One of the many interesting aspects of my 37-year career at Cheshire Academy is thinking about the 232-year history of the school and my place in it. I wrote 4,500 words about the school’s history over two issues of 1794 Magazine seven years ago. (The full article is available on the school website.) It was fascinating digging into the archives and thinking about the ties between the earlier years of the school and the present time. This experience is one impetus among many to include stories from CA’s complex past in the monthly alumni and friends newsletter. It is a source of wonder and meaning for me – and I hope for you – to be part of such a venerable and enduring American institution. Over our recent break, I watched Ken Burns’ documentary masterwork on the American Revolution, a story of terrible violence, political passion and fervent, indomitable belief. Throughout my viewing experience, I thought about the beginning of Cheshire Academy in 1794, just a decade after the terrible violence and upheavals of the war had ended. Cheshire Academy, founded as The Episcopal Academy, was an extraordinary, critical part of a new nation struggling to define itself and grow. I hope as an alumnus you feel the power and intellectual thrill of this and feel a responsibility to help the school carry on its amazing legacy.
The story this month is focused on the Commencement Address of 1936, an eloquent speech delivered by 1883 CA graduate Reverend Dr. William A. Beardsley. He begins by stating that he had spoken as a student at the Commencement of 1883 and was now on a CA Commencement stage again, 53 years later. In the mid 1930s the school was in transition from being named The Roxbury School to becoming Cheshire Academy, which Dr. Beardsley identifies as an inflection point in the school’s history.
As a student of history, I know we can’t understand the present clearly without insight into the past. It is important to interpret the historical context of the speech in 1936. Dr. Beardsley’s speech shines with the cautious optimism of a country that was slowly emerging from a crippling depression. A wildly popular FDR had been elected for a second term, and a once-stagnant nation was moving forward again.
Early in his speech, Dr. Beardsley expressed his fascination with the long history of our school. The Episcopal Academy (the first name of the school) had “opened its doors” 142 years earlier, and, despite a “checkered and checked” history, the school, in Reverend Beardsley’s account, had maintained a core identity from 1794 to 1936. The second change of the school’s name, he assured his listeners, was not to be understood as a change in this core identity.
“However, in the light of what is going on here in the school, in the light of the splendid effort being made not to resurrect an old school but to restore the connections to the past, to pick up the old traditions so far as it may be desirable and possible to do so, to link the new Cheshire with the old……”
Dr. Beardsley continues:
“After all there is a certain prestige in age. We shall have to admit that even in this garishly new day. We go abroad and wander through the grounds and buildings of some ancient educational foundation and we feel the charm of its antiquity, of the concentrated glory if its years…”
Continuing to meditate on the value and cultural importance of Cheshire’s long history, Dr. Beardsley writes:
“…The Cheshire Academy, with all the spirit and enthusiasm of youth, actuated and guided by the educational methods of the new day, indeed a modern school, may yet have the charm and glory of antiquity, because the stage is set for that very thing, because it has fallen heir to academic traditions which reach back into the remote past. That is not a legacy that falls to many schools establishing themselves today. But it has fallen to this school, and those in authority are laying claim to it, very wisely, I think.”
I can imagine how pleased he would have been to know that his words would someday echo so strongly in 2025, after many more years had become part of our “concentrated glory.” Our school has been in existence since the institutional beginning of the United States, and we are, despite a “checkered and checked” history, still shining brightly today. Those of us who have been here for decades see clearly how much renewal has occurred in recent years and how much attention is being paid to modern educational methodology. In fact, this year’s opening faculty meetings included significant time spent with an author of several books on brain science and learning. The faculty spoke highly of this experience, even though much of it was familiar to many teachers. One can only wonder exactly what Dr. Beardsley was referencing when he speaks of the “educational methods of the new day” in 1936, which, no doubt, would seem somewhat primitive to us today.
Dr. Beardsley concludes,
“This bit of preachment grew out of the thought of the restoration of the connections of the new Cheshire with the old Cheshire Academy, and through it all rings the note of loyalty, loyalty to the ideals of the past and loyalty to the men who made these ideals effective.”
We should all be proud of the effort, imagination, and endurance that have allowed CA to move forward so confidently into the 21st century. We are all part of this story. Two threads connect all eras of Cheshire Academy. One is the hopefulness issuing from our passionate dedication to exploring the best potentials of humanity. The other is genuine dedication to the individual student. Independent schools are evaluated every 10 years by committees comprised of visitors from peer schools who spend several days on campus. Our last evaluation, about five years ago, led to several “major commendations.” The first one on that great list was the following: “Faculty members at CA know their students very well.”
After enduring through the turbulent 1960s, the school hit one of its “checkered” periods, which had consequences for many years to follow. But we have moved on from that time with distinction. We have grown in every way, but, like any school, we are “checked” to some degree when our alumni are not connected to the present life of the school. We are wise today, as Dr. Beardsley noted in his own time, to lay claim to the extraordinary legacy of Cheshire Academy. Dr. Beardsley asks for loyalty to the past and to the men who had given the school the character and value it possessed. We make the same appeal to you today: we ask you to join us in celebrating the legacy of the men and women who have helped CA persevere and flourish, and we ask for your loyalty and commitment to the school’s future. What will people say about us 100 years from now? Will we do our part to usher CA into an ever more exciting and amazing future? We all have it within us to help make this happen. It’s going to take teamwork.
If you haven’t been back to campus in recent years, think about attending alumni weekend or some other event on campus. Like Dr. Beardsley, you may experience something of the “concentrated glory” of our 232-year-old school and feel how wonderful it is to be part of it.
Want to contribute?
Do you have a CA story that illuminates the nature of our great school? If so, please email something in the range of 200-300 words to chip.boyd@cheshireacademy.org.
