Fair-Weather Warriors

Casual disinterest is a term I think describes the vibe of Deerfield's student body very aptly, particularly when it comes to civic or community engagement. It would not be inaccurate to describe the average student here as fair-weath-er: someone who is willing to dive into new topics, discuss current events, and even engage in spirited debate when they are a comfortable distance away from the problems that they are discussing

Deerfield, as a school, has been very outspoken in its desire to foster future leaders and thinkers. In A Framework for Schools, Head of School John Austin outlined how

"We don't just teach students to think critically — we teach them to lead courageously. Deerfield graduates should leave ready to shape policy, challenge assumptions, and serve society at the highest levels." There's no debate that the school wants to create a marketplace of ideas that students can freely and safely engage in, where opposing viewpoints can be reconciled and debated in good spirits backed by the intellectual nurturing of a Deerfield education. Students are encouraged to share their thoughts in the classroom and are taught in classes such as Political Philosophy (a class I enjoyed immensely) the importance of treating opposing viewpoints with dignity and grace.

If we look back on our year, we've been given a series of unique opportunities to engage with the levers of policy-making and service.

In the fall, we met with the leaders of the Democratic and Republican Party in Massachusetts, and we had the privilege of busing eligible students to Amherst to vote in the 2024 presidential election, not to mention the 24 for '24 events that promoted on-campus election engagement. We had the Deerfield Forum which invited the creme-de-la-creme of the journalism world to explain to us how politics has slowly shifted the winds of reporting and opinion writing. Hell, we had a literal contender for the 2028 democratic candidacy visit us during Spring Family Weekend to answer our questions. Knowing all this, it's a no-brainer that the school would produce some nuanced conversations on campus.

Except it doesn't.

If anything, our student body had become more and more insulated from the rest of the world as the year goes by. Our main news source consists of Al fish with funny Italian names explaining to us the concept of retaliatory tariffs while a game of Subway Surfer dominates the bottom half of our screen. To us, most of the conversations surrounding elections, current events, and international affairs are a matter of novelty - a shiny conversation bauble that can be tossed around when you're desperately trying not to fall asleep at a sit-down lunch.

Even for the election programming we ran in the fall, 24 for '24, most people showed up not out of a sense of curiosity but rather because they had nothing better to do. At the meeting between the heads of the Democratic and Republican Party, people cared more about how much shade the two guests could throw at each other rather than the content they wanted to share. For a school that tries so hard to get people to authentically engage in civics, we seem like a student body with the personality of a limp noodle. Following Dominic Sessa's 2022 Commencement speech, the lights are on but nobody's home. The wheel is spinning but we killed the hamster.

But I don't think this is solely the fault of the students. I think our apathy and disinterest toward anything not related to Deerfield is a product of how our school culture is curated. Were encouraged to buy-into the Deerfield community with full commitment with implicit shaming of individuals who are perceived not to buy-in. In other words, the classic Deerfield bubble.

But everyone knows that al-ready. Another facet that 1 find more interesting is what I see as the infantilization of students on campus - student leaders in par-ticular. The most recent Rule 2.8.2 is a great example of the school creating a controlled environment that prizes social harmony over all else. In a way, a lot of the leadership on campus is performative.

The Food Committee is a club that meets once a blue moon to discuss minute changes to the dining hall.

The Community Values Council

(CVC) - although a unique opportunity for students to exercise judiciousness and empathy — is severely limited in scope, with little opportunity to comment on school policies themselves. Of course, there is also a student council, and the criticisms of the group being a simple holding tank isn't wrong ei-ther. I'm part of the problem, too.

A lack of vision, being spread thin throughout too many different activities coupled with burnout definitely shows that I could have done

more.

But people have ideas, and people want things to change. Whether it be political engagement through open debates, Boys' Meeting, spice racks, CVC reform, term comment changes, grading transparency, involvement in planning school ac-tivities, academic pursuits off-cam-pus - there's a tacit disapproval from the school when it comes to shaking up the boat.

Just take the Boys' Meeting, The concern that half of the school could not compose themselves for half an hour is at first, funny, but also incredibly sad. The lack of faith the school has in student leaders to innovate is also reflected back to them in the student body. If we're told that anything we do is disruptive, then we opt to do nothing instead.

Another victim of this culture is community service. Because we're so obsessed with doing things in school, we hardly care about what goes on around us. We don't care about the historical opioid crisis in Greenfield; we don't care about the economic disparities that exist in Western Massachusetts, or how we present ourselves to the local community. There's a reason why community service right now focuses on small, repetitive service when it could be much more. For a school like Deerfield - vaunted as one of the world's best — community service should be a cornerstone of its excellence.

Some of you might not care about Deerfield insulating you with its rigid culture; a lot of us actually like it. But for a school that wants to prepare future leaders, Deerfield needs to give more opportunities to its students to lead. Importantly, it can't just come from the students themselves; the institutional response also has to be positive.

Deerfield operates on top-down leadership. Whoever's on top is in charge, whether it be the Academic Affairs or Student Life Office. Consequently, the greatest impact can be achieved through these offices.

Give students the ability to sit a spot at the Deerfield Forum. Encourage students to understand and get involved with the mechanics behind the scenes that keep Deerfield running.

The point to this long-winded ramble is this: the school needs to put more faith in its students to innovate in the realm of leadership, and the students themselves need to be more brave and purposeful.

The world is getting messier and messier. What the current culture of sheltering students at Deerfield represents is stagnation, not tradition. If we want something like our student pledge to not feel hollow, there has to be more purposeful actions on part of the administration to give students real, substantive challenges in leadership.