In a recent post, I expressed my concern for the amount of reading and the difficulty level of the reading that our students engage in for pleasure. I am not concerned about the novels and short stories we assign in the formal curriculum and the textbooks we use in our courses have reading levels appropriate to the grade level of our students. I remain concerned about most students' general choices and commitment to reading.

In a recent New York Times article, David Coleman, President of the College Board, described the new SAT exams to be unveiled in the spring of 2016.  This revamped exam will have two, not three, parts and be scored on the old standard of 1600 maximum. The writing sample will become an optional portion of the exam.

In the article, he laid out the format for the new "verbal" section: "Evidence-based reading and writing will replace the current sections on reading and writing. It will use as its source materials pieces of writing – from science articles to historical documents to literature excerpts – which research suggests are important for Americans to know and understand deeply. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, The Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers have managed to inspire an enduring great conversation about freedom, justice, human dignity in this country and the world, and therefore every SAT will contain a passage from either a founding document or from a text (like Lincoln's Gettysburg Address) that is part of the great global conversation the founding documents inspired."

He went on further to say the test would move away from strict multiple choice format into a more open format where students would not only make answer choices, but also justify their choice by presenting evidence from their reading of the document or documents.

This kind of work that students will have to do will call for more practiced ability to understand quickly what they have read. Those students who have spent hours reading challenging works and thinking about the meaning of what they have read will be greatly advantaged. It will be especially advantageous for those who have spent time reading non-fiction.

For example, to prepare for a possible question on the Gettysburg Address, the student should not only be familiar with that address (only 272 words), but also with a book such as Gary Wills' Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade History, Simon & Schuster, reissue 2006. Not only does Wills explain the importance of this address, he weaves a tale about Greek rhetoric, the rural cemetery movement which was influential in the design of Gettysburg cemetery, and the mind-set of the populace at that time needed to connect with the important allusions and devices Lincoln used to give depth and meaning in such a short speech. But this book is not easy reading. This kind of book takes work to read. You have to think a bit while you read it. You have to go back and read the Address over and over to understand to what Wills alludes. This is the kind of reading that takes practice to master. Possessing this kind of reading skill could make the difference between a score in the mid-500s or the mid-700s. A mid-500 score will result in being non-competitive for a place at the most selective colleges and universities in the country. Of course, not everyone wants to attend this kind of college, nor does everyone need to attend this kind of college to be successful in life. But if the goal is to be positioned to make that choice when the time comes, then the work to secure that positioning will have to begin early and with seriousness of purpose.

Thus, I reiterate the need for reading non-fiction as well as fiction. I suggest students read the classics as designated by a trustworthy source. I like the Modern Library listing for fiction and for non-fiction.

I urge students to begin reading these works sooner rather than later. Almost any one of them will be a challenge. I admit I am still working my way through these books and have been doing so since high school. But for me, there’s no longer anything at stake. 

Any educator will tell you that the heart of an educational institution lies in the quality of its academic program. You will find the phrase "the quality of the academic program" on almost every school website and at almost every level of schooling from elementary school to college and university programs. Forget the fact that defining "quality" was the central tenet in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that nearly drove the author crazy. There is a slightly different issue associated with academic quality, one with which I have been wrestling my entire career. That issue is: How do we create a program that is truly intellectual and not simply academic? 

I have been stimulated to return to this issue after reading several books over the last month. (Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck; How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough; The One World School House: Education Reimagined by Salman Khan; and The Smartest Kids in the World and how they got that way by Amanda Ripley). The authors of these books spend much of their time writing about the outcomes that rigorous academic content provide to students. They also focus on both the nature of the delivered content as well as the ability of the teachers to deliver such content. The Korean system demands that students devote a tremendous number of hours to content acquisition. The belief is that one is neither naturally gifted nor deficient in any subject. Proficiency depends only on effort and persistence. Much the same story is told for Poland and Finland where the expectations for long and hard study are the norm. Author Paul Tough agrees with this philosophy and extols the virtue of perseverance, the possession of "grit,” in the face of great opposition as the pathway to a more solid grasp of the content at hand.  (This is quite directly observable at our peer school, Westminster School, where their motto is Virtute et Numine, translated as Grit and Grace.) Salman Khan (Khan Academy) advocates that content delivery via short, self-paced, web-based videos that allow students to progress individually and ultimately learn more is the key to quality. This approach, when coupled with access to materials of increasing complexity, more fully develops a student than when in the presence of mediocre or, sometimes, even excellent teachers.

