Aaron Swartz -- Member North Shore Class of 2004

I was returning from the Illinois High School Track Coaches Association clinic on Saturday afternoon when I heard over my car radio the announcement of Aaron Swartz's passing. Aaron was a member of the Class of 2004. If you attend North Shore for a year, you are considered part of your class even if you decide to further your education elsewhere as Aaron did. That's how we keep track of people. Aaron after attending from Lower School through Middle School left North Shore after ninth grade.

Last year, I started to realize that Aaron was our Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Unfortunately, I learned this because of his well publicized legal troubles. Since his legal troubles arose, I have had a photo of Aaron and two classmates, then in Middle School, in my office and like others at North Shore was hoping for the best. Like Jobs and Gates who dropped out of school to carve their own path in the technology world, Aaron had done that to great success too. Although he continued to study after leaving North Shore, based on his accomplishments in technology alone, he clearly did not need a traditional high school program. He pursued his passion in technology and created the code for RSS feeds when he was 14 and co-created Reddit by the time he was 20. Somewhere I read this weekend that he attended Stanford but dropped out because he did not find the students serious enough. Aaron was serious.

Like many others on our faculty, I was struck by the loss and sadness of Aaron's passing. I was also struck by three other things.

I thought about this blog and all the changes in communication and information sharing that have occurred in the last decade plus. People often ask me how do I have time to write on a daily basis. My answer is I enjoy it. I think we all find time in our lives for what we enjoy. When I started, I found writing this blog hard work. Although it is never easy, through writing the blog I found that I was able to be creative and share ideas and information with all sorts of interesting people -- not just here at North Shore. These daily interactions with people about what I am passionate about has made every day that much more interesting for me. Aaron's vision for the internet was creating and protecting the opportunity to share. I value that opportunity every day and am thankful to Aaron for his contributions and work in creating and protecting it.

It also made me think about changing the world. Not me changing the world but our students. One of our long time faculty members, Barbara Castilla, has always had on all her emails the Margaret Mead quote. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has." Every teacher on some level talks about inspiring their students to change the world. Well Aaron in his short life did. 

It made me think about a poem that basketball coach John Wooden used to recite. It goes as follows.
"They ask me why I teach, and I reply,
'Where could I find such splendid company?'
There sits a statesman, strong, unbiased wise.
Another Daniel Webster, silver tongued.
A doctor sits beside him, whose quick steady hand may mend a bone or stem the life blood's flow.
And there a builder, upward rise the arch of a church he builds, wherein that minister may speak the word of God
And lead a stumbling soul to touch the Christ.
And all about a gathering of teachers, farmers, merchants, laborers.
Those who work and vote and build and plan and pray into a greater tomorrow.
And I may say, I  may not see the church, or hear the word or eat the food their hands may grow,
But yet again I may.
And later I may say, I knew him once,
And he was weak, or strong, or bold, or proud, or gay.
I knew him once, but then he was a boy.
They ask me why I teach and I reply,
'Where could I find such splendid company.'"

All day every day, I am surrounded by talent and human potential. I write a lot about athletic talent -- who has it; who doesn't; how do you develop it.  Aaron's loss made me think about this poem and the broad array of talents that have existed and do exist on our campus. Sports talent gets an inordinate amount of attention at high schools, but we also every year -- even in our poor sports years -- have exceptional students and artists surrounding us. People who will live interesting lives. This talent and the nurturing of it makes working at schools the best job in the world. The loss of that talent and potential can make it the saddest. 

When colleagues of mine talked about Aaron's troubles last year, we were convinced he would figure a way out of this predicament. How little did we know.

Slate had an article on Aaron in which they embedded the following video. They described it as Aaron Swartz at his best. I have to agree. He was living and serving as the school motto inspires. My condolences to his family.