Disengagement

No ONE can share another's growth without having a part of himself irretrievably caught up in that other life. This is the law of the family, and so, too, is it the law of education. It is the price of love the good parent pays; it is the price of an earthly immortality that the good teacher pays for having shared with you his learning, not merely his knowledge. The disengagement of teacher and student is necessary to education, but it is always just a little bit more incomplete than either of us knows, and that is where, for better or for worse, the immortality creeps in.

1907-1991 VALEDICTORY TO THE GRADUATING CLASS, 1961

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE ARCHIVES