In all of these books, I hear a quiet, yet unspoken, question. Should the concept of quality focus on rigorous academic content? Shouldn't we be talking about intellectual rigor as the coin of the realm? 

As a high school student I never gave a thought to whether I was challenged intellectually or merely academically. But I have to say, I was disappointed when I first began college life. I expected I would live in the rarefied air of the ivory tower where discussions of Sartre and Camus would be de rigueur. Instead, I found most of my freshmen classmates were more interested in playing poker than pursuing the life of the mind. But over time I found a number of professors and other students who were eager to talk about philosophy, current books, and big ideas in general. 

Now, as the Head of School, I have taken on the quest to develop within the student body intellectual desire, not simply academic strength. I have used several approaches for such development. Each year when I consider a topic for my Convocation address, I pointedly seek out one where intellectual debate seems especially vibrant. For example, this year I chose the topic of the nature of free will (or rather the impossibility of having free will) as my topic. After the address, I placed links to philosophical arguments around this topic on the all-school conference; I followed periodically with links to books and blogs about this subject. 

In addition, for the last several years I have suggested different topics for our all-school investigation. These topics have not been connected to any specific course, nor was the topic content defined by any one reading. This independent investigation of a topic in such an indirect way positions students to more fully develop their intellectual side. Not that all students respond as I would wish; one's intellectual character might just take a number of years to discover. However, the sooner students begin looking for that spirit, the sooner they might find it. Once they find it, it is an omnivorous beast that can never be satisfied. That's the beauty of intellectual development.

In developing our specific programs, the Dean of Curriculum, Meg Hutcheson, and I have paid attention to this battle of the academic versus the intellectual. Some courses we offer can be considered as "meat and potatoes" offerings and can be commonly found in all schools. Eating meals of this sort gives a student a certain amount of academic strength, but doesn't satisfy the deeper hunger for something exquisite, a hunger the student might not know is present until he or she samples a gourmet meal. We have a number of those gourmet offerings where we strive to offer something elegant and refined to awaken the intellectual spirit of a student within the confines of the classroom. Our faculty are particularly skilled in such course development and it is one reason I believe our curricular program is quite sophisticated for a small school.

Intellectual behavior, as opposed to academic behavior, means going beyond the norm or the usual in learning about something. It means digging deeper and deeper into a subject without the presence of external rewards such as grades or even utility. It is the place where new ideas are forged and where society makes progress. It is the development of an attribute of the mind that distinguishes having been educated at a great school from an average school. Intellectual development is the value-added service that makes paying a hefty tuition worthwhile. 

Let me be one of the first to welcome those of you who are new to the Academy and also, welcome back to those of you who are returning. I am looking forward to another exciting year, our 210^th. 

There will be plenty of opportunity for us to meet, as I pride myself on being accessible. My door is always open to students, faculty, parents, and alumni. I attend most games, musical presentations, dance recitals, and parent events so that I can meet as many parents as possible.

As you will no doubt discover, the Academy, while considered a small school (enrollment 436), provides your children with a complex program. We behave much like a school of 600-800 with respect to the various programs available. We are able to do this by working very hard. The faculty at the Academy is a dedicated group of teachers that I enjoy working with. Many of them can be considered triple threat employees: they teach, coach, and live or work in the dorms. Others, while not in the dorms, carry extracurricular and weekend duties that are unique to boarding schools.

There are three major areas where faculty is expected to apply their talents. First, they must adequately prepare students in the disciplines in which they teach. For most of them this is their first love and they have been drawn to teaching in an independent school because it provides them the opportunity for continued study of their discipline.

Second, faculty must serve as guides and role models. Their college and graduate school experience gives them the tools they need to help adolescents make good choices. Your children will see faculty in many roles. While the primary role is teacher, they will also be coaches, advisors, and chaperones. They will run a lunch table, give advice on how to apply to college, and, in general, be available to spend time with your children.

Finally, faculty are called upon to be inspirational. Helping students to expand their horizons by trying new activities or courses, that may not be the first choice of your child, is important to your child's intellectual growth, not to mention social development. Helping adolescents become independent people is an important activity that faculty assume. Faculty often will buttonhole a student to encourage them to travel and study abroad, to join a number of extracurricular activities, or to help them figure out how to manage their schedule so they will be able to turn that longer assignment in on time. In short, faculty care about the students in this school and do all they can to help your child be a success.

