Making the Mission

I have always believed that, whether schools like it or not, there are two structures that are the clearest expression of one’s mission: budget and schedule. How a school chooses to spend its limited resources ultimately reveals what it thinks is most important. Similarly, how the community chooses to spend its time with students expresses what we believe to be most important in promoting virtue and useful knowledge to the rising generations.

This week on campus, consultants have visited us from ISM (Independent School Management), who will try to help us unlock new possibilities in our usage of time as we work to implement Curriculum 2020 more completely. I should start by saying considering schedule change within a community like ours can be highly emotional and quite scary. The layers of complexity are endless when one tries to consider the demands on a PK-12 schedule. We have cross-divisional employees, part-time employees, academics, athletics, arts, wellness – all couched within a commitment to do what is age appropriate for children of different ages. There are sacred cows like lunch, transportation, and limitations of certain facilities. We know before we start that there will be no singular option that will meet our aspirational wish list, rather we will be presented with two or three models to consider as stronger alternatives than our current arrangement. Today we have an early dismissal so our entire employee community can wrestle with the positives and negatives of these new models. While there will be no perfect change, I am quite confident that Berwick can do better.

The reality is that the model we employ now in the Middle and Upper School is a fairly expected byproduct of the industrialized model of education – mostly 45 minute blocks (with a few double blocks thrown in to help with science labs, originally), split up into six or seven classes a day in discrete disciplines. With the exception of some rotation to the ordering of these blocks, we adhere to it for the entire school year. My hope is that this process will allow us to think outside the box in ways that might allow for a more student-directed and interdisciplinary experience over time. While there will always be a need for traditional teaching within recognizable disciplines at Berwick, more flexibility will allow students to build real-world connections and do more sophisticated and rigorous work. We might consider a six or seven day rotation rather than five. Or we might have fewer transitions during a day and have fewer class periods. Perhaps classes won’t meet everyday anymore, easing the homework burden for our kids. Maybe we could find a way for Middle School athletics to happen after school, allowing for more class time during the day. Maybe we might even consider a period of a few weeks when we do something entirely different from the normal schedule. As we gradually free ourselves from the assumed rigidity of the AP construct, we certainly have more choices to consider. My hope is all of the new choices help the student experience feel a bit less siloed and a bit less frenetic.

Once ISM leaves our campus, we will need to wrestle with which model might make sense, and when we might want to implement such a change. In one scenario, we may find consensus around a new model that we want to implement next fall. Or we might find, particularly with the arrival of a new Head of School, that we want to give the community another year to prepare for such a substantial change. Experience tells me that we will not land anywhere with 100% clarity. What I know the process will do, however, is force us to wonder if we still think the way we choose to spend our time actually reflects the goals of our mission in the most powerful way. This experience of considering an array of alternatives, and challenging the assumption that we should do it the way schools have always done it, will be healthy for the employees and will benefit the students. It continues a process that I embrace wholeheartedly: becoming a culture that is forward-thinking and willing to be bold. My hope is that Berwick will never be a place that is willing to stand still or rest on its past success. Wish us luck as we dive into these invigorating and terrifying waters; we will be sure to keep you posted.