Skip to main content

The first day

Generally I take pride in being the first person to work in the morning. It has both practical and symbolic meaning for me: while I believe in modeling a strong work ethic to the community, it is also true that I generally get the most done between 6:45 and 7:45 each morning. On the first day of school, I take particular pride in being a visible presence. I like to be the first face our parents see as they return from summer, and I love touching base with the kids and seeing how many smiles I might get on their first morning on campus. Sadly, I must confess that I failed this year. As I wandered out onto the quad on Tuesday morning, I heard music pumping over the quad and horns honking from the Fogg parking lot. From the  BD porch, I couldn't quite make out what was going on, but I figured it would be a good idea to check it out. As I passed Whipple, another happy summer pop tune wafted towards me, and I simply had to smile. There is just some music that has that effect on us, making it impossible for one's mood to do anything but soar. When I finally made it to Fogg, it was clear what was going on: the class of 2017 had arrived. Without any direction or warning, members of our senior class organized to make the first day of school something positive - before people even got out of their cars. I walked into a scene of smiling faces and posters imploring people to "Honk if you loved Berwick." Each friendly toot on the way up the hill received a hearty cheer from the group. I checked my watch to see what time it was, and the seniors were already on the move, beating me across the quad to welcome the buses on their first day.

As the greeting party lined the Middle School entrance, students coming off the bus couldn't help but smile. As the cheering escalated, our returning students couldn't help but run a gauntlet of high fives and good cheer. I must admit that about half of the new students thought it was pretty cool and perhaps the other half was terrified. Middle School is an awkward time, as we all know. But the seniors are beyond that, and they clearly did not care if people found them hokey in any way. School had begun and they were excited. More importantly, they decided to share their love of this place by setting a tone with an idea that had not been done before and certainly no adults had suggested. As I am asked to don the academic garb for the first time this year for our Upper School Convocation today, I am feeling more at home than ever in my tenth year. Perhaps more importantly, I have a sense that our community is in good hands, and those hands are certainly not my own.


Comments

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...

The wonders of nature at Berwick

I started my day in the Admin meeting on Thursday hearing about the newest iteration of Earth Day this year. Thanks to senior Quinn Santos and his Innovation Pursuit, we learned about the ways in which Earth Day will be a bit more hands on and active than it has in the past. Quinn has been a passionate environmentalist on campus and this year his IP project has focused on building out our Earth Day programming. As Head of School, it is pretty compelling to see one student mobilize an entire PK-12 school into action to clean up beaches and come to know our local wildlife. While we can sometimes worry about the amount of disruption and special schedules that these events create, it’s amazing that we have kids who care as much as Quinn does. His passion is authentic, and it goes well beyond any kind of grade motivation. He is off to Unity College next year to take this passion to the next level. I finished my day by enjoying the miracle that Lower School parents know as the Lower S...

Arts Underground

One of Berwick’s great strengths is its arts culture, and I have always felt that there is both a public and private face of this culture. The public face includes our amazing concerts, our ambitious productions, and the various art shows we produce throughout the year. The private face tends to include things like private lessons, coffeehouses, assembly performances, murals painted on walls, and unexpected artistic expressions that emerge on campus throughout the year. One of the great traditions I will miss at Berwick will be the annual recital week in April. So many of our students hone their craft on private music lessons throughout the year in the hopes of having a public performance at this time. Simultaneously, we have a week of performances in the theater and in Chip Harding’s coffeehouse lair – the space he likes to refer to as his “smoldering ruins,” referring to the carnage left there after every Middle School electric guitar class. This year, for my second and final time, I...