Weekly Message from Head of School 2022/11/13-2022/11/19
Dear Keystone Community,
Yesterday I was walking through the secondary school and on a white board outside of a math classroom there was a note jotted in blue dry erase marker encouraging folks to come to the musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”. The note went on to say, matter-of-factly: “You will laugh. You will cry.”
That turned out to be totally true. The play is hilarious-- a side-splitting combination of physical comedy and uproarious dialogue (and awkward and embarrassing audience participation—I wouldn’t have agreed if I knew I would be dancing on the stage!). And beyond the humor, the stories of the contestants of the Spelling Bee are real, painful, and touching. The roaring laughter was punctuated with painful truths of adolescence and life. Some of the characters were seeking approval of their parents, or learning how to liberate themselves from unrealistic expectations, others were desperately longing for connection and love.
In busy academic seasons, it can sometimes feel difficult to remember why the arts are so important. Why do we invest so heavily in these learning environments for our students and what are the outcomes of these investments? After the show I went up to one actor and expressed my emotional response to her character's song which reflected on the word “chimerical”. The performance of the song, which described a fantasy of the loving relationship that she sought from her parents, was gut-wrenchingly beautiful. A 9th grade boy joined the conversation and declared: “Me too! I’ve been on campus for two weeks and haven’t seen my family and I miss them.”
That's the purpose of art. When it is all happening, and the lights are up and the audience is experiencing and reflecting on the range of human emotions, and we get to explore that together, it suddenly becomes so clear: art is how we learn how to be human—a powerful tool for building character and community.
I am so grateful to the cast, crew, musicians and the extraordinarily talented colleagues who made this happen for our community; what a gift it was!
In other news on campus, I am excited to share that we are in the final stages of our Division Head searches for Primary and Middle School. We are delighted to have appointed Beryl Nicholson as the Primary School Division Head starting in July of 2023 and look forward to sharing more news about the Middle School search next week.
Warmly,
Emily
