Over the last two weeks, we have begun to say goodbye to our seniors.  On 5/31, we held our "Senior Send-off" - our soon-to-be-graduates took a ceremonial "exit walk" through campus with the rest of the school forming a farewell gauntlet.  Last Friday we boarded some old-school yellow buses to travel to Waterworld for a day of fun and bonding, followed that evening by a wonderful, moving Last Chapter dinner in our Gym (or, as senior Sam Katz put it, the "Last Supper"). 

 

There are many people to thank for their work in organizing and supporting these events: our parent chaperones, Tanya Jaspering, Sandy Howard, Jeannie Shaw, Lena Herrera, Senior Class officers Lindsy Mobley and Olivia Sicroff, Kendall Galli and the Drake Leadership Class.  Many thanks to teacher Francie Salle for her wonderful keynote address at the Last Chapter; as she pointed out, Pirates are known to "take" things - she recommends that our Seniors take advantage of new and different opportunities to learn to be adaptive to the world they are inheriting.

 

We are looking forward to a great week of closure for all of our students with their finals.  Our staff is also looking forward to a well-deserved respite from the frenetic pace of the spring semester.  They will all come back in August tanned, buff, well-rested, well-read, and eager to explore new approaches to teaching and learning.  I feel grateful to work alongside them every day.  Here is one parent's perspective on what teachers bring to their children's lives. 

 

 

As long as we hold a memory of a person, place, or experience, you can argue that it doesn't "end" per se - it occupies a place in our past and continues to inform our path forward.  Four years mark a period of incredible growth for each child that comes to us; it may not be as noticeable, but we adults grow and change over those four years as well.