The View from My Window
May 2008
I get so excited by the richness of intellectual and community life here at Westtown that I often get carried away and want to talk about it all! But I'm hereby heeding the call to rein myself in and maintain focus on a few select things. Just understand, please, that it's hard for me to do because of my unbridled enthusiasm for the many exciting happenings I see and hear about every day here at the school!
Speaking of hearing, the "view" from my window as I'm writing this is an auditory one as I listen to members of the Chamber Singers who are singing in Central. The group just returned from an off-campus performance at Fair Acres Retirement Home where they shared their ministry of music with the residents, and they are now advertising an incredibly creative fundraiser: Mothers' Day singing telegrams! The beauty of their music makes me wish they could offer the same service for Fathers' Day, too.
Monday evening was the annual appreciation dinner for senior faculty and staff, held at Pace One. This is always a wonderful event, and this year it was no different. We recognized staff members Patti DiGiacomo (Upper School Office) and Jamie Richie (Food Service) for 25 years of dedicated service to Westtown, and Linda Ging and Andy Crichton on the occasion of their impending retirements. Both Linda and Andy spoke, and this was what was so marvelous for me: each really captured the essence of what we want to have happen here at Westtown for students at both ends of the educational spectrum. Linda, who will retire in June after 27 years, was warm, enthusiastic, and funny in her remarks, and she conveyed the quality of "Ah, brave new world!" which she so clearly communicates to her kindergarten students. Andy will be stepping down from teaching Senior English and directing Senior Projects at the end of this year to devote his full attention to research and writing about Westtown history and themes that continue to inform the Spirit of our school today. Andy will formally retire in January after 32 years here. He read a chapter from the book he is working on. His topic was former Head of School, Earl Harrison, and his address was erudite, intellectual, and thoughtful in the very same manner to which we hope our Upper School students aspire. Good teaching happens in many ways here at Westtown-both inside and outside the classroom.
Wednesday evening marked a celebration of another sort: the dedication of Coltman Commons, the new senior faculty housing units west of the Farmhouse. These two duplexes were built with gifts from the Coltman Family Foundation. Chuck Coltman and Joann Coltman sent two boys to Westtown, Charlie and Clayton, and the family's fond memories have inspired them to make dedicated gifts to our school: the Coltmans are also the donors of the Westtown Ropes Course, for example. It was a gathering filled with gratitude-on the part of the faculty families who inhabit these homes, and on Westtown's part for the thoughtful stewardship of the Coltman family who are helping make the school an attractive option for those in the full blossom of their careers. Special thanks to Groundsperson Mark DelNegro for beautifully landscaping the exterior of Coltman Commons-in the pouring rain!-the past Monday.
Westtown's "tag line" is Everything that matters most. We'll shortly be starting a film project where we ask the question-of students and teachers-just what does matter most, and how does Westtown help define and teach it? Stay tuned for more information and, hopefully, by September, the finished video with answers to this essential question.
Kudos to Middle School student Michelle Smith and her mom for their kindness and quick thinking. While driving home past the Lake this week, they saw a mother wood duck hit by a car. "Let's go get some Middle School teachers," said Michelle, "because they'll know what to do." Soon Michelle, her mom, and Teachers Megan Rose and Terri James were searching through the wild rosebushes for the orphaned ducklings. Upper School mom and veterinarian Sallie Welte came to the scene and took all eleven ducklings to a wildlife rehab center, where they are apparently doing fine.
Finally, it was truly inspiring for me to attend the first Friends School Day of the Earth on our campus last weekend. This event was planned by Westtown Upper School students from the Quaker Leadership and Earth Service clubs. It brought together students, faculty and staff, and parents from 12 schools from as far away as Charlottesville, VA and Providence, RI. Steve Curwood, a 1965 graduate of Westtown, host of NPR's Living on Earth, and winner of numerous awards for excellence in environmental reporting, delivered the keynote on Friday night. He paid tribute to the 209-year commitment of Westonians to "caring for this piece of creation we have here," and then urged that we cease making war on this planet and borrowing from the future. He argued that waste equals food, encouraged community approaches to solving environmental problems, and ended with a stirring message of hope.
As the focus was on solutions, Saturday provided opportunities to participate in a wide range of workshops and activities, from "Global Warming and You" to "Designing a Model Recycling Program" to working in the Mini-Farm and planting chestnut trees. I attended a workshop in which students shared ideas about initiatives they're working on in their own schools and experiences about how to bring about social change as a teenager, and how to make environmental awareness a part of the culture. While one student acknowledged that it's a huge deal to change people's behavior, all agreed with another who said there are so many small things you can do. A Westtown senior observed that sustainability offers such an opportunity for making connections and building relationships with everyone in the school. The idealism, creativity, leadership abilities, energy, and hopefulness of our students were truly uplifting. Indeed, in my view, they represent the fulfillment of the Biblical passage about the restoration of the peaceable kingdom, in which Isaiah prophesies, ".a little child shall lead them."
John
