Just Play

I love to compete, and I love the Olympics.  Some of my earliest memories were those of Jim Craig and the Miracle on Ice, as well as Eric Heiden and his dominance in speed skating.  In fact, I loved those 1980 Winter Olympics so much that I saved that week’s Sports Illustrated.  I still have it.

Throughout my life, sports have always played a central role.  From football, to baseball, wrestling, and just about anything in between, I loved to play anything.  And as far as I was concerned, play was a synonym for compete.  Even in terms of physical fitness, I ran marathons and tried to achieve a certain time, and when I rode my Peloton – I was always very aware of the leaderboard.  Playing was competing, and that was the fun of it.

Until recently I went mountain biking at Highland Park for the first time.  I was working very hard, and I was very focused.  I was playing!  But what was really fun, what made it so enjoyable, was that I could care less what my time was, the number of calories I burned, the watts I created – I was simply riding my bike.  I felt like I was flying, cruising over jumps and skidding around corners.  I felt like I was a kid on my BMX bike – It was amazing!

Since my ride at Highland I have reconsidered the meaning of play.  It does not have to mean to compete.  In fact, my workouts have improved since the ride, because I have found a new joy in doing something that is not quantified by a clock or my Apple Watch.

At The Beech Hill School, we provide many opportunities to compete.  But as I began to reflect on “play,” I have come to realize that we also provide opportunities for our students to simply get out there and experience the joy of movement and sport.  Sometimes, it is best to “Just Play.”

Some R Work

I grew up in a working-class household, and until  I began my career as an educator, my jobs always involved some degree of manual labor.  I have paved driveways, loaded trucks on the overnight shift, and held a number of roles at different restaurants.  The common denominator in all these endeavors was that my work and effort was measured in terms of physical activity, movement, and exertion.  I took pride in the fact that I could push myself when tired and honed my work ethic.

I still benefit from these lessons, especially as the head of a school the size of The Beech Hill School.  It is not in my job description, but I have had the pleasure of cleaning bathrooms, shoveling snow, fixing leaks, and completing numerous other forms of labor.

In the last few weeks, however, I have been doing more work between my ears.  This is hard for me, as my blue collar back round would suggest, like the Dire Straits song says – “that ain’t workin’.”  Fact of the matter is that thinking, creating, and problem solving is very important work – especially as a leader.

This has made me think a lot about work that we do with our students at BHS.  While we need to continue to challenge them to physically care for the community through initiatives like our student jobs program; we also need to provide time and space for contemplation, and consideration.

I am grateful for the time that I have carved out for the more cerebral aspects of my job and anticipate that I will continue to do so as the school year begins.  Just as we try to impress upon our students that studying is, indeed, homework – planning, thinking, and deliberation is important work.

The Off-Season

This week, the Edmonton Oilers lost to Florida in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.  Despite a dramatic effort to come back from a 3 games-to-none deficit, they came up short and had to go into the off-season proud of what they accomplished, knowing however, that they came up just a little short of a Stanley Cup.  In a few months, the next season will start and the chase for Lord Stanley’s Cup will begin anew.

Unlike the NHL, The Beech Hill School does not finish with a championship.  But, we do have an off-season, and what happens in that off season factors greatly to the success of the year to come.  For most of my career, I would be so frustrated by those that looked at June, July, and August, as “the three best reasons to be a teacher.”  Perhaps it was my background in sports, but I prefer to think of the summer as the off-season, and growing up, I always learned that “champions are made in the off-season.”

Today is the final day of the 2023-2024 academic year.  What an amazing year it was, and it has been a pleasure celebrating all that our students, faculty, and school accomplished as of late.  Tomorrow, we turn the page in the ledger, and I will begin the new school year by making the most of my summer.  I hope that you make the most of yours as well!

I want to close by recognizing the efforts of Liz Fortier – who makes The Update happen every week.  She has been a tremendous contributor to the BHS Community, and she will be greatly missed.  Proctor is lucky to be picking up such an enthusiastic and caring Spanish teacher!  ¡Gracias por todos y buena suerte, Señora!

8th Grade Insight

On most days, the topic of the pandemic arises with an increasing infrequency.  To be sure, the impacts are still broadly felt by many, but, in my life, I have found that discussions about COVID, precautions, and the like are rapidly diminishing.  That is, until I listened to the recent graduates of The Beech Hill School speak about their middle school experience.

At The Beech Hill School, we have a tradition whereby every member of the 8th Grade makes a speech to the whole school reflecting on their experiences at BHS.  Over the course of about a week, time is created in the schedule for the speeches, and at the end of the week, the entire community votes to select which of those speeches will be a part of our Closing Exercises.

As always, this year’s speeches were nostalgic, funny, meaningful, and, in some cases, emotional.  Across the board, however, the entire class made a point to give time and attention to the way that the pandemic adversely affected their lives.  Interestingly, this class was not even enrolled at BHS when the pandemic hit, and we were forced to go remote.  They did, however, begin in a way that was so starkly different from all other classes at BHS.  There was no Orientation Picnic, and as graduation speaker, Mark Holt pointed out – one could barely see the faces of the fifth graders, as they were covered by huge masks.

Next year’s 8th grade will be the final class that attended BHS while some form of distancing or masking was required.  As I wrote about earlier this year in a blog I called “Bookends” – it seems that almost all vestiges of the pandemic have been removed.  Fortunately, most of our students will never know that there was a time when we could not move about campus freely.  The 8th Grade speeches make clear, however, that simply because we are speaking about the pandemic less, one should not assume that its impacts are not still being felt.

Guest Blog - The Season's of a Teacher's First Year

For some time now, I had been hoping that a member of the faculty may have a thought or two that they might want to share with the community - allowing me to share this space with them. Today, I am pleased to share “The Head’s Desk” with the Director of the Outdoor Program, Judith Marklin, who has just completed her first year of teaching at The Beech Hill School. The following are Ms. Marklin’s thoughts:

The Seasons of a Teacher’s First Year

Judith Marklin

It is crazy to believe that this school year is already over! It felt like just yesterday I was introducing the Field Notebooks to the students in Outdoors - which was met with many groans. I knew that this would be a challenging addition to the curriculum, since it was so different from how things were done before. It was rocky at first, but I am so proud of our students for being open-minded and keeping a (mostly!) good attitude. Two weeks ago we spent the last Outdoors period sitting with our triangles and writing a poem to them or about them. I was blown away with what was created and wanted to share three poems with you here. I am mostly struck by the themes of decay, death, and life - in other words, the changing seasons. 

This past Friday was my first time witnessing a Closing Ceremony at The Beech Hill School. And, similarly to the Field Notebooks, I did not know quite what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. It was a poignant amalgamation of celebration, reminiscing, and closure. The weather seemed to reflect the emotions of the day - rain and sunshine - as I both laughed and cried. It was, in a word, bittersweet. Which is often how I feel as summer becomes fall and fall becomes winter, which eventually becomes spring. I find myself not quite ready to let go of the barefoot days of August while simultaneously yearning for a crispness to the air. Yet nature keeps her rhythm, knowing that change is hard, but necessary - and ultimately, good. It is this cycle that helps us stretch and grow. It teaches us how to say goodbye sincerely, how to give gratitude fully, and how to welcome change graciously.

May the (now former!) 8th graders carry with them the lessons from their triangles and experience personally the new life and adventures that comes after the changing of a season.