A recent New Yorker cartoon pictures a boy in front of his traditional grade school class, standing beside the imposing teacher’s desk with the conventionally dressed teacher behind it. The caption reads: “Anyone following me on Twitter already knows what I did this past summer.”

On many different levels, this cartoon speaks volumes about the educational world students these days. They really do “tweet” or Facebook-post, or blog about their summer experiences, especially when these experiences happen far afield and they wish to share and remain in touch with family and friends.

The “show and tell” moments that some of us remember from our own elementary school days are now as archaic as a rotary telephone (pull one out if you have one and show it to a teenager to see how they react if you don’t believe me).

Williston students, as I have discovered with delight these days during their return to campus, have been all over the globe and the U.S. during the summer months. They have undertaken service learning projects, family holidays, internships, camps, jobs, you name it.

We live in a time of highly energized, motivated, and idealistic teenagers who embody our newly adopted mission statement:

The Williston Northampton School inspires students to live with purpose, passion, and integrity.

Our students’ purposeful pursuit of an interest or passion during the summer months energizes the Williston community upon their return, and I, for one, cannot wait to get things started in earnest over the course of the coming days.

Proctors and new students stopped by my house during registration and filled me in on their summer activities.

The seniors are counting down the days until Commencement,AP exams are still on everyone’s minds, and I can’t walk across campus without seeing at least three flyers for various senior projects. It’s certainly a busy time here in Easthampton, but even in the middle of all of the frenzied activity, it is worthwhile to pause for a moment and celebrate the talent and beauty that abounds in the Williston community.

This week I had the opportunity to enjoy the spring choral concert, which featured the strains of Vivaldi’s Gloria performed by the Teller Chorus. This was one of those musical performances that transcend single sensory perception. Those of us lucky enough to be there—and I counted more than 100 students, parents, and faculty in the Chapel—heard wonderful voices, accomplished musicians, and audience approval, but we also felt the music. It was that moving.
 
Williston’s singers and musicians outdid themselves in both preparation and performance, and demonstrated once again that we have one of the best music programs of any boarding school in New England. But that distinction doesn’t come without a lot of hard work and collaboration on the part of teachers, students, and other musicians. The choral concert featured performances by the Caterwaulers, our male a cappella group; the Widdigers, our female a cappella group; and the Teller Chorus, which is comprised of both boys and girls. The orchestra that performed with the Teller Chorus for Gloria featured Fine Arts Teacher Deb Sherr on cello and two Pioneer Valley musicians who played the viola and the trumpet.

On performing with her students, Deb Sherr says, “I absolutely love performing with the students. I often teach and conduct from the cello and find that they are very responsive to my musical cues when I am playing. It makes them really listen, which is an essential part of music making. Plus, it’s much more fun for me!”

Our day students, who hail from all over the Pioneer Valley where the Five Colleges are located, have grown up in a culture that celebrates the arts. When they join our gifted boarding students from around the world, incredible collaborations occur. All who were present know what I am talking about, as do the almost 200 people who caught the performance via live webcast.
 
It’s rewarding to see how excited the students—and the teachers—become when their hard work pays off so handsomely. Since it is already mid-May, the students will be gone and the campus will seem lonely all too soon. While this is a frenzied time of the year, I’m going to try and take in as much as I can, because performances like these remind us of why a school like Williston is so valuable.

Last week provided more firsthand evidence of just how interconnected we are when The Williston Northampton School hosted teachers from King’s Academyin Jordan. Our guests were Shaden Al Salman and Ezdihar Zayyad, both of whom teach Arabic in the Department of Communication, Rhetoric and the Literary Arts, and Sana’ Madadha, program head of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. Their goal was to visit classes and speak with teachers in order to observe different teaching methods and strategies. On their three-day tour, which included visits to our sister schools Deerfield Academy and Hotchkiss, our guests wanted to observe schools with long histories of education, as they fine tune their own newly minted school.

During the day, our guests visited language, art, history, math, science, and religion classes and spoke informally with students and teachers. At the end of the day, I met with them and we shared impressions of our two institutions. I am sure that they will have wonderful observations to report to their head of school, John Austin, who is a friend of mine. Certainly, their trip has inspired ideas of ongoing collaborations, and we will have to return the favor with our own delegation to see King’s Academy in action.

Seated (left to right): Kim Evelti, Sana’ Madadha, Ezdihar Zayyad. Standing: myself, Shaden Al Salman.

Last week, I participated in not just one but two celebrations and both reminded me of the special nature of our community. On Thursday, my wife Kathryn and I joined faculty member Stan Samuelson as he hosted a Passover Seder attended by current faculty, parents, and students, as well as alumni. Stan’s Seder (and this will certainly ring true for all who know him) blended traditional readings with his inimitable narratives. Stan has taught at Williston since 1982 and is consistently praised by students and alumni as an excellent teacher. We celebrated together as one under his guidance.

The next evening, Kathryn and I hosted the Asian Culture Club as they prepared and served a wonderful variety of foods for the 18 winners of the “Asia at the Hills” raffle. The event was a fundraising effort for relief in Japan and a case in point of “doing good well.” I have been here less than a year but I’ve already lost count of how many times our community has come together—in good times and not-so-good times—to support one another. Students and faculty alike enjoyed being feted by the enthusiastic club members.

What was not lost on me was that these back-to-back events, though dissimilar in origin, revealed an essential truth about Williston: when we collaborate with one another in diverse settings each individual is strengthened.

Origami cranes and a visiting professor’s musical prowess on the Koto greeted us at our all-school community life assembly on Tuesday as Williston students and faculty showed their support of our Japanese students and their families, as well as the larger human community in Japan that has been affected by the recent tsunami and its aftermath. Following the example of a quartet of “little Willies”—the young children of two faculty members—the entire school made an additional 832 paper cranes.

To begin our meeting, our guest Dr. Ann Prescott, director of East Asian Studies for the Five Colleges, gave a beautiful performance on the Koto, a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument. Then the crane-making began. I joined one advisory group in making a crane and then observed our students and faculty spread throughout the gym as they completed theirs—it was an inspiring sight.

With our long history of welcoming students from Japan as well as many other nations around the world, Williston provides a global diversity that enriches the experience of each student, and on this day we certainly shared in a common spirit.

Here I am with my crane!