September 1, 2007
Dear Parents:
The business of getting your child or children ready for school will have concluded by the time you read this letter. I can only imagine what has transpired in anticipation of the opening day. Remember now how crisp the clothes appear, how carefully stacked the notebooks, crayons and pencils are. Consider the anxiety of wondering whether the clotheswill be okay, whether your child’s teachers will be the one she or he hoped for, that the advisor rings true, that the new teachers live up to certain standards, and that one’s knees will fit perfectly under the classroom desk.
There is much hope for the beginning of a school year. The spectrum of students at Foote represents the most wondrous of growth periods. In the early years the changes are somewhat subtle, and then by the time a student has reached the middle school, we all marvel at what a ninth grader looks like compared with those early days when shorts and scraped knees were the mark of a great recess.
I caution parents of sixth graders moving into the ranks of the middle school that the academic and social concerns that seem so prominent and important will quickly be forgotten by the time early and middle adolescence blossom in your children. Each grade from Kindergarten to grade nine is nearly unique. There are academic surges and plateaus, social and behavioral markers that get reached, and the ultimate and confused desire to be treated as an adult, only to be glad to be still immersed in childhood.
My hope for all of us is that we will exult in the successes and understand the pang of failure. The former is seldom final, nor is the latter fatal.
Packing up my office after 14 years as head at Indian Mountain was, as you might imagine, a difficult assignment. What stays? What goes? All those mementos of travel and families and students had such meaning but no place for display in our home in Sharon. I did keep a few items for nostalgia reasons, and I have brought some with me to Foote. One such item is a black plastic box. One that I have had for a long time. It is a holder of index cards. I just this week opened the box and leafed through the various 3 X 5 cards on which I have written quotations, thoughts, and ideas that have come from other people and workshops and readings and experience. I will share a few of the gems I rediscovered. If it is possible to give attribution for these ideas I will; otherwise I give silent thanks to those whose wisdom I now present.
• There are 14 verbs in Latin that use the dative case: favor, help, please, trust, believe, persuade, command, obey, serve, resist, envy, threaten, pardon, and spare.
• He was without imagination – quick and alert in the things, not in the significances.
• Goals begin behaviors. Consequences maintain behaviors.
• Schools do not exist for the sake of schools, but for the sake of kids.
• A plan of action: What is this company good at? What does it do well? What strengths give it a competitive edge? Where is the need to improve or to upgrade existing strengths and where do new strengths have to be acquired?
• Any road looks like the right road if you don’t know where you are going.
• Whatever we believe about ourselves limits our options.
• There are feelings and ideas in the head and the human heart that cannot adequately be conveyed with the guttural noises we call words.
• Does “excellence in education” mean bringing forth the best qualities in each child, or does it refer to the child’s ability to bring up and report perfectly what has been acquired through instruction?
• Hurrying children – expecting them to feel, think, and act much older than they are – stresses children. It puts extraordinary pressures on them for adaptation.
• IQ: the ability to think rationally, act purposefully, and cope effectively with one’s environment. (Wechsler)
• Stand for something. That something be other than oneself. That something be higher than oneself.
One piece of housekeeping business at this time has to do with the Learning Support Program, or LSP, as it is known at Foote. I realize that there have been questions about how we would begin this year given the personnel changes that have occurred in the staffing. You should have noted in the description of new faculty that LSP has gained two well-experienced pros for the grade 4 through grade 9 component of LSP. They will work well in tandem with the faculty who support the K through grade 3 program. The system that the school created to utilize learning support will be maintained and enhanced over the course of the fall. Any concerns you have at this time should be directed to Patty Chamberlain, head of the lower school, and John Cunningham, head of the middle school.
Lastly, I would like to share a note from a grandparent – the most recent keepsake I found in the box. It occurs to me that from what I have learned about Foote and from pushing my own philosophy of schooling that a wise Foote grandmother could have penned these words, as well. She expresses a sentiment that holds for the mission and work of the faculty and staff at Loomis Place.
“My granddaughter’s report card came this morning. She has grown, so changed from the little girl who came to (Foote) four years ago. It is not only that she has become more self-confident, but that she is beginning to delight in her own potential as a student and as a member of her own social group. (Foote) has been a challenge in a way that seems to open young minds to all possibilities that are available to them. (Foote) seems to encourage them to reach out, providing them with the love and support that they need to do that successfully. It is almost like ‘you will do your best and be your best because we care so much about each one of you.’ ”
I hope I didn’t go on too long. I don’t want to lose my audience, but I care deeply about kids and schools and Foote. I want you to share in doing the right thing in the right way for the right reasons. As Garrison Keillor said, “Nothing you do for children is ever wasted.”
Respectfully,
C. Dary Dunham
Interim Head of School
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