Again, I welcome you to WMA and let the fun begin.

I felt a twinge of pity after reading the recent, snarky op-ed of high school senior, Suzy Lee Weiss ("To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me", Wall Street Journal op-ed, March 30, 2013). In that article she blamed her failure to get into the college of her choice on her parents because they did not drive her as a tiger mom might have done. Additionally, she denigrated those who used their summer or vacation time to start "fake charities" or travel to countries to take advantage of other people's misfortunes. She lamented that if you "work at a local pizza shop and are the slowest person on the cross-country team" then you might as well give up trying to impress the college of your dreams. 

After reading this piece, I wondered how after 12 years of formal schooling she could have been so oblivious to the idea that she had always been living in a world of competition. The competitive world does not begin once you leave high school or once you become an adult. It begins early on and the sooner that fact is recognized, the easier and less disappointing life will become.

I am struck by the fact that it is not always self-evident that in order to succeed a person should do all in their power to make themselves valuable. I know that over a career of hiring faculty I look for evidence that the person has done something to call attention to their skill, their talent. Once they are on the job I look for continued evidence that they would be very hard to replace. We all know no one is irreplaceable. We also know that there is much in every person's control to make that replacement difficult. 

Understanding this basic fact in the competitive landscape of a global society, especially a global workforce, is about as crucial as any understanding can be. I am sure there were many times when Ms. Weiss could have stepped forward to volunteer for a task within her school, her community. She should have understood that one often gets to a leadership position simply by volunteering. Many people are content to put forth ideas and then sit back and wait for someone else to carry out the idea. Another person might not generate the idea, but by acting to carry a good idea to fruition that person makes themselves valuable. Value is what colleges and employers seek. You can hear this in the oft used phrase "What's the value added?"

The beauty of Ms. Weiss' op-ed was that it served to remind me, and I hope other readers, that each of us has tremendous control of our fate if we only choose to act. If one's goal is acceptance at a competitive college, then what are you doing to make yourself attractive? What are you doing today to provide that "value added" dimension they are looking for? How will you make yourself valuable?

As an undergraduate student in the late 1960s, my research interest was focused on the kinetics of certain chemical reactions. Michael Polanyi and Illya Prigogine, at that time, were the theorists whose work I was trying to use to guide my experiments and perhaps give support to their theories. But Polanyi had a secondary area of interest, the philosophy of science, and I began to follow his work in this area. Later, when I left the chemistry/physics research world for the classroom, I remained influenced by his thinking.

One key tenet was his idea of tacit knowledge, or the notion that we know more than we can tell (The Tacit Dimension, New York: Anchor Books, 1967). As a teacher, this idea was completely understandable because the question neophyte students always ask of their teachers is "How did you know to do that?" One doesn't make much headway if your answer to the student is "It's self evident.” even if that is exactly what you are thinking. The self-evident solution is completely informed by the entire body of tacit knowledge that an expert gathers through years of study of a discipline. This is true no matter what that discipline might be. 

The very best teachers are able to work through their tacit knowledge to bring into consciousness the methodology they are using to develop solutions to problems. Some teachers are better at this than others. I'm sure you have all run into the professor who was a brilliant researcher but not such a great teacher. He or she had a difficult time bringing tacit, intuitive knowledge forward into understandable instruction.

During one portion of my career, I spent quite a bit of time devoted to instructional improvement. The first step in such improvement was to help teachers determine what their tacit models of good teaching might be. I employed a detailed videotaped interview with them to uncover what their deeply held beliefs about instruction were. This was the starting point for making their work make sense to them and for being able to improve upon their practice. It turned out that most teachers modeled their practice on techniques that their teachers had employed on them. This often meant that they were not aware of the various learning style needs of the students whom they were teaching. It was as if they were "blind" to the possibilities of how a different teaching move would result in more student success. More importantly their methodology was in stark contrast to their belief that they were reaching all students.

This introspective method is not only applicable to the field of teaching. Whatever area in which we engage as adults is guided by our beliefs, often unspoken, and even hidden to us. We usually don't work very hard at understanding those hidden beliefs. We tend to use our readily available thoughts. Having others ask us questions to which we give answers while being videotaped, allows us to then have further conversations about the “whys” of one’s beliefs. It allows personal reflection upon beliefs through which a deeper understanding can be achieved. Indeed, in my experience, I have seen teachers learn their techniques were completely at odds with their tacitly held beliefs.

