“[At St. George’s] I HAVE learned not WHAT to think but HOW to think, and not just HOW to think but HOW to think WITH OTHER PEOPLE.” I have been meeting with my advisees to discuss their upcoming student-led teacher/family conferences. I met with four of the seven of them yesterday, and two more today. My […]
Convergence and Permission: SUN and STAX and the Creative Community
“Artists, in fact learners of any kind, thrive in a supportive context and when given permission to experiment and collaborate.” In June of 2015 my family and I moved to Memphis from Atlanta. In our brief time here we have tried to learn about our new town, and we have visited places that define it: Graceland, The […]
Martin Luther King Service 2016–The Present and Future are Ours to Make
[ I gave this reflection as part of a Martin Luther King service.] Good Morning! A photograph, a certain kind of very rare photograph, can come to stand for a period of history. It can somehow capture a moment larger than the scene depicted in the frame itself, and most relevant to my comments this […]
Deep, Thoughtful, Engaged Lives NOW for our Students
As I left The Westminster Schools this summer after serving as Upper School Head, I found myself refining my wishes for high school students in this particular moment in history. In an interview about my departure for the school’s magazine, I said:“It’s not what our students are going to do ten years from now; it’s […]
Ready to be Part of “What’s Next” in Memphis
Several years ago, I wrote a piece entitled, “Preparing our Students to be Community Leaders: An Initial Brainstorming.” After attending TEDxMemphis this weekend, I remembered the piece because I was reminded again and again during the TED talks of the vital importance of developing an interest in civic engagement and community leadership in our students. My thinking […]
Luncheon Speech to The Germantown Chamber, August 20, 2015
(The text here is edited in minor ways from the speech I gave last Thursday to the Germantown Chamber of Commerce.)Thank you for the invitation to be here today. I am especially grateful for the opportunity to speak to this group because a good school and a successful Chamber have important characteristics in common. A […]