What attracted you to Winchendon?

Over the last several months, I have been repeatedly asked "What attracted you to Winchendon?". The following is excerpted from a letter sent to our parents this past week...

As I began my search for a headship a little over a year ago, I focused my energies specifically on small boarding schools and was fortunate to have several intriguing opportunities. However, from the moment that I first visited the Winchendon campus, I was drawn to this school more than any other for two reasons:

• First and foremost is the clarity of academic purpose and mission, and the commitment of both faculty and students to improving each student’s academic skills and learning habits. I have had the opportunity to visit many schools over the years, and I have yet to see any school as clearly aligned around the purpose of helping each student achieve academic success and to become strong communicators and thinkers. At so many schools it is easy to get distracted by broad programs and fancy facilities. At Winchendon, the goals are clear and everyone is focused on achieving them.

• A close second was the opportunity to be part of a community that is truly preparing our students to be successful multi-cultural citizens. As a kid, I remember people talking about the importance of going to “the right school” not for the education that one would receive but for the network that we would have when we went off to live and work in Boston, New York, Washington or even the west coast. The world that our students will live in will be very different. Their networks will be global and timeless and without regard to native language. Winchendon is the closest thing that I have witnessed to a true global educational village. Not only do our graduates leave knowing how to read and write well and how to solve problems, but they have done so in a truly multi-cultural environment. This ability to live, learn and work with people from all backgrounds may be one of the most important sensibilities that we can develop in our students today, and Winchendon is better positioned to do this than most any other secondary school that I am aware of. Furthermore, students graduating from Winchendon leave with a network of friends that extends around the globe. These friendships built during their years of secondary education last a lifetime.

There were many other factors that played a role in my wife Marily and I choosing to come to Winchendon but these two were what made the school stand out among others. Other clear attractions included the terrific faculty and students that we met in the course of the interview process, the exciting athletic and arts programs and the proximity to the amazing cities of Boston and New York. I wouldn’t be fully honest if I didn’t include the beautiful setting in the middle of the golf course and mountains and the opportunity to work on my horrible golf game! For someone who has had the opportunity to see lots of different secondary schools, I get very excited when I think about Winchendon’s mission, community and the opportunities that lie ahead for the school and our students.

I view it as a great privilege to join this community and to continue to build on the foundation that Bill Labelle, his predecessors and the faculty have created. I am confident that the next several years will be a very exciting time for our students, their parents and our faculty members and employees.

So what is this new guy Kerney interested in?

I have many interests. Some of the most fun is time spent with my wife Marily and our two kids Alex (Colorado College) and Sara (Connecticut College). We have fun doing all sorts of things but all love being around the ocean. That includes spending as much time on the Maine coast each summer as possible and sneaking south at least once a winter to the warmer latitudes. Sailing is a favorite activity, and I dream of weeks when I can windsurf every day.

However, it is not all play, and I am an avid reader. The following is an excerpt from a recent letter...

...I have had a couple of occasions recently to be with groups of people who do not know each other, and the discussion has quickly moved to current reading lists. It strikes me what knowing what someone is reading can be a quick window into what he or she is interested in. It wouldn’t surprise me if more than one of you had asked “Who the heck is this guy Kerney and what makes him tick?” Accordingly, I thought that I would share two book lists with you. The first is a list of books that are recent favorites:

• Colors of the Mountain – This is Da Chen’s wonderful story of a boy’s coming of age during the Cultural Revolution. We read this last year with our whole ninth grade and it was a great experience. For a school with a significant Chinese population, this is an especially interesting read.

• A Long Way Gone – This is the stunning autobiographical account of a former child solder from Sierra Leone who ultimately escapes the horrifying circumstances he is in and winds up a very successful college student here in the U.S. It’s not only a wonderfully written story, but it offers lots of interesting things to think about why and how we do what we do as teachers in the 21st century.

• Five Minds For the Future – Howard Gardner, one of the leading thinkers in modern educational practice has returned with a really informative book that builds on his reflections on multiple intelligences with a great look at the type of intelligences that the most successful 21st century adults will possess.

• Mountains Beyond Mountains – Tracy Kidder tells the story of Dr. Paul Farmer’s work that has changed the way that we think about addressing infectious disease in impoverished countries. If anyone doubts that each of us can have a major positive impact on the world, read on.

• The World Is Flat – This is a book that I originally read when it first came out about five years ago and I have regularly returned to as it was transformational in my thinking. Friedman challenges us and gives us a framework for thinking about what skills today’s teens will need to be successful in their thirties and forties. While I don’t necessarily agree with all that he says, this book has a lot to do with how we think as educators in general and about the opportunities that lie ahead for Winchendon in general.

…and on my short list for this summer:

-Jeffrey Sachs – The End of Poverty
-David McCullough – Brave Companions
-Fareed Zakaria – The Post-American World
-Carl Hiaasen – The Downhill Lie (You have to have some fun, especially at a school with it’s own golf course)
-Carol Dweck – Mindset:The New Psychology of Success

…and I am just finishing Three Cups of Tea, the amazing story of Greg Mortenson and his work building schools for girls in impoverished Islamic communities in Pakistan. It not only is a great story but makes some compelling arguments about literacy and the potential for world peace.

I have now finished Three Cups of Tea, and it is well worth the read. I have moved on to a compelling recommendation from Pam Blair The Teaching Gap and am at various stages in a couple of the others and looking forward to a week off in August. Have I mentioned my new Kindle? It is better than I had ever hoped. Check out the Kindle at Amazon. I am probably getting to read two to three times more than I had been BK (before Kindle!).

Until next time...