Berwick Academy Head of School

A few days ago, right around dinner time, I received a phone call from Director of Facilities Jason Murray. I believe I was trying to get one of my daughters to stop throwing macaroni and cheese at the time. He informed me that, unfortunately, after doing some needed electrical upgrades in Fogg, our slightly antiquated fire panel had been fried. While the sprinkler system was still operational, aspects of the fire alarm system had been compromised. The good news was that we could have a temporary fix in place before lunch the next day and a more permanent solution in a few days. Jason was particularly happy about his conversation with the Chief of Fire in South Berwick, who said he was willing to allow us to hold classes the next day given most of the system was operational, but only if he knew the building was monitored throughout the night. In his typical matter-fact way, Jason let me know that he would be taking the shift from 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM and Richie Knowles would be in Fogg...

Yesterday I had a chance to pull up a seat at a level one Chinese class in our Upper School. What a gift these students are receiving with master teaching and only five students in an interactive classroom environment. Within minutes it became clear that the vast majority of the experience would take place in Chinese. Students were asked to play card games, and collaborate together to respond to different kinds of grammatical construction. At one point, I made the mistake of asking how everyone learned to write so many characters. Given my own faults, I wondered how scary it would be to write Chinese characters with sloppy handwriting. Without asking, I was suddenly being thrust in front of the class to be taught how to write characters by one of our students. Having created something that I was told was legitimate; I am now a true believer that anyone can learn how to write Chinese. One myth that hovers around Chinese instruction is that it is just way too hard. In fact, I ...

            Earlier this winter I was at a meeting with a number of Heads of School in the metro Boston area where people were asked to introduce themselves. For whatever reason, the first few people mentioned that their schools were celebrating a 100 th or 150 th birthday this year. People were impressed. When the spotlight finally made its way around to the guy who had come out of the woods of Maine, I think people were amazed to hear that in 2016, Berwick celebrates its 225 th birthday! It is actually a pretty amazing thing to reflect upon just how long we have been educating the rising generations on this Hilltop. Suffice it to say that we have lots planned to celebrate with the community this year. First we will start by bringing back a favorite Berwick student tradition of a Winter Carnival in mid-February. Alumni of years gone by talk about this event as being a highlight of each year. In part, we think Februa...

            Every year, just before the holidays, a number of holiday surprises end up on my desk from members of the Berwick community. They often include things like baked goods, chocolate, books, or occasionally, gift cards. I am always humbled by this generosity, especially when individual students deliver these gifts. I was particularly moved when I returned to my desk yesterday to find a beautiful tin with a note signed, “Love, 2016.” I quickly ran out to Colleen and asked – is this from the senior class? She confirmed my suspicion. I was frankly a bit stunned, as this had never happened before. Later last night, at our faculty holiday party, I learned that the senior class had done this for all Upper School employees as well.             At the end of today, we will have our holiday candle lighting ceremony, which will honor our seniors as a group. It needs to be sa...

            I returned to Upper School Assembly this past Monday to learn about amazing results from a few of our clubs. In particular, I was struck that just a few years ago we had no mock trial, model UN, or debate team in our Upper School. Now these clubs have become essential student-driven initiatives within the Berwick experience. We learned that our Mock Trial team has grown to twenty students and fought all the way to the finals against reigning champion Cape Elizabeth. Apparently we took them to a three – three tie and lost in a devastating tie-breaker. Hearing the students report back about the experience made it clear how deeply they cared about this. Amory Mansfield, the group’s advisor, mentioned that the quality of the competition was equal to collegiate and graduate school efforts that the judges had seen in the past. Mock Trial Team at the State Championship        ...