Return of The Knoll

It is remarkable how quickly the temperatures can change this time of year.  Last Friday afternoon, I was standing on the sidelines of my daughter’s lacrosse game and it was frigid.  This week, the sun was out in full force and temperatures were mild, to say the least.

This week, we have officially started to hold Community in The Knoll again.  Starting each day outside really does wonders.  Especially when we take our moment of intention, which is when we pause to set an intention for the day.  Even the squirmiest of middle schoolers takes this seriously, and the sounds of birds, neighboring farm animals and even the wind, make the moment that much more special.

Twice this week, I was able to hold class in The Knoll.  While I could have just as easily conducted my lesson in the history class, the change of setting made it seem like it was a treat to have class in The Knoll.  We did the same work, but the novelty of class outside following a long winter made it all seem more special.

Throughout the winter, The Knoll sat dormant.  Mother Nature has, once again, given us the green light to begin using the space, and I can’t wait to see the new and exciting ways that The Knoll will become a part of our community!

Pleasant Surprises

Inevitably, adolescents will make decisions without fully considering what it is that they are doing.  Quite simply, this is not a case of kids being good or bad, so to speak, they just don’t have the capacity to fully consider the impact of their actions.  Despite this fact, there is always the question of how one deals with something when it goes askew.  Such was the case this week, when I received a text from Audrey, the woman that cleans The Beech Hill School, that informed me that kids were messing around with the toilet paper in the boys’ bathroom, resulting in at least one unused roll being thrown out because it was soaked.

As the Head of School, I had a choice about how to handle this situation.  Of course, I know how hard Audrey works and I would hate to think that students at BHS would be disrespecting her or the school.  At the same time, I really did not think that this was the result malicious behavior.  As such, I decided that I was not going to make a federal case out of this but would still address the matter at Community.

The morning after the text from Audrey, I shared with the students a story of when I had made a poor decision in fifth grade.  I embellished a bit, and got quite theatric, but the point of the story was that it is possible for adolescents to do foolish things without really understanding that how they might be impacting others.  I then shared with the students that Audrey notified me about the state of the bathroom, and that it needs to stop immediately. I had figured that should at least make the individuals think twice about their actions.

Later that morning, three students asked to see me.  I brought them in my office, and they proceeded to tell me that it was their fault that the bathroom was in disarray and that they were playing volleyball with the extra roll of toilet paper and owned up to everything.  I did not ask them to, nor did I expect this.  They, however, felt so bad about what they did, because they assumed that they were involved in victimless shenanigans.

The students felt incredibly guilty and without my asking, wrote a letter of apology to Audrey.  So, while it is certainly true that adolescents are likely to make poor choices, often times, when given the opportunity to reconsider their actions, they can amaze you with their desire to atone and to learn from their mistakes. 

Ambassadors of Joy

Personally and professionally, I have a deep interest in the well-being of adolescents.  Personally, I am the father of two children ages 15 and 17.  As the Head of School, I bring the same cares and concerns to the 40 current students and roughly 100 alumni as I do for my own children and worry about how they are faring in our modern world. As such, I find myself reading a number of articles about the well-being of teens, mental health concerns, and the like.  This week, I read a particularly interesting Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, which was provocatively titled, “What if Kids Are Sad and Stressed Because Their Parents Are?”

David French, author of this piece, notes that “Teens do not exist on an island. The connection between parental emotional health and the emotional health of their kids is well established.”  Likewise, I would think that emotional health of non-parental adults is similarly impactful.  Moreover, the culture of the school, where children spend the majority of their weekdays, is also connected to children’s wellness.

As such, I have asked the faculty to consider this and to realize the weight of their impact on both the students and the climate of the school community.  While it is important that we help our students develop strong habits of mind by holding high academic standards, it is equally important that we help the students to see that the world is full of wonder.  Part of our job as teachers is to be ambassadors of joy – to convey to our students that they need not be stressed or fearful, rather that they should be excited about learning and the opportunities that exist in the world. 

In a world that can be scary or overwhelming, it is important that our children are surrounded by those that are genuinely optimistic and hopefully about the world in which we live.

Our Modern World

As Head of School at a unique school like BHS, I have the great privilege to be directly involved in many things that my peers at other schools do not.  This year, among other responsibilities, I get to teach an 8th Grade history class that is called Our Modern World.  The general premise of the class is that students will survey the history of the 20th Century, using critical thinking skills to identify, compare, and contrast the modern world to the recent past. While I have always believed deeply that knowledge of history is critical for progress in the world, my work this year as a teacher of this class has solidified this notion.

Just before the 8th Graders left for March Break, they were assessed on their understanding of the 1920’s and the onset of the Great Depression. Part of this assessment involved a test, and one of the questions on this test required the students to demonstrate understanding of a bank run.

Now, I have not had a chance to see my students in almost ten days, as we have been on break, but I am hopeful that at least one of them was paying attention to the news and connected what we were studying to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.  While I am not excited about the disruption to the banking industry or the ways that this bank run may negatively impact the economy, it exemplifies why our students are taught history.

To be sure, the study of social studies is not of greater significance or consequence than other disciplines.  In fact, a Beech Hill School education should provide our students a broad base of knowledge combined with the ability to think critically and make morally sound decisions.  As such, this is one important way to fulfill our general vision to develop intellectually curious and capable young adults who will become contributing citizens and informed decision-makers.

Autonomy

In 7th Grade, the students are learning about the American Revolution.  Specifically, they have discovered that the colonists in Boston had become so accustomed to the autonomy, that many of the colonists chaffed at any incursion on that ability to make their own decisions.  This led to a discussion on autonomy, in general.

At The Beech Hill School, it is important that the students begin to experience a degree of autonomy in their lives as well.  At BHS, however, we tend to refer to this idea as agency.  That is, we provide the students opportunities to make certain decisions about their lives, and to manage the consequences that stem from this agency.  As emerging adolescents in a small school, we allow our students a more significant degree of agency than in many of our peer schools.  We do so because we hope that our students develop the attitude that their actions and decisions shape and impact their lives, not that they are passive and that life happens to them.

This week, a group of students used their agency to create a Winter Carnival.  Under the guidance of Mr. Holt and with the support of the adults in the community, a group of students met over the course of the last few weeks to plan the week, they made announcements at Community, and they took a leadership in administering the activities throughout the week.  The Winter Carnival was a total success, culminating with a great afternoon of activities on Friday and a dance Friday night.

Of course, we hope that all the agency and autonomy our students have at school does not lead to revolutions at home – but like many of the Bostonians in the 1770s, adolescents that are yearning for independence can be a challenge to govern! We have found, however, that at its best, this sense of agency and autonomy has allowed our graduates to find success at high school and beyond and is just another reason why students thrive at BHS.