Head of School Weekly Letter

May 3, 2013 at 4:49 pm

Dear Academy Families,

Our All School Meetings (ASM) are usually fabulous, and this week’s presentation of scenes from Romeo and Juliet by the drama upper-class elective hit that high mark. Unfortunately, however, I also had to share with our students a more serious concern as well.

We just learned that early in April one of our students had gone onto several university-sponsored Facebook pages for the Class of 2017 admitted students, and “trolled” by leaving increasingly offensive comments. I am sorry to report that a good part of our senior class and school community “Liked” or commented on this student’s Facebook page (where these trolling comments had been posted), encouraging broader trolling to more colleges.

We explained at ASM that what goes on a Facebook page (and what you “Like”) can haunt you for years to come, and have a negative impact on your reputation. We also stressed that misrepresenting yourself on social media is inappropriate, and that the Academy’s reputation is harmed as well. We are continuing extensive conversations with students about the dynamics of this incident, and will look for ways to broaden how our students understand the risks of social media. We would encourage you to have these conversations at home as well, especially in discussing how some “pranks” are hurtful and inappropriate…and just because this kind of social media behavior might be a rising cultural norm, it is not healthy or to be encouraged. That said

I look forward in the coming month to sharing more positive updates – on admissions, college placements, curricular work – and celebrating Commencement and year-end activities. While the Academy community is a kind and compassionate one, as a learning community also,  not all lessons are equally happy.

Warm Regards,
James S. Berkman
Head of School

 

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Marathon Tragedy

April 18, 2013 at 9:53 pm

Dear Academy Families,

In the aftermath of the marathon tragedy, the Academy is moving forward – as the city — in a thoughtful and healing way. At a special All School Meeting (ASM), we sat as a whole community in reflective silence, followed by almost 20 students and faculty sharing some of their thoughts – an incredibly moving process to hear as our students articulated some very insightful reactions. The ASM concluded with two piano pieces performed by a student and a teacher, as well as some suggestions for “hand’s on” actions to serve other and remember those lost and injured. The main theme seemed to be a reminder of our common humanity in the face of adversity and chaos.

I am incredibly proud of how our students are handling themselves, and the depth of understanding they will take away from this horrific event. I am also aware that individuals handle crisis and grief differently, so that communal rituals such as our ASM might not help everyone to heal equally. Please let us know if your student is taking the tragedy of this week with a level of distress that might warrant our working with him or her, so that family and school can collaborate on our students’ behalf.

It is also noteworthy that at the Marathon Memorial where President Obama spoke and YoYo Ma played, two Academy students performed as part of the Boston Children’s Choir. The nation’s condolences touch us all more closely than we might realize.

In sympathy,
James S. Berkman
Head of School

 

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Real-World Ramifications of Academic Work

April 12, 2013 at 2:47 pm

Dear Academy Families,

This week at All School Meeting (ASM), history and current events collided. We hosted a panel of BU undergraduates representing “BU LiNK” (Liberty in North Korea). Rather than focus the Academy on what the news is highlighting (nuclear threats, the celebrity distractions of North Korea’s young leader), these BU students directed our BUA audience’s attention instead to the humanitarian issues of poverty, hunger, repressive regime, and international efforts on behalf of the North Korean people.

I will not detail the facts and issues covered, but I do want to report the probing and insightful questions raised at the end of the presentation by our BUA students. One of the most effective parts of the program had been a video of scores of BU students admitting “I don’t know” when asked about North Korea. Clearly, our Academy students were either already ahead of that curve, or were open to learning more.

It is always important for our students to realize that our academic work has real-world ramifications, and this week’s ASM brought that message solidly home. We hone our intellectual skills in order to make the world a better place. Learning about this example of a world humanitarian issue will likely mean that one of our students, one day, will be active in this or some similar global problem, as part of the solution. It gives me faith in our future.

Warm regards,
James S. Berkman
Head of School

 

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Spring Is Finally Here

April 5, 2013 at 6:46 pm

Dear Academy Families,

Spring is finally here! Well, despite the cold winds, it has started to feel like spring. O.K., forget the weather, but spring activities have definitely arrived!

We are hosting our admitted students in several ways: neighborhood parties, revisit days to the Academy, and our annual Admitted Student Reception this coming Sunday at the School of Management from 4 to 6 p.m. Current families and students have been a vital part of this process, and your enthusiasm in talking about the Academy represents our best qualities.

In addition to admission events as the harbingers of spring, we are coming up to our annual Spring Gala, this year held on Saturday, April 13, at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation – an apt venue to celebrate the Academy’s 20th anniversary! We will have live jazz music, dancing, a silent and a live auction, dinner, drinks, and lots of Academy friends to enjoy…all to benefit the Academy’s financial aid, our 14th year in holding this event. Please RSVP to join us, if you haven’t already!

Oh, I forgot the clearest sign that spring has arrived – all of our students grew over spring break, and look one year older! “The sap rises” applies to more than maple trees…!

Warm regards,
James S. Berkman
Head of School

 

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Smooth Yet Deeply Complex

March 29, 2013 at 5:31 pm

Dear Academy Families,

This week in my section of 9th grade English, I have had the distinct pleasure of talking with my students about two Greek tragedies: Orestes by Euripides and The Eumenides by Aeschylus. Both plays are the third in a trilogy by each playwright called The Oresteia, which covers the story of Clytemnestra killing her husband Agamemnon on his return from the Trojan War, followed by their son Orestes killing his mother to avenge his father’s death. But each playwright handles this basic plot line much differently.

