I'm procrastinating...!

It is Saturday afternoon and I am supposed to be doing prep work for a strategic planning workshop that we will be having with some of our trustees and faculty next weekend. I was doing some research and took a detour to check in on someone that our faculty and students have heard me speak about before. At the start of the year, I showed people a couple of videos of Matt Harding, a young man who has visited over seventy countries and made short videos at many stops. If you haven't seen one of them, I encourage you to take just a few minutes to take a look. You will join more than 30,000,000 others who have seen his videos:

For his most recent, click here.

For his earlier video, completed in 2005, click here.

Matt recently completed a "This I Believe" recording for NPR. This is wonderful series and Matt stepped up. I find his words, some of which I have excerpted below, very insightful:

Here's what I can report back: People want to feel connected to each other. They want to be heard and seen, and they're curious to hear and see others from places far away. I share that impulse. It's part of what drives me to travel. But it's constantly at odds with another impulse, which is to reduce and contain my exposure to a world that's way too big for me to comprehend.

My brain was designed to inhabit a fairly small social network of maybe a few dozen other primates — a tribe. Beyond that size, I start to get overwhelmed.

And yet here I am in a world of over 6 billion people, all of whom are now inextricably linked together. I don't need to travel to influence lives on the other side of the globe. All I have to do is buy a cup of coffee or a tank of gas. My tribe has grown into a single, impossibly vast social network, whether I like it or not. The problem, I believe, isn't that the world has changed, it's that my primitive caveman brain hasn't.

I am fantastic at seeing differences. Everybody is. I can quickly pick out those who look or behave differently, and unless I actively override the tendency, I will perceive them as a threat. That instinct may have once been useful for my tribe but when I travel, it's a liability.

When I dance with people, I see them smile and laugh and act ridiculous. It makes those differences seem smaller. The world seems simpler, and my caveman brain finds that comforting.

I believe my children will have brains ever so slightly better suited to the vast complexity that surrounds us. They will be more curious, more eager to absorb and to connect.

And I believe when they look into eyes of strangers, what they will see before the differences are the things that are the same.

(This was originally played on NPR's Weekend Edition on March 29, 2009.)

This is incredibly insightful from a former video game programmer! Matt's "This I Believe" column can be read or listened to in it's entirety at NPR's site by clicking here.

It is an amazing, remarkably connected world that we live in. To Matt's point, we are increasingly members of one big tribe. As educators, we have accomplished a very important task if we can help the next generation focus on the similarities that we all have rather than the differences.

Thanks again Matt Harding. Now, I have to get back to work.

Art Show at the Mount

Last evening, a group of Winchendon's artists had a celebratory dinner and then traveled over to Mount Wachusett Community College to participate in their annual regional art show. There were over 300 entries from artists from 16 schools, and our Winchendon students did very well, earning 2 of the ten top awards and numerous honorable mentions.

Adrian (above) was one of two winning
top honors as was Yaewon(below).

Hyun Joo got a lift to get up to the height of her stunning painting (above), and Jacob and Gilberto framed Gilberto's stunning work.

Xiaoda painted a beautiful interpretation
of Winchendon's icon.

"Tis the gift to be simple, tis the gift to be free..."

I borrow a line from this wonderful old Shaker song of the same name written in the mid- nineteenth century and popularized by Aaron Copland. Late last week, I received a wonderful 'simple gift' from one of our students.

Moumy, a senior from Senegal, stuck her head in my office as she often does and said she had something for me. She then handed me a piece of paper with the following on it:

"In the Winchendon School, we live as a family, perfect our English, and Love each other. At the consummation of our time here, we succeed."

Moumy Diop
April 2009

Thanks Moumy. Your gift made my week.

Taking time out for some fun!

On Thursday afternoon, we took some time out on a sunny day for a little competition between the dorms. Cottage won in a closely contested scavenger hunt. After the fun, we enjoyed a cookout. Elliot Harvey took lots of pictures, a few of which are featured below:

Celebrating good news...

It has been a busy couple of days since returning from my Asian travels, and there have been a number of highlights:

• Marily and I drove to Maine this weekend to watch our Men's Lax team record a win over Hebron on Saturday night and then play a close game against Gould on Sunday. While Gould also played impressively and recorded the win, I couldn't help wonder what happened to the mattresses we used to provide visiting athletes when I was at Gould. Was Coach Lehman at Gould so worried about the strength of the Winch team that he felt it necessary to have the players sleep on the hard basketball floor so as not to be at their freshest on Sunday morning?
• We had a wonderful group of families revisit on Tuesday. It was a pleasure to meet these prospective families and many others who have visited in recent weeks, and we hope that most will choose to join the Winchendon community next September.
• The guys from West Wing were down here at Homewood (the headmaster's house) for chocolate sundaes last night, and most of our hosts/interpreters for Mr. Blair's and my recent Asia trip were here for Marily's pasta and lots of chat tonight.

Perhaps most exciting however has been the great news heard by many of our seniors in recent weeks. All of their hard work has paid off, and acceptances have been coming in from a great range of schools including NYU, Norwich, USC, U. of Illinois, UMASS, George Washington, BC, BU, Brandeis, Babson, Quinnipiac, Northeastern, Middlebury, Skidmore, American, Fordham, Penn State, Perdue, Richmond, FPU, Emory, Nichols, Syracuse and many, many others. We will provide a complete list (I am doing this from memory!), but the highlight has been in seeing so many with so many great options. Great job class of '09!

The faculty have homework too!

My hope is that each person in the Winchendon School community without regard to whether he or she is an adolescent or adult is committed to being their best in all that he or she does. To that end, in our opening faculty meetings for the year back in early September, I told the faculty that my goal for each of them was to be at least as good students as they are learners. In that vein, while we encouraged the students to relax over spring break, the faculty left with two books to read:

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

and

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

If you have any interest in what we are discussing and thinking about, I encourage you to consider reading either of these. Both are provocative and compelling reads whether you are fourteen, forty-four or eighty-four.

Just thought that you might be interested...

Apologies

"Gee, it's good to be back home again!" goes the old John Denver song, and I share that sentiment. My trip through Asia was wonderful and made all of the more memorable by the wonderful hospitality and generosity of so many. It was terrific seeing so many of our students, families and alumni. Thank you to all who took time to attend one of our receptions, host a meal for us or show us some of the local culture and history.

However, I have to admit to one serious deficiency. Some of you know how poor my Chinese is. One of the unforeseen implications of this language challenge presented itself when I went to blog, and the interface and controls were all in Chinese. I was truly "utterly useless" as my wife's uncle used to joke.

I am way behind but will look to get back on track...