Welcome from the Headmaster

Peter Laird Smick
 

There are many ways to measure the quality of a school. Facilities come immediately to mind because they are the physical embodiment and the visual emblem of a school’s identity. They make a first and lasting impression on our senses. And we want to know if they are adequate to serve the needs of the school’s program, if they are safe, and if they provide a compelling environment in which to learn.

There are other measures as well. There is the faculty. Are the teachers well qualified, effective, dedicated, and caring? There is the program. Are the courses well conceived, carefully planned, and thoughtfully integrated into a purposeful whole? There is the leadership. Are the school’s leaders deeply knowledgeable of a school’s mission, guiding assumptions, and core values? Do they have a vision for the school’s future? Do they provide effective day-to-day oversight of the school’s decision-making and programs. Then there is a whole range of external measures of a school’s quality. How do its students measure up when compared with students from other schools? In interscholastic competition? On standardized tests? On getting into college? Are its students well prepared for college once they have gotten in? Are they well prepared for life once they have gotten out?

All of these measures provide useful validation of a school’s quality. And they are now perhaps more important than ever to the process of assessing the “value proposition” of an independent school education. More and more in the current economic climate, that process comes down to a very simple question, “Is it worth it?”

Now in our 40th year, we at the Waring School believe emphatically that it is. And we have a lot of very solid objective evidence on which to base this claim. By all the traditional yardsticks, Waring measures up very well. We invite newcomers to take a good, long, probing look at these measures of quality—our vital signs, so to speak.

But, there is more to us than our vital signs. In fact, the most important thing about the Waring School is the thing that is the most difficult to measure and quantify: the passion to learn. It is difficult to measure because it is personal and manifests itself most meaningfully through relationship. The traditional measures are indeed important, but primarily as signposts that point to this deeper reality that animates, defines, and unites us as a community of learners.

At Waring, we have always sought to answer the question, “What is school for?” with the affirmation of learning as a way of life that is fulfilling for the individual, that provides a basis for community growth, and that equips young people with the habits of mind that will enable them to engage creatively in a rapidly changing world. This understanding of the primacy of learning is at the heart of the Waring mission. It is rooted in our conviction that learning is not merely a means to an end but is an end in itself, an essential and defining human activity that should involve the whole person throughout life. As human beings, we are meant to be learners, whether that purpose was ordained by a supreme being, or by evolutionary destiny, or by some synergy of both. People are simply at their best when they continue to learn and to be open to all the joy and wonder that our amazing world has to offer.

When the Greek mathematician Archimedes bounded out of his bath and into the street and ran around yelling "Eureka, eureka!" (“I have found it!”), he became history's poster boy for what we call today "a learning moment." This particular learning moment—Archimedes had many—had to do with the nature of buoyancy, and Archimedes was so excited about it that he forgot everything else, even the fact that he was wearing no clothes! But that's the way it is with real learning: it takes us over, it transform us, it expands our universe. It can move us beyond the book, beyond the classroom, beyond campus, beyond national borders, beyond, even, our own self-preoccupation. And if it can accomplish these things, then maybe learning has a chance, as well, to move us beyond some of the more persistent barriers that separate us on our troubled planet: the barriers of intolerance, racism, national prejudice, and unrestrained self-interest. At Waring we hope and strive for learning moments such as this.

Welcome to Waring.