Discovering this incongruity is the first step to change and improvement. Piaget took it as a given that the way children learn is by being placed into a state of disequilibrium where their mental model is suddenly challenged by the reality of what might lie before them. For example, the fact that a lump of clay is always the same amount whether it is rolled into a ball or a long snake. There is a point in mental development when the visual clues, telling the child that long is "more" than round, are over-ridden by the mental ability to grasp the concept of constancy regardless of shape. In this case, seeing is believing. The same can be said with "seeing" yourself teaching and then testing what one sees against the tacit theories that the interview Q and A work uncovered. The drawback to this method of deeper understanding of theory into action as it was termed by Harvard business theorists Chris Argyris and Donald Shon (Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1974) is that it takes time to accomplish.

I believe our society would be well-served if there were more effort on the part of individuals to seek deeper understanding of whether their actions really are congruent with their beliefs. In my experience, most of us walk around each day behaving in ways that are actually not in line with our beliefs.

A recent book in the field of education getting considerable attention is Creating Innovators: the Making of Young People Who Will Change the World, Tony Wagner, NY, NY: Scribner, 2012. (Mr. Wagner is the first education innovation fellow at the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard University.)  Mr. Wagner's thesis can be summarized simply. There are three educational elements needed for a child to maximize his or her creativity and become an innovator. These elements are play, passion, and purpose. Mr. Wagner supports his thesis with examples of people who have become innovators as well as of entire organizations and educational institutions that pride themselves on developing the creativeness of their employees or students. Much of this same ground was covered in the seminal study Talented Teenagers: The Roots of Success & Failure, Csikszentmihalyi et. al., NY, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Of these three Ps, the one that is most difficult to develop is passion. It isn't all that difficult for a faculty member to utilize whimsy and fun in setting assignments, at least some of the time. As far as purpose goes, every student here has a common purpose of attending a competitive college or university. However, passion for a subject, if it doesn't already exist, is not something easily developed externally. Passion, almost by definition is intrinsic. As I listen to our recent graduates talk about their college experience, I am struck by how they universally view their college experience in a positive way. Of course, some of that positive feeling comes from the newly found freedoms of college life, but most of it comes from the fact that a goodly proportion of courses in which the student is engaged are ones he or she has chosen to take and/or are in a field of study they wish to explore. That is not an option in high school. Everyone is immersed in the mandatory big six of English, Math, CEGS, Science, Language, and Arts. Hopefully within these there is at least one for which the student has a passion. In the high school requirement-laden environment, the freedom to indulge this passion is limited. Time for elective exploration is limited and often comes only in the senior year.

Compounding this scheduling problem is the general peer-generated belief that if some AP course work is good, than more must be better. Here is where things get tricky. If a student doesn't have a passion for an area, then more AP is likely to be a good model to gain the attention of the college admissions officer. Colleges and universities would very much like to see a student explore an area in depth. The metaphor for such learning is more that of a post hole, rather than the mile wide and an inch deep image. Thus, opting for courses in an area of passion, whether APs in that area exist or not (i.e., most of the economics-related areas of our curriculum) has a great probability of impressing the college admission officers because such a choice shows passion.

There are other ways to display a love of an area outside of traditional course work. Using vacation breaks and summer months to investigate an area of interest can be an effective tactic. Engaging in an intense, directed reading program carried out individually can be an inexpensive approach. The Academy's curriculum is designed so that students with clearly defined areas of interest have the opportunity to pursue that interest via an independent study course. Often we have been able to find professionals who are willing to serve as informal tutors or advisors to a student in such an independent study. In short, displaying and developing passion are likely to be the greatest impediments in following Mr. Wagner's blueprint to produce young people who will change the world.

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As I walk around campus each day, I can't help but notice the cosmopolitan atmosphere our international students bring to the campus. A striking example of the true global nature of the Academy was brought home when a proposal to begin a new student organization, The Finance Society, came across my desk earlier this week. This group, whose purpose is "to be recognized as the original global high school leader in finance research and management with the purpose of creating an effective strategic investment portfolio", is comprised of eight founding members. They come from the following places: Istanbul, Turkey; Hong Kong, China; Dushanbe, Tajikistan; Chengdu, China; Queens, N.Y.; Belchertown, Mass.; and Paris, France. I know that many independent boarding schools have an international enrollment, but I don't think many schools could produce such a mixture of different nationalities in a single student organization. I have no doubt this group will engage in intense discussion about investment options in every part of the globe.

