Skip to main content

Grandparents Day

            There is something different about Grandparents day at Berwick Academy. I have seen it at other schools, and they are certainly always fun. But here it just seems to be massive. Today, we hosted over 400 grandparents and special friends. In the last five years, we have had to move from a tent, to the Commons, and now to the field house to accommodate the growing numbers of guests. This day says something powerful about the nexus of education and about family.

            As a father now, I see the power of grandparents in such a different way than before. I was never particularly close to my grandparents as a child, or at least I don’t remember it that way. I do remember them as a catalyst for bringing our family together, which was important. For my own daughters, their grandparents are essential pieces of their lives. Their role is one that combines fun, respect, and love in a slightly different kind of concoction than is present in their parents. As a son, my parents now offer me a viewpoint on raising children that strikes me as invaluable. They have an ability to put things into perspective. They calm me down.





            Part of being a PK-12 day school is that we touch a wide range of ages – virtually all stages of family life. Our mission still espouses that we are “one school with three divisions” and Grandparents Day is one of those moments when we see this most powerfully. It does not surprise me to see grandparents in our Lower School, but to see some of them come back year after year, even in the hallways of Fogg Memorial – that strikes me as noteworthy. Our Grandparents feel like they are a part of the Berwick experience, which they are. Or perhaps it is a reminder that we, at Berwick, get this special chance to be a part of your family. On Grandparents Day, these lines become blurry and we share in a collective celebration of both learning and love.


            Whatever it actually is, I know this for sure: Grandparents Day is a magical day that energizes all of us to be our best selves. I say that not merely as students, teachers, and educators – I say “best” more so as people. Grandparents Day catalyzes all of us to consider what it means to be the very best human beings we can be. And that, I would argue, is a very good thing indeed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Piercing the Bubble

This week we were so fortunate to have former NH Senator Kelly Ayotte address grades 7 – 11 in our theater about Civil Discourse in a time of Political Polarization. Senator Ayotte spoke to the need to take the high road in tough conversations and put an incredible primacy on building relationships with people who hold different opinions. She was able to speak to some of her own successes in working across the aisle to develop legislation to address the opioid crisis in New Hampshire as one powerful example of how this can be possible. Additionally, Senator Ayotte offered a strong reminder to our students of the need for more women in positions of leadership within our government, citing that she had only been the 53rd woman to serve in the US senate during her tenure. With a down-to-earth style and but an appropriately impassioned call to action, she challenged our students to become the leaders that they could be. Her call to action and example of service were powerful reminder...
Post a Comment
Read more

Designing the Revolution

As Berwick parents know, we made a decision to use our professional day for 2015 to attend the National Association of Independent Schools conference, which happened to be in Boston this year. Given that this event usually comes to Boston once per decade, it was a unique opportunity to expose our entire faculty to the national conversation at independent schools. When we scheduled it a year ago, the decision to close school on February 27 and bus our teachers to Boston seemed like a no-brainer. After four snow days this winter, I must admit that it seemed a bit more audacious as the actual day approached. Most of all, I want to thank our families for allowing this to happen. The experience turned out to be remarkable on a number of levels. I was honored to be a part of the “Think Tank” planning group in Boston, which landed on a theme of Designing the Revolution for Independent Schools. This theme spoke to a combination of innovation, design thinking, and new leadership required f...
1 comment
Read more

Behind the scenes

I often like to use the word authenticity when talking about Berwick Academy. I have said that I feel more able to be myself at Berwick than any place I have worked to date; it truly is a gift to feel that way. For parents, we usually focus on the teachers and coaches who make our kids’ lives so dynamic, and we forget the people behind the scenes who make the Berwick experience possible: maintenance, custodial, food, transportation, and support staff, etc. Berwick could not deliver the program it delivers without such high quality yet largely unheralded work. The same could be said of the Head of School. I am quick to point out that being a father is far more humbling than being a Head of School. There is no way on earth that I could have possibly moved this school forward without the unquestioned support of my wife, Amy. I often marvel that, in addition to dealing with a husband who can be tired and grumpy at the end of long days, she somehow has managed to catalyze the amazing...
1 comment
Read more