Building Communication Skills

Both of my children are approaching pivotal points in their lives, as they are taking their own pathways down the college search process.  Along the way, each have had to communicate in writing and verbally through their processes.  In fact, just this week, while touring a college with a group of prospective families, the mother of another child made a comment to me about how impressed she was with the way that my children confidently communicated throughout the tour.  I was grateful that she noticed, however, I am not sharing this as a brag on my children.  I am quite proud of them, but it is very clear to me that they both gained their confidence and their ability to communicate in their time at The Beech Hill School.

At The Beech Hill School, students are required to communicate with their teachers, formally and informally, regularly.  They email their teachers when they have questions, they engage in daily conversations with their advisees, and they learn explicitly in Skills Class how to write thank you notes, to interview, and so much more.

Often, people outside The Beech Hill School community assume that attending such a small school would shelter our students and stunt their ability to function in larger settings.  What I have witnessed in my children, and what I have learned from our alumni is quite the opposite.  Rather, the small school community requires that all our students develop their voice, because at BHS there are no places to hide.  By the time a student departs, they have had a number of opportunities to develop their confidence through authentic practice.

While it has been a few years since my children graduated from BHS, I am so pleased to see that their experiences in our little school by the farm have helped them to develop into the young adults that they are today.

Change, Technology, and a New School Year

In late May of this year, Dr. Vivek Murthy released a report regarding adolescents and social media.  The report warned that “While social media may offer some benefits, there are ample indicators that social media can also pose a risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”

At The Beech Hill School, we have taken this warning to heart, and began conversations with the faculty during our post-sessional meetings in June.  Throughout the summer, I have continued to spend time looking into the myriad connected issues of technology, social media, wellness, and the like.  In addition, I have been reviewing the School’s philosophies, policies, and practices regarding these domains.

In the coming school year, there will be somethings that we will be doing differently regarding technology use, social media, and screen time at BHS.  For example, at lunch, campus will be technology free, except for those students that opt to do schoolwork in a designated work room.  There will be other practices and policies that we will continue to evaluate throughout the year and we will look for input from all.

In the end, we should not simply ignore this warning.  Likewise, we know that our students will need to have a sense of how to appropriately use technology and social media as the head off to high school, which makes this all very challenging.  While change is never easy, I look forward to taking on this issue in the year to come, as we continue to help our students thrive.

Old Friends

This week I had the good fortune of celebrating my 50th birthday.  In my half century on this rock, I have been lucky to meet so many incredible people.  In fact, I would have to say that it is the people that are in my life that have made these 50 years so special.  It goes without saying that my wife, children, and family are the most important people in my life; but I have been fortunate to meet so many other great people.

One of those people is my friend Mike.  Thirty-three years ago, I met Mike, and we shared one year of high school together.  After that, he and I went our separate ways, and we did not reconnect until about five years ago.    In addition to celebrating my birthday, I had a chance to catch up with Mike this week.  We spent an afternoon golfing together, and I pointed out the fact that our friendship had stood the test of time, despite only sharing one year of school together.  It is his opinion, and I concur, that a shared experience, like going to school together, creates an anchoring experience that cements a friendship through time.

We are only a few weeks away from the start of the new school year, and without a doubt – the students at BHS will certainly have an opportunity to share an anchoring experience that is uniquely BHS.  Some of our students will be starting their time at BHS in 5th grade and will have four years to make friends and share experiences.  Others will be starting in 8th Grade and will have only one year at BHS.  Regardless, a new school year provides an opportunity for new and returning students alike to develop friendships.

If the students are lucky, they too may develop a friendship or two that lasts the test of time.  For as Mike pointed out, it was not the length of time that we shared together that anchored our friendship, rather it was the quality of that shared experience.  With the dawning of the coming school year, I am confident that BHS students will have a number of opportunities to share many meaningful experiences with their friends.

Lessons from the Field

It has been several weeks since I last shared my thoughts in this format, as the last school year drew to a close and I spent some time enjoying my summer.  The majority of that time was spent with my daughter traveling throughout the northeast for her lacrosse events.  For the better part of the past decade or so, I have spent significant amounts of time in rinks, on sidelines, and in dugouts supporting my children’s participation in all sorts of athletic endeavors.  In that time, I have learned several lessons, many of which are applicable far beyond the microcosm of youth sports.

One unsavory thing that I have witnessed through the years is the desire of parents to become “insiders,” using access to information and people to gain advantage.  From finding out the “right” team or program to play for, to knowing which coach to befriend, I have watched as a small minority of people worked hard to gather information and network in hopes of giving their child access to things that other families did not.  On one level, it is good that parents take an active interest in their children’s lives, and it is good that they perform due diligence when paying, in some cases, thousands of dollars to join certain teams.  When, however, information and access seem to flow unfairly, the outcomes can be quite negative. Having witnessed the negative impacts of even the perception of insider or privileged information and access in youth sports, I have come to believe that transparency and open access are critical in any organization. 

As The Beech Hill School is gearing up for the new school year, I aspire to make the flow of information and the pathways to access for our families very clear.  For example, I hope that our families will come to find that the most dependable and reliable source for regular information about the school will come weekly in The Update.  In the coming weeks, I will work hard to help our families to learn the most effective communication pathways.  For example, if a child will be absent, families should email Office Administrator, Liz Fortier.  Likewise, if an 8th grade parent has a question about their child’s experience at BHS, they should email their child’s advisor.

At The Beech Hill School we work hard to make sure that information and access is open and transparent for all families.  Throughout the year, I hope to make you all “insiders,” so everyone can have access to all that they need to thrive at BHS!

Founders Day

Birthday celebrations at The Beech Hill School are kind of a big deal.  From time to time, students will bring in some food to share on their birthday – like cookies or cupcakes.  One student used to bring in a grill and make hot dogs for the entire school to celebrate his birthday.  But even those that don’t bring in anything still get recognition.  During Community, the celebrant stands in front of the whole school, while the students and faculty serenade them with the traditional “Happy Birthday.”

This Friday, we celebrated another year of The Beech Hill School, with a day that we call Founders Day.  The day begins like any other Friday – Community, Classes, a suspension of the dress code – nothing out of the ordinary. But at 12:30, the celebration begins.

The school first started celebrating Founders Day in 2021.  Ten years earlier, in early June of 2011, The Board of Directors of The Beech Hill School met for the first time.  At that time, there was no Head of School, no faculty, no students, no classes – just an idea.  There was an idea that there should be an independent middle school, focused entirely on the middle school experience, and small enough to make sure that all students were able to connect with one another and the faculty.  The idea was fairly straightforward, however, when one surveys the educational landscape, they find that a stand-alone, day school, serving exclusively grades 5-8 is extremely rare.  Due to that condition of rarity, it could be easy to conclude that there are not more schools like this because they are unsustainable.

Emily Ricard, and the Founding Board of Directors, fortunately, believed that this model makes sense and could work.  While it was not always easy to actualize the vision of the founders,  the school was fortunate to attract families and faculty members believed.   Now, 12 years after the Founding Board Meeting, the idea that students would thrive at The Beech Hill School has become a reality.  Throughout the afternoon, students, faculty, and families ate well, played together, and enjoyed their time recreating and chatting.  On Founders Day, we not only celebrated another birthday since the founding of the school, but we also celebrated the affirmation of a founding dream!

Happy Founders Day BHS Community!