I also think the make-up of this group points to something quite important that is shaping the professional world of the future. At the highest levels of government, industry, and finance, there will be no escaping the importance of a global outlook. While the interaction of countries in global trade is hundreds of years old, the interdependence among countries is fairly recent. That is, in the past, global trade was often conducted by imperial fiat. The earliest global traders often set up extensions of the home country in a far away place. Explorers from Spain, Portugal, England, and France claimed portions of the New Americas and then brought the resources from those subjugated areas home to enrich the motherland. The earliest colonies, in what would become the United States, were designed to bring riches back to England. In fact, over £200,000 was invested, and lost, in the failed Virginia Company of the early 1600s. In an interesting treatment of "the Columbian Exchange" in the book 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, author Charles Mann explores the movement of plants, animals, and germs back and forth across the Atlantic. He comes to the conclusion that this movement, more than anything else, has shaped the economic climate of the western world.

The importance of understanding how seemingly unconnected events shape the global sphere of commerce and politics is something that cannot be underestimated. It is my strong belief that the Global Studies curriculum we have adopted, and continue to sharpen, is giving WMA students a huge advantage for future success. This curriculum is both formal (required courses) and informal (rubbing shoulders with students from around the world at lunch, in the classroom, on the fields of play, and during extensive study/travel opportunities). I believe our particular brand of education will bring forth the innovative entrepreneur, in all its permutations, lurking inside each and every student. This is the value-added thread that ties together everything we do at the Academy.

All independent schools, colleges, and universities desire the same thing…a student body that allows the school to fulfill its mission and further its reputation. This desire often has outcomes which sometimes can be confusing for parents and students. Regularly, students with stellar records are rejected outright from a school while being simultaneously accepted at another of identical quality. How can one be rejected by Brown and accepted by Dartmouth, for example? Or even more surprising how can someone be accepted at one of the most competitive schools and simultaneously be rejected at a less competitive school. This happens on a regular basis and is not a rare phenomenon. The reason is simple. Each school is shaping the student body into its ideal vision of the community espoused by its mission.

This is where financial aid comes into play. It is impossible for any school to reach its ideal by expecting that every attribute it seeks can be found among the pool of students who can pay the full tuition. The Chief Financial Officer in such a school might be overjoyed because the bottom line would be extraordinarily healthy, but the nature of the community would suffer, even if all areas of talent were fulfilled. That is because the community would lack the richness that economic diversity brings. In addition, it is an American core value that institutions work to improve the circumstances of the less fortunate.

We are no different at Wilbraham & Monson Academy than any of the aforementioned educational institutions. We scour the globe to find the right mix of student talents to create a vibrant and diverse community focused primarily on intellectual achievement. But of course, that is not all that makes for an interesting school. While we have a tag line that declares we are "The Global School®”, our mission is also to "Expect Excellence."  Thus, in all our endeavors, we must not only encourage excellence but expect it. To that end, we must bring talent into the school because excellence cannot occur without talent. In many instances this talent comes from a pool of applicants who cannot afford the stated tuition. By using financial aid, we can bring those talented students into our community and, in so doing, further our desire to fulfill our mission as the global school that expects excellence.

Currently, approximately 36 percent of our student body receives some amount of financial aid. The total financial aid budget is just under $4,000,000 and accounts for 24 percent of our operating budget. We are extremely proud of this fact. We believe that through such conscious budget allocation, we have been assembling a powerful community of talented individuals who, when brought together, help us reach our ideal configuration. Yet, even with this generous financial aid program, we have many more talented students who wish to attend the Academy than we can serve.

In addition, the number of programs we support within the school are many and varied. As an admission/financial aid team we identify talent in every realm: academic, athletic, artistic, leadership, and service. Lately, I have been feeling that there are a number of misconceptions about students on financial aid. First, there is the notion that it is only athletes who receive aid. That is not the case, but it is easy to understand why it might appear to be so. The financial aid committee must treat each team as its own entity, just as we treat the dramatics program or the dance program or the community service program as a single entity. By this categorization, there will naturally be more student-athletes served by financial aid than any other cohort. In any event, all students who receive financial aid must qualify in the same manner. First and foremost families must demonstrate the need for aid. This is accomplished by using the School Service Bureau organized and overseen by the National Association of Independent Schools. The questionnaire they provide forms the basis for equity in determining need. The Academy does offer several "merit" awards, such as the Legacy Award, a $10,000 award for a legacy student who applies as a domestic boarder, but 99.5 percent of our awards are based solely upon need. There are no awards based upon a particular talent regardless of need.

