It’s only been a week since I assumed my role as Head of Upper School. I appreciate the positive feedback I have received since my recent appointment and I aim to fully live up to your expectations. Thank you all for your support.
As you know I have been at Barstow for a long time—15 years. I spent two and half years as the director of admissions. During that time, I liked to begin each of my tours with a paraphrase of our mission statement: The mission of the Barstow School is to promote sound scholarship and the symmetrical development of mind, body and character. As I walked around the building I referenced evidence of our mission statement and I never had to look far. It is indeed a little more obvious in Lower and Middle schools where students have PE classes daily and where it’s not uncommon to pass by a math class and hear students singing their times tables or by a foreign language classroom and watch students dancing the Catalonian Sardane.
The full extent of the embodiment of mind, body, and character in the Upper School cannot as easily be observed between 8:00 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. as it can be in the Lower and Middle schools. Our day begins as early as 7:00 and extends until 10:00 o’clock at night, when during theatrical productions the lights are finally turned off in the auditorium or when the front doors are locked after an athletic team returns from a far away game. Although I was well aware of the manifestation of each aspect of the mission statement in the Upper School, I see now that I was at an arm’s length from understanding the full extent of this embodiment. Now I feel freer to stop in and visit during school and to experience the highly academically-charged environments of the classrooms. I am aware of students going beyond the call of duty as they enter math, writing, and visual arts contests. Beyond the school day locally and out of state, I am aware of choral and instrumental district and state competitions, debate tournaments, athletic competitions, Knowledge and Science Bowls and Robotics events. Character development is intricately woven into what we do in classrooms, advisories, class meetings and in assemblies. It happens in short conversations walking down the hall and at the lunch table. At least two times per week students come to visit me and propose new service learning projects. That is in addition to projects that are presented to class deans. Many of our students travel out of the country to participate in service projects in South and Central America or Southeast Asia. This year we’re adding Honduras, Thailand, and possibly Peru to the list. In short, our students are busy folk.
You may wonder what will change? Honestly, we’re already in the middle of so many changes. Some are obvious. The school has the highest enrollment in school history. Our commitment to Global Education continues to grow with the addition of Chinese, German, and South Korean students and the planning of school trips to Australia, The Dominican Republic, Peru, Honduras, and Thailand. We’ve added faculty and new classes. The Robotics lab will shortly move to a new location. Others are more subtle. The function of Student Council and Kariessentes are in transition. On a side note, we are very lucky to have Mr. Foster. He is open to all possibilities. He is the keeper of proverbial cash box and has many factors to juggle, so he can’t always say yes, but of all the heads of schools I have worked with, he is far and away the most willing to add in and to make changes. I have spent hours with the Upper School teachers brainstorming ways of making an already incredible high school experience even more exceptional. I guess that if I were given the chance to re-write the mission statement I would simply insert the word “creative” so it would read: The mission of the Barstow School is to promote sound scholarship and the creative and symmetrical development of mind, body and character. Lately, it is as though there has been an explosion of creativity. I have been lucky enough to meet one-on-one with almost all of our teachers since school began. The kinds of ideas they have in store would blow you away. Although we are not yet ready to share the details of these additions, I will say that some of them will appear in the course catalog for 2012/2013.
Our teachers are constantly searching for ways to do what they do better and to do more. Already we have an outstanding program that leads to tremendous success in the college admissions results. We have alumni like Jamie Metzl who we can boast about. Talk about the full embodiment of mind, body and character! Many of our students possess the same drive and talent as Jamie Metzl did at this age. Jamie studied under some of our current teachers and we have continued to hire some of the most talented teachers in the country. Jamie credits Barstow with awakening his passion for Asia. Our teachers are outstanding at what they do, but that‘s not enough for them. They pride themselves on staying on their toes, by designing new classes, and by looking for fresh approaches to just about everything we do. They themselves continue to develop creatively and symmetrically in mind, body and character. Jarrod Roark is finishing his PhD and spoke nationally at educational conferences this summer. Bob Kohler is working on a masters degree in theatre studies at the University of Oregon. Right now Mary Lou Pagano is riding at the National Arabian show and next week Mark Adams will be in Phoenix playing in a national baseball tournament. Angela Guldin spent her Saturday at Harvesters with our Operation Breakthrough Club. Creative and symmetrical development of Mind, Body, and Character.
Just a quick side story. My daughter Samantha is a freshman at De Paul University in Chicago. At the freshman retreat, as is often the case, parents were separated from their children and we attended our own meetings. It struck me again and again that the faculty that teach at De Paul all embrace the St. Vincentian principles under which the school was founded. This was evident in what was said by each and every faculty member or administrator. No one repeated the same message so it was not a marketing tool. They all echoed the same message about the almost imperceptible lines between education and service. I began to think about what our teachers and students say at events like the open house we had here on Saturday. Our teachers and our students indeed are living examples of our mission statement. No one is ever content with simply meeting the graduation requirements. Students and faculty alike are always looking for ways to be involved and to fully participate in the Barstow School Experience. People in this community strive to do what they do better and more creatively; in every classroom, at every academic, artistic, athletic and service learning endeavor both on and off campus; in town, out of state and out of the country.
In closing, many of you have met or seen my son Tim here at Barstow. I want to close with what he so simply yet truthfully said. “I love Barstow because everyone is nice to me and everyone accepts me for who I am. “ Honestly, I barely touched what my favorite part of this job is. So here, in short, it is. I get to work with students, faculty and administration who are as talented and creative as they come, who accept each other as they are, and who are also among the nicest people I have ever met.
Liz Bartow
Head of Upper School