1791 | April 2017

Let’s start with our stated Berwick Academy core value: “A Community of Excellence.” I can say from experience that there is no way that either I, nor our trustees, would have approved a core value document that did not include academic excellence as being central to our culture and purpose. In fact the document states just that: “Academic excellence is central to the Berwick experience.” However, the document also goes on to define excellence thoughtfully, as I continue to believe that this word without definition is not particularly helpful. As Sir Ken Robinson would say: “Who doesn’t want excellence or high standards?” He usually follows that statement with a typical sarcastic quip of his: “Thanks for that insight.” Every independent school uses the word excellence somehow, but here is what we have said to define it on our core values document:

Admittedly, our definition combines the use of “community” along with “excellence,” but I think this is part of Berwick’s belief that excellence achieved in complete isolation is not as powerful as excellence achieved in collaboration with others in a community. We do not seek to be a school of individually educated children with exclusive focus on traditional academic matters. Our definition also clarifies that “all constituents are in a process of striving for their personal best.” We have purposefully not defined excellence at Berwick in comparison to a rigid external standard like a perfect SAT score, AP test, or GPA.

With that as the philosophical background, I want to remind people that we still offer the academic awards at Berwick that we always have: the Middle and Upper School have formal awards ceremonies at the end of each year. In the Upper School, we offer a specific array of additional formal academic awards to juniors at a special ceremony, including many college book awards. We employ a highly selective cum laude society, a tradition shared by many of our independent school peers. We even have a special tradition in the Upper School of offering “Departmental Recognition Awards,” which further attempts to spread the recognition of academic excellence throughout the community three times a year. Finally, baccalaureate represents an academic award ceremony that highlights our finest senior students in every discipline the school offers along with other honors. That process is always one of the hardest for the Upper School to manage in that one never is able to recognize every student one would like. It is true that we have shifted the Cogswell award back to its original intended purpose of honoring the faculty’s perception of the “top scholar” (allowing for more judgment) in the grade rather than a simple mathematical calculation of one’s weighted GPA. We maintain these academic traditions, as we believe that publicly noting academic achievement is important in creating the culture we seek.

The rationale for our cultural competency program (see the most recent Berwick Today), wellness initiatives, and honor roll decision have been laid out in detail elsewhere. The cliff note version is that we believe in holistic preparedness for kids with confidence, and that these new initiatives do not detract from the rigor of the work on campus. In fact, we believe all three items (cultural competency, wellness, and the elimination of honor roll) enable our students to do more rigorous and more meaningfulwork over time – and hopefully in the spirit of becoming lifelong learners. There will not always be an extrinsic prize to motivate them in their lives, and we want them to be curious and driven through passion rather than pressure if possible, but we also know both play a necessary role in motivating kids. As with most things at Berwick, balance is the key ingredient.

Berwick students and families show their commitment to excellence all the time; they sacrifice not merely dollars but hours of transportation and homework support during their time here. While it is true that we recognize a coach's award and MVP for each athletic season, this does not strike me as a parallel to an honor roll system that essentially ranked every child in our community – even though we claim that we do not rank students as public schools do. At the end of the day, I am not convinced the sheer number of awards we offer defines our commitment to academic excellence in the first place. I believe our commitment to academic work is most importantly seen in the culture of our school. I see it when I walk through the hallways and watch students studying in every nook and cranny of Fogg between classes. I see it when students are working on their commute to and from school or on the way to athletic contests. And we see it in the exciting college acceptances that our students achieve, which I have just been marveling at for the class of 2017. While some might claim that moving away from honor roll is another example of a broader culture becoming one where every child needs a ribbon, I would beg to differ. Our old system awarded honor roll to nearly 2/3 of our student body – perhaps at the expense of the other third that we knew would be honors students in their local public schools as well.

Berwick students are a motivated bunch. If anything, I worry most about the volume of homework and other activities we demand of them in a 24-hour day. Both the Board of Trustees and the Administration believe that we exist right now in a time of unprecedented change. We remain committed to educating our students for “their future rather than our past,” as innovative author Dan Pink has suggested. So while changing familiar systems and traditions may raise eyebrows, Berwick parents should rest assured that rigorous teaching of traditional subjects like reading, grammar, math, and even Latin, are all alive and well in this community. Our students know how to write, how to think, and how to work. What we hope to create is a school where students have more choice and more voice in shaping their education rather than merely receiving or reproducing it. The goal for us is bigger than college, as we know noone simply receives jobs or promotions as passive rewards. These kids will need to create opportunities for themselves in a landscape that is far more competitive and diverse than when we, as parents, moved through this system. It is true that academic excellence might look a bit different, perhaps even a bit more collaborative, today then it has in the past. But rest assured that there is no more central aspect of our mission, or my leadership, than an unwavering commitment to academic excellence.