To date we feel we have put together an amazing group of students whose various talents make the Academy the interesting place that it is. I continue to work with our development office to augment the portion of our endowment focused on financial aid so that we can serve the widest number of applicants and continue to create an increasingly talented school community. And while we are at the very beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, the Head of School lives in the future. I am eager to begin assembling the school of 2013-2014, a year, like this one, from which I am sure we can expect excellence.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

First, let me say how excited I am to be here in front of you at the opening of school. The summer, while restful, feels totally different from the rest of the school year. It's really like being in limbo... a time of suspended animation. On the first day of school I feel kind of like what the scientists/adventurers of this summer's sci-fi movie Prometheus must have felt like as they awakened. Step out of the capsule, have a glass of juice, and life continues anew, as if no time at all has elapsed.

Of course, in school it isn't simply that you pick up where you left off. Instead, you get to start up fresh each and every fall. We should all make note that as of today all our teams are undefeated and all of your academic records are unblemished.

Tonight my remarks will focus on the topic of independence.

Since we have barely begun the year, I'm sure most of you in the residential portion of the school have not sent a letter home to your parents.  And you day students have no need to send letters home, since you go home every day. In fact, the notion of writing a letter might be somewhat unusual to almost all of you in the current time of digital communication via email, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and a host of other social media vehicles. Our United States Post Office is feeling the effects of the lack of snail mail traffic. That organization is wrestling with impending bankruptcy due to the explosion of free digital communication and the subsequent loss of traditional letter delivery.

Personally, I tend use digital modes of communication most of the time. I send emails, tweet, post items on Facebook, and use Instagram for photo work, but I am very much a letter writer when I feel that my message really matters. For a sense of history, nothing beats an old letter. The following letter I want to read to you, is one I came across while delving into the old safe in my office. (If any of you want to see this relic of the school just stop by and Mrs. Smith or I will show it to you.)

Most of what is in that safe are invoices and ledgers showing tuition payments from the early years of the school, around 1827-1835. By the way, tuition for a trimester in 1824 at the time of the founding of Wesleyan Academy (our original name) was three dollars.

This letter is not a direct letter from parent to child. This is an indirect letter conveying the sentiments of a student's mother, through her local Methodist minister, to the Head of School, Wilbur Fisk. The letter was written and posted from Providence, R.I. in 1829. To give you some perspective, 1829 was the year Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States was inaugurated.

Let me read you this letter.

Dear Brother,

The Bearer of this is Seth Ballow, whose mother desires me to write to you in relation to him. She is a widow and has all the anxieties of a mother. He is as I expect rather wild. She sends him to your care hoping his manners and habits will be correctly formed. She seems at a loss to determine what course to take with him and for what business in life he is best calculated. You are desired to examine his literary attainments, see to what branch he has the greatest aptitude, and give that direction to his studies, which shall be thought best and most useful to him; you are desired to look to his morals. In a word, the mother desires her son to be made a MAN. 

Yours affectionately J. Sanborn December 7, 1829

I can assure you that each and every one of your parents, no doubt, could write a very similar letter about you as well. They are hoping the school will help you discover upon what subject you should concentrate to make you into a man or a woman from the adolescent you now are. 

Here is another letter I would like to read. This one is from the playwright Eugene O'Neill. By the time O'Neill was 50 years old he had won the Nobel Prize for literature and three Pulitzer Prizes. The Pulitzer Prize is a prestigious American prize given for excellence in literary accomplishment or journalism. (Many of you will remember that our alumnus Galway Kinnell, who spoke at commencement two years ago, was a Pultizer Prize Winner for poetry.) In this letter, the elder O'Neill is writing to his 19-year-old son, Shane. Shane was a bit of a "bad boy" who had been asked to leave a number of prep schools before he ended his career at Lawrenceville. In an earlier letter, Shane had asked his father for advice on raising horses, something about which the father, Eugene, had no knowledge.

After explaining that he cannot be of any help, the father writes the following to his son.

