On March 3, Roxbury Latin students and teachers gathered in Rousmaniere Hall to celebrate a tradition that is distinctly RL: Exelauno Day dates back more than 130 years, when Classics master Clarence Willard Gleason inaugurated a celebration of the Classics, in which Greek students would be exempted from homework. Today, the event allows for the singular annual pleasure of hearing from boys of every age and level of exposure to Latin and Greek. (It is worth noting that the day continues to be one in which Greek and Latin students are exempted from homework!) Gleason chose March 4th as a punny reference to Xenophon’s Anabasis and its use of the verb “exelauno,” meaning “to march forth.”

During the morning’s special Hall, boys in Class VI through Class I competed in this year’s David Taggart Clark Competition in Greek and Latin Declamation—reciting the stirring words of Ovid and Caesar, performing the story of Noah’s Ark from Genesis, and bringing to life the tales of Vergil himself. The declamations culminated in a surprise duo performance, in which Owen Butler (I) rose from the audience in reaction to the words recited by James McCurley (I) and then joined him onstage—to the audience’s delight—as they reenacted Thersites (James) questioning the motives of Agamemnon, before Odysseus (Owen) intervenes, from Homer’s Iliad. The duo’s unsanctioned performance was met with a standing ovation from students and with a good-natured disqualification from Classics Department Chair and Exelauno Hall emcee, Mrs. Morris-Kliment. (Duo performances are not allowed as part of the competition.) This year’s winners were Nick Glaeser of Class IV (Lower School Latin), Akhilsai Damera of Class II (Upper School Latin), and Caleb Ganthier of Class III (Greek).

RL extends its heartfelt gratitude to this year’s Exelauno Day judges, Michael Howard, teacher of Classics at Boston Latin School; Rachel Philbrick, lecturer on Classics at Harvard; and Walter Young, teacher of Latin at Buckingham Browne & Nichols.

View a video of the morning’s Hall in its entirety, and even enjoy a brief highlight reel of Mr. Brennan and Mr. Reid being used as props by the morning’s participants!

You can also view a complete gallery of photos from the morning, taken by Mr. Pojman. Congratulations to all of the day’s declaimers for impressive performances across the board.

On February 14, famed New York Times journalist Bret Stephens spoke with students, faculty, and guests in Rousmaniere Hall about his life and work. Mr. Stephens—one of the premiere conservative journalists of our time—has been an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times since 2017, after a long career with The Wall Street Journal, where he served as Deputy Editorial Page Editor and, for 11 years, a foreign affairs columnist. At The Wall Street Journal, he most notably wrote “Global View,” the foreign-affairs column, for which he was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary. Prior to that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, a position he assumed in 2002 at age 28. He has reported from around the globe and interviewed scores of world leaders. Along with journalist Gail Collins, Mr. Stephens co-writes a popular New York Times column titled “The Conversation,” which contributes thoughtful, balanced commentary on American politics.

Mr. Stephens opened the Hall by mentioning Roxbury Latin alumnus and fellow journalist James Kirchick, Class of 2002. He called James one of the “greatest journalists working today” and passed along a message of thanks from James to teachers Stewart Thomsen and Mo Randall. Mr. Stephens then continued by offering “vignettes from [his] life, to hopefully inspire some [students] to take up journalism as a career.” 

He began with his childhood, talking about his youth as a Jewish-American being raised in Mexico City. He described himself as an “insider-outsider” as a child, and having that “hyphenated” identity has, he said, perhaps been the richest feature of his life. Mr. Stephens said he believes that “true thoughtfulness lies in the hyphen.” He brought this hyphenated identity into his teenage years, when at 13 he realized he would need to move to the United States for his high school education. He attended Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, where he and his peers embraced “constructive rebellion”—starting a second, more irreverent student newspaper and pulling pranks with classmates.

After Middlesex, Mr. Stephens studied at the University of Chicago, where he emerged a better thinker from so many “intellectually humbling” experiences. He then took the audience through the up-and-downs of his career: from his first job at a magazine right out of college—which, he describes, ended in humiliating fashion—to The Wall Street Journal and the prestigious role running The Jerusalem Post at the age of 28. When he returned to the WSJ and won a Pulitzer in 2013, he reflected back on how his earlier work experiences shaped who he had become. He shared that if you have enough time to reflect on earlier disappointments—even humiliations—you will likely become thankful for what they teach you down the road. 

