Metaphor

Traditions are a rotary phone, because if someone has one, you think it is cool to look at, but it is not practical whatsoever and absolutely obsolete to today's society. I think that traditions, for example some Webb traditions are cool to show outsiders and show them that we have it and to establish credibility, but I feel like traditions do nothing but in the best case scenario put on a glamorous show for a grand waste of time. I do not disrespect anyone's traditions outright out of respect for the people/person practicing them but it is my personal belief that they aren't worth much in the world and that by focusing too much on the past, we limit our future potential. If we do something one way forever, we are perhaps either wasting time or closing out opportunities for new, better practices to come forward by shunning the progressive development as a break from tradition, which is stigmatized. I think especially as we get older people increasingly don't respond well to change and that we partly practice tradition to appease them. For example, today in chapel all of us are going to walk across a stage during people's club time so we can put on suits and be the next generation of kids thrown out into the world with 4 years firsthand experience of the 150 years of honed pedagogy and character development practices. There is nothing wrong with trying to instill values in kids but I do think tradition is a waste of time that distances us young people with the tradition and community we practice it in as we don't connect with most traditions established 150 years ago. This is also me trying to say that Webb 150 isn't much more than a self pat on the back/ marketing campaign for the school, not about tradition which is a different topic entirely.

PS, please excuse the stream of consciousness-esque writing