 "…all I know is that if you want to get anywhere with it (raising horses) or with anything else, you have got to adopt an entirely different attitude from the one you have had toward getting an education. In other words, you've got to make up your mind to study whatever you undertake, and concentrate your mind on it, and really work at it. This isn't wisdom. Everyone knows it is true, whether it's a question of raising horses or writing plays. You simply have to face the prospect of starting at the bottom and spending years learning how to do it. The trouble with you, I think, is you are still too dependent on others. You expect too much from outside you and demand too little of yourself. You hope everything will be made smooth and easy for you by someone else. Well, it's coming to the point where you are old enough, and have been around enough, to see that this will get you exactly nowhere. You will be what you make of yourself and you have got to do that job absolutely alone and on your own, whether you are in school or holding down a job. (To) work hard at something you really want to accomplish is the only way to be happy. What I am trying to get firmly planted in your mind is this: in the really important decisions in life, others cannot help you. No matter how much they would like to. You must rely on yourself. That is the fate of each one of us. It can't be changed. It's just how it is."

Now this might seem like a strange letter for me to bring to your attention, especially while standing in front of these talented faculty members who are trained in helping you. They want to help you discover new talents or help you develop talent you might already possess. They are here to assist you as teachers, coaches, advisors, and friendly adults. They will support your work. They will make themselves available almost whenever you would like. I urge you to take advantage of their expertise. But acting as a supporter, a resource, is not the same as being the decision maker. Only you can do that.

You can see in these two letters the ardent desire to see the rough talent of the young person transformed into a more polished and perfected adult. You can also see the two somewhat paradoxical threads of the different letters. One points to the transformative effect that the faculty, the school, can have on your development; while the other points to the full responsibility for growth and development on you, the student and you alone.

For those of you in the graduating class, the time when you can materially affect your fate, as far as college admission goes, is pretty limited. Your span of action lies between now and January. All your essays will be submitted by then and your grades will be what they will be. At that point, decisions lie with the college admission officers. So for you the time of serious attention to your work is right now.

For those of you in the middle school or the 9th, 10th or 11th grades, you have a bit more time to shape the future. The years ahead of you are in your control. As O'Neill writes, you have to start at the bottom and work, work, work your way to the top. Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers, makes that same case. He shows that to master an instrument or any specific discipline, one must devote at least 10,000 hours to its study. If you practiced two hours per day every day of the year, you would reach this number of hours after 14 years. So true mastery of anything is often reserved for the dedicated few. Think Yo Yo Ma or Rafael Nadal or J.K.Rowling.

I often think back to a commencement speech that former Boston Celtic great Tom Heinsohn gave here in 2006. He talked about what might be going through a player's mind when he was at the foul line with time expired and the game tied. He speculated that the player might be wishing he had practiced more. This really struck a nerve with me. Because wishing one had practiced more implies that the fate of whether the shot was made, whether the game was won or lost, is a matter of hard work and confidence coming from practice. No one else could alter the situation and no one else could have done the needed preparation except the player.

So while you have a very large support group sitting in front of you, only you can make success happen.

These letters also have as an underlying theme: the notion of independence. In the first letter Mrs. Ballow's desire that her son Sean become a man, could be considered a desire for his independence. That his future ability to make mature decisions be developed to the utmost. Most of you in the chapel tonight are minors, that is you are under 18 years of age. Thus, by law, you cannot make important binding independent decisions, without your parent's approval. But all of you will experience moments of independence while at WMA. Each year as you mature, our educational system is designed to give you a bit more freedom and a bit more personal choice. It is our way to prepare you for the college experience, the first time in which you will be truly on your own. No one will monitor what you do, when to come and go, what to eat, when to sleep, how much to study, whom to befriend. It will all be up to you and we want to do all we can to make sure you are ready to make good choices.

I hope I am not painting too bleak a picture here. Being independent is great fun... most of the time. Making big decisions is quite empowering. We expect that you, as global citizens and leaders, will be making decisions that have important consequences; and that those decisions will be well informed, carefully considered, and thoughtfully implemented. We expect that each and every one of you will use your experiences here to become independent decision makers.

Let me close by reciting the classic poem Invictus. This poem is referenced often, especially the last two lines, in many films and newspaper articles. Don't be surprised if now that you have heard it, you begin to recognize it in more and more places. The author, William Ernest Henry, wrote it after suffering the amputation of his leg in a complication of tuberculosis when he was 17 years old. It was first published in 1875 and was an immediate sensation.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

~William Ernest Henley

I want that each of you be the master of your fate and the captain of your soul. I want you to realize that both by dint of your own effort and with the support of this faculty there is little you cannot accomplish. The sooner you begin to act according to this belief, the sooner you will make a tangible difference in the world.

Best wishes for a great year.

