grim stretch, and I am not speaking only for myself. If we can just see ourselves responsibly through the next ten days, the following seventeen (!) will be all the sweeter.
Thanks in advance,
J.O.G.
7 March
Mr. Edward Janeway
Who’s Who in High School
17795 Front Street
Bloomington, Indiana
Dear Mr. Janeway,
I am sorry to be so late in responding to your inquiry, but there has been more than the usual crush of work here.
I am afraid I can supply no names or other information for your proposed directory. I do not see how you can tell “distinguished secondary school achievement” in a boy until he is at least fifty.
The Headmasters Papers Page 16