Middle school is a multi-staged journey, yielding discoveries at every turn. Today many of you were able to join us for one leg of the trip. As parents often reflect, the everyday life of their child at school can become a bit more opaque as their child enters middle school and sometimes holds onto more information than she chooses to share. Todayalong with back-to-school night, sharing assemblies, theater performances, other events, and Friday Foldersis just one of the many ways we celebrate and honor the parent-school partnership at BDS. And even though, at the middle school stage, a parent’s presence alone may be cause for an atypical school day experience, I do hope that you were able to catch a glimpse of the adventure in learning that we are lucky to live everyday.
As parents, when our children share what their school day is like, or we thumb through Friday Folders, ask our children about how a test or quiz went, or overhear the backseat banter of our child and her friends in afternoon carpool, we often have the perspective of a day at school as if we were looking through a keyhole. We are let in on one small viewour child’sor the slightly larger one of our child and his friends. While this is illustrative, we can’t always access the wider view. As educators, we are lucky to enjoy the full vantage point of the whole child amidst his community and are always eager to share that view with you. It is here where we see students demonstrating on a regular basis their inclusivity, wonder, delight, ability to stumble and rise again multiple times a day, and drive to test and develop their already powerful integrity and intellect.
If you imagine a middle school student navigating her day at BDS, you may not always envision the steady and humble guiding forces of her community of teachers and classmates. They are constants, there to help one another balance making wise choices with taking important risks. If middle school is a safe harbor with frequently choppy waters, our faculty and student body serve as the trusty and humble tugs, setting a steady course with their patient and expert guidance and joyful camaraderie. No matter what, they roll along next to one another in the waves and emerge confident and richer for their trip.
While we engage in the invigorating task of redesigning our middle school, we know that much of the core of who we are will remain the samestudents energized by the joy of learning, challenged by faculty who hold them to high standards of excellence, and surrounded by friends who share the seriousness of purpose for school, while also lending a shoulder to lean on or gleeful laughter to lighten the spirits. I am grateful that for a day, you were able spend time among the outstanding community that travels alongside your child through middle school. Thank you for joining us, today and everyday, in this vibrant endeavor!