As I anticipate the opening of school, I have the distinct feeling that it's definitely going to be a fantastic year with a lot of energy and enthusiasm coming from that most optimistic segment of our society...teenagers. Surely there will be a goodly number of them on campus at an opening enrollment of 425.

In mentioning their optimism, which is the natural condition of the teenager, I don't mean to imply that "moody" couldn't also be used as an adjective. Perhaps we should consider them moody optimists.

I, too, am an optimist. I think I probably always have been an optimist. I doubt anyone can be a successful Head of School if he or she were not an optimist. I enter every year anticipating that something great is going to happen. At this time of year, especially, I am struck by how much we have to be optimistic about. 

Let me focus on a few reasons why. We work with eager, excited, and idealistic students. They look to us to provide for them. They know that we adults are responsible for the overarching environment in which they live and learn. We teach them, parent them, feed them, house them, coach them and generally nurture them. In return, they take all that we have supplied and use it to build into their personality attributes such as integrity, responsibility, honesty, independence, pride, and respect, all of which we think serve to make the world a better place for all people. Working here goes well beyond simply holding a job. Working here is a calling and the reward in seeing students excel goes well beyond the satisfaction of earning a living wage. I am sure that this coming year we will have high hopes for the continued academic, athletic, college, and personal success of our seniors. We just know that they, and the rest of the student body, will bring honor and glory on themselves and on our school.

There is another area where I have the utmost optimism for continued success. We work alongside particularly capable and hardworking colleagues who understand that all of us are here to go well beyond the minimum in our dealings with students. We perform a range of different kinds of work as employees of the Academy. The totality of our different talents is what is important. Take away any one department and the entire enterprise would grind to a halt. I think that given all the talent here, we should be quite optimistic about our continued success as a quality middle and high school.

And yet another area for feeling optimistic is our immediate physical environment. We work on a campus whose natural beauty is unparalleled. We are surrounded by the warmth of historic brick buildings set in a landscape of towering old trees. The grounds are manicured and flowered. You cannot help but smile when walking on a crisp, fall day through the fallen, yellow, maple leaves along Broad Walk from Rich Hall to Mattern listening to the carillon playing the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun." You have to agree with the poet Robert Browning's sentiment "God's in his heaven and all is right with the world"  when looking at our bucolic natural landscape.

Certainly there are also smaller things to appreciate at WMA, akin to what Robert Frost called "adding  gilt to gold", and which should further buoy our optimism. We are proof that in fact there is such a thing as free lunch. AND free parking. We have generous medical, dental, and retirement benefits. We get reasonable time off to rejuvenate. We have fairly autonomous work. We know what to expect. Granted there are always surprises, but they usually are ones we can handle.

It might be helpful to think about how we are bound together for success; how we exude a collective optimism which permeates all that we do. The problems we face are not intractable, Gordian knots. In fact, often, they are challenges to which we can apply personal effort and make great headway toward a solution. In so doing we feel a lot better about ourselves for having grappled with the issue at hand.

Shirley sent me a message the other day as an inspirational start to the new year. I can't give attribute to it as it was one of those anonymous posts you stumble upon on the Internet. I want to share it with you now.

"Why do geese fly in a V formation?

As each bird flaps it's wings, it creates uplift for the bird following. In a V, the whole flock adds at least 71% more flying range than if each bird flew alone. Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into formation. Like geese, people who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier than those who try to go it alone. When a goose gets tired, it rotates back in formation and another goose flies at the point position. If people had as much sense as geese, they would realize that ultimately their success depends on working as a team, taking turns, and sharing leadership. Geese in the rear of the formation honk to encourage those up front to up their speed. It is important that our honking from behind be encouraging. Otherwise it is just...well...honking. When a goose gets sick or wounded, two other geese drop down out of formation and follow it down to help and provide protection. They stay with the unhealthy member of the flock until it either is able to fly again or dies. Again, paying attention to the needs of others is an important trait in a successful school. We can't forget that. We can learn much by watching and listening to the natural world." 

Just as geese flying south in the fall, we are not alone in bringing success to this school. Each of us is essential in our own way for the collective well-being and success of the Academy. Only when we work together for the common good, can we become truly an exceptional school. 

So this fall when you hear the honk of the geese flying overhead, I hope you will look up and remember this story. May your honking be in encouragement of others. The Academy gives us much about which to be optimistic; the future looks rosy and clear and I for one, am never in doubt about the successes to come.