Mr. Stephens concluded by sharing the reason behind his move to The New York Times in 2017. The move was sparked by his “Never Trump” attitude during the 2016 election cycle. As a traditional conservative, he viewed the rise and right-leaning media’s coverage of President Donald Trump as the “antithesis of a healthy conservative movement in America.” This brought him to the NYT, and he said he knew it would be “okay to be a contrarian.” In his role, he embraces being a dissenting voice, and he feels the only way to “disagree well is to understand well.”

After the Hall, Mr. Stephens spent first period speaking with members of Tripé, answering questions from them and other faculty and students who wanted to continue the conversation.

A 31 de Janeiro, a premiada arquitecta paisagista Kate Orff, directora fundadora e sócia da SCAPE, proferiu a palestra anual do RL Wyner Lecture. A série de palestras, estabelecida por Jerry Wyner, Classe de 1943, e a sua irmã Elizabeth Wyner Mark, é um memorial vivo ao seu pai Rudolph Wyner, Classe de 1912. A escola teve a honra de ter Jerry '43 e membros da sua família presentes na apresentação da Sra. Orff.

A firma da Sra. Orff, SCAPEA Comissão Europeia, em colaboração com a Comissão Europeia, aborda desafios globais - como as alterações climáticas e a justiça ambiental - combinando infra-estruturas de vida regenerativa e novas formas de espaços públicos. A nova-iorquina artigo descreveu a Sra. Orff como estando "na vanguarda de uma abordagem emergente à resiliência climática que defende que devemos estar a construir com natureza, e não apenas em natureza. O seu princípio orientador é que a "infra-estrutura cinzenta" - os diques, barragens, e paredes marítimas que as sociedades modernas utilizam para conter e controlar a água - é frequentemente insuficiente, e por vezes destrutiva. As infra-estruturas verdes, pelo contrário, envolvem a implantação estratégica de zonas húmidas, dunas, mangues e recifes para reduzir as ameaças de inundações catastróficas e erosão costeira, ao mesmo tempo que revitalizam a terra. Esta "segunda natureza cuidadosamente concebida", diz o pensamento, pode ser a nossa segunda oportunidade".

Durante todo o salão da manhã, a Sra. Orff ofereceu exemplos de como a sua firma interage com a natureza como uma questão de design. A sua firma está a "reparar a paisagem" através de parcerias com municípios para reavivar a ecologia urbana através da construção de parques, praças e outros ecossistemas no que historicamente tem sido zonas de betão. Os projectos incluem trabalhos em Louisville, Boston, e Nova Iorque. Em todos estes exemplos, a Sra. Orff sublinhou que qualquer paisagem urbana é agora um modelo de acção e de pensamento colaborativo.

O projecto mais importante da Sra. Orff é o Billion Oyster Project, uma iniciativa sem fins lucrativos que visa reintroduzir as ostras, em grandes quantidades, nos cursos de água da cidade de Nova Iorque, como parte crítica dos seus planos de infra-estruturas costeiras. Partilhou como a introdução das ostras no porto começa a permitir que Nova Iorque carregue no "botão reset" para o seu ecossistema dizimado e fornece apoio prático na luta contra as alterações climáticas e a erosão.

A Sra. Orff é conhecida por liderar processos de trabalho complexos, criativos e colaborativos que promovem amplas prerrogativas ambientais e sociais. Em 2017, foi galardoada com a prestigiada bolsa "Genius Grant" da Fundação MacArthur, a primeira concedida no campo da arquitectura paisagística. Em 2019, foi elevada ao American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows-uma das maiores honras concedidas a arquitectos paisagistas praticantes nos Estados Unidos.

Depois de levar a audiência através do seu percurso profissional e destes exemplos, a Sra. Orff terminou a sua apresentação explicando como o seu trabalho na SCAPE toca em muitos tópicos e indústrias incluindo ciência, design, arte, engenharia, direito, governo, e negócios. Em seguida, respondeu a várias perguntas de estudantes ávidos, incluindo perguntas sobre o seu processo de design e a sua clientela.