Dear Friends,

As we move into the second half of the school year, our thoughts naturally turn towards planning for the future. One important aspect of this planning is the admission process for new students and families led this year by our new team of Ryan Dahlem and Diane Seltzer. Recently, we have had opportunity to meet with prospective families during the open house and other gatherings designed to provide meaningful information about St. Margaret’s and what we stand for as a school. This is important and enlightening work, as it provides an opportunity for all of us to think more deeply on the meaning of our time together as a school community.

The exercise of examining what a school stands for is complex and often goes beyond the mission statement or specific aspects of the curriculum and other programs. The topic might even be approached from a different angle by asking what it means for each of is to be a member of the St. Margaret’s Episcopal School community. We know that those who join us have high expectations, and we hope that we share a common set of values and aspirations as we go through our time together.

On several occasions, I have found myself describing St. Margaret’s as being somewhat “countercultural” to the larger community of which we are apart. This is of course a term more commonly used to describe life in the 60’s when the connotation meant something quite different than it does today. Nevertheless, I often feel that we are swimming upstream or running against the tide on a variety of issues that are prevalent in our society today. The topics here vary, but for me they begin with a basic commitment on our part to celebrate the lives of children, and to create for them an environment that is joyful, supportive, and provides a structure that protects their innocence and gives promise for a meaningful and productive adult life.

Some years ago, David Elkind wrote a very thoughtful book entitled The Hurried Child. While he explores many important issues in this book, the primary focus is clear. He believes that we as a society are on a headlong rush to move our children rapidly into adulthood, seemingly oblivious to the cost of this accelerated process. Even though this book was written some time ago, his basic premise still holds true from my perspective, and it strengthens our commitment to preserve for our children the very best of their childhood.

Clearly, we live in a different world today than when many of us grew up. Gone for most is the “classroom” of the neighborhood where many life lessons, good and not so good, were learned. Our concern for the safety of our children is far more acute than ever, and our desire for our children to succeed has, I believe, risen to new and at times unhealthy levels. There are of course other factors that figure quite prominently in the lives of children, not the least of which is an ever-increasing obsession by the world around us with conspicuous displays of consumption and for lack of any other term, an “over-the-top-ism” that is more and more prevalent. I am not sure where all of this will end or even what the consequences for our children will be, but I do worry that if left unchecked we will leave preciously little for our children to do as an encore.

And this is where the “countercultural” part of St. Margaret’s comes in. We don’t presume to tell people how to lead their lives or how to bring up their children, but we can suggest how we can work together to provide our children with a wholesome and joyful educational experience. These suggestions range from acknowledging “the blessings of a skinned knee” to giving careful thought to how we celebrate things as simple as birthdays. Hard as it is on us, our children really do need to fall down from time to time and learn the lessons disappointment can bring. At the same time we need to think carefully about the opportunities we provide and what the birthday celebration will look like next year.

As we begin a new calendar year, it is my sincere hope that we will continue to work together as a community to create a healthy, wholesome, and relatively simple environment for “our” children. In the end, each of us will do what is right and reasonable within our own families, but my hope would be that we would arrive at these decisions after carefully thinking through their implications and how they resonate with life at school and the life-long lessons we are teaching our children. This is a very important conversation that needs to be kept alive as we join together in this truly joyous experience we share.

With warm regards,
Marcus D. Hurlbut