Awards
- As predicted, Charlotte and Ximena sweep the academic awards. Auggie is happy when Amos gets an excellence award for sports, and he's really happy when Summer wins the gold medal for creative writing.
- Tushman launches into his blurb for the final award. It's almost time for lunch though, and Auggie's mind hungrily wanders.
- As Mr. Tushman chokes up though, Auggie realizes he might be saying something interesting, so he tunes back in.
- Tushman is talking about character, about greatness: "Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character" (8.Awards.12).
- Given that greatness isn't exactly quantifiable on a test, Mr. Tushman asks how such a thing might be measured. Quoting Henry Ward Beecher himself, he reads the answer, "Greatness… lies not in being strong, but in the right using of strength… He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts" (8.Awards.14). Tushman chokes up again.
- After pausing to pull himself together, Mr. Tushman finishes, "He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own" (8.Awards.16).
- And then he calls August Pullman up to receive the Henry Ward Beecher medal.