Leadership Blog

As a head of school, you learn that when you take a bit of time away, there is never a “perfect” week for your travels. Something is always happening at school, something special that you will miss, a moment of learning, sharing, caring, and joy that you wish you had experienced firsthand. The school is […]

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In my first teaching position, one of my seventh grade math students was a colleague’s son. The colleague regularly connected to assure me that her son was getting by okay in math, saying things like, “I don’t expect him to get great grades.” and “I always tell him: ‘I’m not good at math, and it’s […]

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Last week, I attended the NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) conference in St. Louis (my hometown!), where the theme was “thrive.” Speakers, presenters, and attendees like me found renewed joy and inspiration in the work we do in independent schools. The most profound lessons from this great conference came from a talk by a […]

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Over the summer, Jen James, my assistant and masterful keeper of my calendar, asked me: “So, are you planning on teaching Shakespeare again this year?” As with most questions Jen poses, she already knew the answer. In this case, it was a resounding “yes!” Now, in my twenty-fifth year in independent schools, I have taught […]

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“Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou As human beings, we are fallible; we are imperfect. At some point, we will all make mistakes that hurt others or that we wish we could take back. Our core values of honesty and responsibility are […]

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Downstairs from my office in the Barn, what looks like a mess is growing out from the door of our IMPACT Lab. Students sit and work between piles of cardboard and yarn. They reach in all directions for haphazardly folded papers covered in mysterious scribbles. The floor is now an abstract canvas, sectioned off with […]

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