Our Big Beautiful Planet

Each year, I am always equally energized as the Head of School but also as just another Dad to see our Lower School production come to fruition. This past Thursday, we saw how our new Passports program influenced the production with themes that seamlessly integrated environmental awareness with multiculturalism. Certainly we will be singing a few of the songs for many weeks to come in the Schneider household.

As Head of School, I always leave that event with such respect for our Lower School faculty. It is difficult to fathom how challenging it must be to get all of our smallest Berwickians moving in the right direction. From costumes, to choreography, to singing, the orchestration is beyond anything I had ever known before coming to this school. When we think of our mission and values, it is such a great example of nudging our students to stretch. It is no easy feat for five year olds to perform something in front of a full auditorium of 300 people, for example. We should not be surprised that our graduates are so comfortable on stage when they hit our Upper School.

As many of our Berwick veteran parents know, the story of the Berwick Lower School production, once known as “revels,” has an organic and complicated history to say the least. Depending on the year, there can be wide opinions about many things: How big should it be? What is the connection to the academic work? Why are we spending so much time on this? Who is actually in charge? It has not always been easy, but it is a tradition that has certainly endured. It is the only event in our community where an entire division is asked to perform together at once. One could ask for no greater reminder that our students are part of something bigger than themselves than their annual Lower School journey to the big stage.

While I know I could never be a Lower School teacher for many different reasons, I can say that I will remain a fan of this tradition. We are lucky to have a Lower School faculty so willing to attend to the details, push our students out of their comfort zone, and bring all of the chaos to a remarkable culmination of beauty and creativity. I look forward to seeing what next year might bring.

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Berwick Academy Head of School

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