Eben Meyer's 2025 Graduation Speech

Eben Meyer will be attending Rufus King High School.

“When I work with my hands, I am a laborer; when I work with my hands and my head, I am a craftsman; when I work with my hands, my head, and my heart, I am an artist.”

These are the words we say before every Applied Arts class, and they are also the three core principles of Waldorf education: educating the Head, the Heart, and the Hands.

Since the beginning of our time here at Tamarack, these ideals have been knit into us, but the tapestry of our lives is not yet complete. We now have the opportunity and responsibility to continue these ideals. We are ambassadors of Waldorf education. So every time your friend rips their shirt, sew it back up for them and teach them how to do it so they can do it next time. Every time someone asks you, “What is Animal Farm an allegory for?” You tell them that it is an allegory for the events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917, and then into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Every time a 1st grader comes up to you and tells you the same joke they’ve already told you 7 times that day, laugh at it like you’ve never heard it before, knowing that it fills them with pride and confidence, the same pride and confidence you felt when you were in 1st grade and you made a big kid laugh.

I don’t know what the next 4 years of school are going to be like, but I do know that if I bring the things I learned here with me, I’ll be fine. We know that when we combine the Head, the Heart, and the Hands, we experience the world on a deeper level than most children our age, and we not only enrich our life, but also the lives of others around us. I would now like to end our time here at Tamarack the same way we end our Applied Arts classes, with a verse:

“Now our time is over, for now our work is done. Head, Heart, and Hands have worked as one.“