Headmaster's Weekly Newsletter - Week 1

“Dorian” is on its way, and we are well prepared to weather the storm to come on Saturday, but the week has been absolutely glorious. The long days of summer have stretched into September, and it seems that our students have been outside every spare minute. Indeed, on a cloudless Wednesday night at 9:30pm, there was a whole group of students lying in the middle of our artificial turf field staring up at the stars and revelling in the mild temperatures and the sparkling elements of the Milky Way overhead.

Yesterday afternoon our sports programme was in full swing. Soccer, tennis, cross-country…everyone was outside getting exercise. Our hockey teams were introduced to “Front Hill” and the joys of Shauna Forsyth’s(our strength and conditioning coach) killer workout! I was thrilled to see the boys and girls working so hard together before they start skating on the ice next Monday. When their exercise programme finished, I went up to see what our soccer and cross-country teams were up to. I was confused when later on I saw our Head Girl, Ava Benedict, working out with the cross-country team. She was participating fully in the team’s sprint drills and making friends with all the new athletes around her. Now Ava has been on the hockey team for years, and so I asked her if she had joined cross-country. “No”, she said with a laugh. “I am as excited as ever for hockey, but we were finished our session and I thought I would do some more training with Mr. Hadley and his cross-country team.”

In a world where people will walk by a set of stairs to take the elevator to their gym class, or will drive in circles to find the closest parking spot to their yoga studio, it is refreshing to see such an enthusiastic and humble example of health. In Chapel on Thursday, Reverend Curry introduced the students to the concept of metanoia. It is a powerful Greek term which literally means “after / mind” and is often interpreted as a changing of one’s mind or repentance. In a King’s-Edgehill School context, I have to think that it literally means a transformative changing of one’s mind: that children who may instinctively think of their desires first may start to take an interest in the world and the needs of others, or that students who have spent their lives avoiding chores and work (like emptying the dishwasher maybe?) will happily do what needs to be done, or that teenagers whose first words may typically have been negative or pessimistic may find themselves more optimistic about life and complimentary of others. Making the choice to attend King’s-Edgehill is a powerful statement. Learning is far more than memorization. Whether in Chapel or in class, in the dorm or on one’s team or club, learning entails personal reflection and growth. Real learning means more than passing tests or achieving good SAT or IELTS scores, it means changing one’s opinion and set of assumptions about life and oneself. It can literally mean changing one’s mind.