Buxton School - Williamstown, Massachusetts

Graduation at Buxton is unusual and extraordinary. Instead of having one or two students address the crowd, at Buxton, every graduating senior gives a speech to those attending the ceremony. These speeches are personal, heartfelt, carefully polished, and delivered with honesty, humility and transparency. Seniors work on their speeches every day for the last two weeks of the school year. There are no restrictions on what they may speak about, and the speeches vary from lighthearted observations about Buxton to personal statements of belief to reminiscences about important people to strikingly honest explorations of self.

Because of this inclusive tradition, Buxton graduations are remarkably personal and specific. They are about (and they reflect) the distinct students who are graduating in any given year. Buxton graduations are about as far from generic as a ritual can get! And that reflects Buxton’s overall philosophy: to be responsive to the particular individual in the schools; to help each student grow up in a way that makes sense for him or her; to create cohesive community out of a very diverse group of singular people.