When we asked alums this question, Kevin Nolan H'70, who appears in the top row on the left with 13 classmates in their 8th grade photo, responded:
I turned 13 ten days after graduating. I came to Hardey in 1967, having done grades K-4 in another school. I was supposed to be a fifth grader, but Hardey's fifth grade had 22 boys, which Mother Fitzgerald said was too many. That was a huge shock; at my former school, there were 32 of us. So, they placed me in sixth grade.
Another revelation was, instead of one teacher all day, I had five or six! Wow, going from a boring routine in my other school – seat work assigned in each workbook, not allowed to work ahead of the class – to Hardey, with Prime every Monday morning, lapel pins awarded for academic prowess, French class, a sense of a history and a legacy, and the study of current events.
My Hardey years were some of the most tumultuous ones in the history of our country. We engaged in open forum discussions with teachers who spoke to us as equals, but still retained what I like to call humble authority over the class. I learned to think for myself and not accept what in other environments would not be allowed.
The level of attention and quality of education prepared me for high school and beyond in a way no other school could have. I have always drawn back to the lessons I learned there and am grateful for being allowed to let my overactive brain run wild and not be held back. After Hardey, high school was a breeze. We had already covered the language, math, and science in 6-8th grade, so high school was not as big of a challenge.
Hardey instilled a lifelong yearning for learning that stays with me to this day. I have had a long career in auto service management and still apply the lessons I learned in that old mansion at Sheridan Road and Granville, back when the gym was a new building. My son is a Navy Petty Officer who has observed me in my work environment many times. He asked me, "Dad, how do you get all these people to do what you want them to do?" I told him I learned it all at Hardey from my teachers, "Humble authority, son, and servant mentality."