Fast. Fun. Fair. Efficient. The famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) Four Fonetic F’s, which aren’t even phonetic, have dominated the school community since they were created. Everyone who has heard of them has been personally touched, but with their cheeky maker graduating, this principle mantra may be in danger.
In order to properly examine the future of the Four Fonetic F’s, their creation must first be understood. To do so, we went straight to the source.
“The Four Fonetic F's started off at a debate meet,” Joshua Leinwand, the creator of the Four Fonetic F’s, explained, “One Greely debater … started off his presenting officer’s speech saying that he likes to be fast, fun, and fair. And I’m like, ‘Hmm, I could take that and make it catchier.’ So, one time, I started off mine [by] saying, ‘I want to be fast, fun, fair, and efficient.’”
While the only initial reaction from the audience was “a good laugh,” Leinwand didn’t let the Four Fonetic F’s die. For the next three years, he would incorporate the F’s into “every single debate meet.” From there, the F’s began to flourish; he began to “bleed [it] into cross country speeches” and even “[bust] it out in an assembly once.”
But, it wasn’t an easy battle. Leinwand admitted that there have been many people that didn’t support the Four Fonetic F’s: “I’ve gotten some opposition in debate meets, and I’ve had people make fun of me for them sounding stupid … My girlfriend is actually a huge enemy of the Four Fonetic F's, she gets mad at me every time I say it.” He attributes most contempt with the controversial inclusion of “efficient,” which some argue is hardly even phonetic at all. Yet, Leinwand pointed out that he’s “never met someone who’s ideologically opposed.”
He held faith, and, even in times of hardship, he came back to the Fs. “They make me want to embody them and I think the way to do that is by [keeping] using them. You know, keep the efficiency going, keep the fun, never let it stop.”
His hard work has paid off, as Leinwand hasn’t been the only one inspired. He noted that future Senate co-president, Colby Ting, “took it and ran with it” by using it in his election speech.
When asked about his decision to include the Four Fonetic F's in his speech, Ting proudly affirmed the value of the Four Fonetic F's at Yarmouth, citing their importance to “our school culture.” In fact, it was Leinwand’s legacy that inspired him the most: “Learning from Joshua Leinwand, I’ve taken some of the best traits that he has had and taken his Four Fonetic F’s as one of them, so I felt that it was really important to carry on that tradition, that legacy, of the Four Fonetic F’s into the future of our school.”
Ting has been one of the greatest proponents of the Four Fonetic F's, but he certainly isn't alone. During Ting’s interview, fellow F-supporter, Harrison Dougherty, backed him up. “It’s always been a huge, important thing in everyone’s life,” he said.
Leinwand has seen some of the positive results firsthand. “It really encourages a moral lifestyle,” he expressed, “It just promotes a positive wellbeing packaged in an easy-to-understand form. I think that really allows for them to be more widespread.” This merit, he believes, is something with which even the current Core Values cannot contend with, possibly even “overtaking that as a positive message.”
Yet, with Joshua Leinwand’s graduation, the support of the Four Fonetic F's may wane. Nevertheless, Leinwand carries hope that they will continue: “I hope that they’ll be preserved. I hope that every year, somebody will bust them out at a captain speech for cross country and they’ll grow. And, I hope that the [future] presidents will really live by them and encourage them. Who knows, maybe they will even usurp the Core Values we have today and become the new Yarmouth spiritual standard.”