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Celebrating the Class of 2014

June 2, 2014
Ranney School congratulates the Class of 2014 as the 59 seniors graduated from Monmouth University on Friday May 30, 2014. During the ceremony, head of school Dr. John W. Griffith, shared a special poem he wrote for the graduates, inspired by Dr. Seuss.

“How did it get so late so soon?
It’s night before it’s afternoon.
December is here before its June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
Is commencement day here so soon?

You’ve performed on the stages of Carnegie Hall
Crewed and shot hoops
Scored clinch soccer goals.
You’ve played baseball and tennis
And kept us enthralled.
You’ve performed at coffee houses,
You have fenced or won races.
Staged Three Penny Opera,
And painted your faces.
You’ve cavorted with tots on last week’s senior day.
You have paintballed, done service, hoorahed and hoorayed.

You’ve impressed all your teachers,
And have made time for fun,
You completed your capstones
Your AP’s are all done.
You had classes recumbent, and conversed in the sun.

You wowed them at the Basie,
As you no doubt know,
You have touched us in Our Town
And many a show.
You have thrown pots and ridden,
You’ve talents still hidden.
You are techies and writers,
Fishermen and rafters;
You are smart, you are funny,
You have bled white and blue.
Today you are You,
that is truer than true.
There is no one alive who is Youer than You.

We praise scholar-athletes,
And the great feats they’ve done,
We celebrate comedians,
Who’ve helped us to have fun,
We stop to praise the introverts,
The extroverts, the funny,
We give a nod to pragmatists
Who’ll go out and make the money.
The philanthropists, the novelists,
The lifers and late-comers
The swimmers, the composers,
And the go-out-and-have-funners.

Though your parents have fought you
And loved you and taught you
And tried hard at times not to
Strangle or throttle you.
They are proud you’ve been feted
And much celebrated,
As you graduate from Ranney,
Your friends are elated.
Your heads crammed with facts but your zest unabated.

You’ve been irrepressible,
(We think you know who)
And simply unguessable
In some things you do.

Your voices are loud,
Standing out in the crowd. . .
Though you’ve had your detractors,
You would not be cowed.
You have made your mistakes
Though none too egregious.
Your flamingos surprised,
Delighted, and pleased us.
You’ve done all these things, but there’s much more to do
And where you will travel, we have scarcely a clue:

You’ll go off to Bryn Mawr,
Susquehana, BC.
You’ll be landing at Penn, or cheer USC
You will wow them at Duke, UVA, and Northwestern,
Notre Dame, Providence, NYU, Elon.
Belmont and Rutgers, CC, GWU,
San Fran, American, F & M, LSU.
To Harvard to Monmouth we know you will go. . .
Muhlenberg, Emory, Oberlin (in Ohio),
To Hopkins, Roger Williams or maybe Cornell,
Places your counselors had told you fit well:
To Belmont, or Tampa, Villanova, Bucknell,
Richmond, Gettysburg, where we know you’ll do swell.
Your’re packing for Marist, for Catholic, too;
Emerson, AMDA, Fordham, BU,
Music at Belmont, or med at Wash U
To Syracuse, Penn State, to name just a few.

But wherever you go
And whatever you do
You will do greater things
Then most others will do. . .
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
You are the ones who'll decide where to go.
You’ve learned a little history,
And that red and white make pink,
But we hope we’ve taught you something more
We’ve taught you how to think.

So from all of your teachers:
The tall and the small
The hirsute and those without much hair at all.
The bearded, the peevish, the kind and the tart,
The ones with great brains,
And the ones with great art.

Our wish for you all
From the depths of our hearts
Is that you’ll be very safe,
And you’ll be very smart.
And above all, we hope that you’ll learn to love questions
And not just endure, until your own life ends.
For education, said Yeats
And he said it so well. . .
Is a fire to be lit,
Not a pale to be filled.
And Seuss himself said in his Seussian way
That all good schools will have really one thing to say. . .
He said schools that count,
At the end or the start,
Are the schools that have trained
Not the brain,
But the heart.

So though not Diffendorfer School,
We can definitely say. . .
We’ve been blessed to have you with us,
And we wish that you could stay.
Now to all these Ranney seniors on this most auspicious day:
Vincit omnia, conquer all,
Hooray, Hooray, Hooray!

On May 23, Ranney’s seniors enjoyed quality time with the school’s three-year-old Beginners, the Class of 2028, and were cheered on by the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools during the traditional Senior Walk. About 40% of the class are “lifers” and have cheered on many senior classes before them, having been part of the Ranney family for 10 or more years. Also that morning, before a senior lunch, the seniors, parents and school leadership celebrated Honors Convocation, where students who embody the qualities of scholarship, service, leadership and character were inducted, and class members received a host of departmental and service awards. 
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Ranney School

235 Hope Road
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Tel. 732.542.4777
Our mission is to know and value every child, nurturing intellectual curiosity and confidence, and inspiring students to lead honorably, think creatively, and contribute meaningfully to society. 

We envision Ranney School as a nurturing learning community, in which families, faculty, alumni, and all of Ranney’s constituents collaborate to know and value every child, foster individual talents, sustain powerful connections between children and adults, and graduate resilient, globally-minded citizens.