Aeschylus treats the issue of Orestes murdering his mother as a case debated before the first trial court in western literature, a court convened by Athena to hear his suit, with Apollo (representing the new order) arguing on behalf of Orestes and The Furies (or The Eumenides, representing the ancient deities) arguing against him.  Euripides, writing about 50 years after Aeschylus, takes the new order or values even further. His Orestes is hounded not by physical Furies who appear as characters to present their case, but by those ancient deities in his dreams and mind, driving him  insane.

What amazes me this week as our class discussed these two versions of the same story, with their widely different approaches — to ethical issues about justice and mercy as well as to individual and social codes of conduct — is the level of sophistication our freshmen bring to this subtle and nuanced debate.  They engage actively in intellectual exchanges, and raise telling points backed up by textual support. It might sound simple and straight-forward, but it’s like listening to a great symphony by Beethoven…smooth yet deeply complex.

I often say that a successful class is one in which I leave the room having learned more from the students than they might have learned from me; by this definition, classes this week were hugely successful!

Warm regards,
James S. Berkman
Head of School

 

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Consistent and Modestly Ambitious

March 8, 2013 at 3:54 pm

Dear Academy Families,

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) annual conference, held this year in Philadelphia, with 5,000 of my closest friends and colleagues…! The keynote speakers included Jim Collins (Good to Great, Great by Choice), who stressed that his research pointed to a couple key differences between “good” and “great” communities: the first is being consistent in one’s goals (what he called adhering to a “20 mile march, day in, day out”); and the second is having the humility to temper ambitious energy. When I think of applying this to the Academy, I am reminded how fortunate we are to have such a straight-forward mission that we have pursued over our 20 years without distraction: taking advantage of being embedded in a world-class research university; instilling the foundations of a classical education; and being a caring community. This balance of these ambitious yet modest factors, combined with our unswerving adherence to them, absolutely meets Jim Collins’ criteria for a great institution.  More importantly, our students and faculty represent this same balance of modesty and ambition, with consistent adherence to our high goals.

In the spirit of our consistent-and-modestly-ambitious mission, I want to remind you of the upcoming spring gala in April, at which we will be celebrating the Academy’s 20thanniversary! Please go to our website for details and to purchase tickets…today!

My best wishes to you all for a great spring break, during which I hope everyone gets some well deserved rest and recreation.

Warm regards,
James S. Berkman
Head of School

 

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One Final Week until Spring Break

March 1, 2013 at 4:08 pm

Head’s Weekly Letter – February 28, 2013
______________________________________________________________

Dear Academy Families,

As we approach spring break next week, the energy in the Academy is marked. People are feeling both the depths of the February doldrums as well as the mounting excitement (just one more week!) till we all get a breather. Our return later in March is palpably different, as we head into the final stretch of the school year’s work together.

I will be away for several days this week at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) annual conference, this year being held in Philadelphia. Usually 4,000 to 6, 000 school folks attend, to hear keynote speakers, to attend workshops on cutting-edge school issues, and to catch up with each other – sharing updates our common calling. In next week’s letter, I will report on any highlights I gleaned from rubbing elbows with the many presenters and attendees at NAIS, especially if such insights might accrue to the benefit of our Academy community.

Till then, let’s all take a deep breath, knowing that soon we will have a chance for rest and refreshment in spring break. This shorter weekly letter is just one more sign that I, at least, could use a breather!

Warm regards,
James S. Berkman
Head of School

 

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We as Citizens in a Corrupt System

February 22, 2013 at 4:23 pm

Dear Academy Families,

Yesterday’s ASM was one of the best I’ve heard in my seven years at the Academy, and I hope your student brings excited echoes of it home to you as well. If not, be sure to ask about it. Professor Lawrence Lessig, currently Furman Professor at Harvard Law School as well as Director of the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, spoke to our community on “Citizens.” But that title belittles his intellectually provocative and highly entertaining presentation on how money corrupts our democratic system, and what we as citizens can and should be doing about it.

Some telling factoids on how and why money can “corrupt” a system: 144,000 Americans account for more than 90% of campaign funding in total, with only 132 people accounting for over 60%. Research by subjective industries (say, on potential health issues surrounding cell phones or plastic bottles) is almost always shown to hold such items “harmless,” while independently funded studies find the same items to be overwhelmingly “harmful.” This naturally causes distrust of any “official” word we might get, especially when government agencies are meant to be protecting us from such health risks.

So how can we “fix” a federal government both paralyzed from taking action without lobbyist funding support, and also a government distrusted by 70% to 80% of those polled (a number which is much higher for the younger generation)? Professor Lessig offered a bipartisan and “simple” fix that even he admits might not be possible: Use the new social media network to apply large-scale voter pressure on Congress to pass legislation requiring only public funding of political campaigns. This would involve giving every voting citizen a $50 voucher, forcing candidates to spend time educating the voters to win their vouchers – as opposed to the current system where 30% to 70% of a Congressman’s time is spent fundraising from a very few high rollers.

Clearly, our Academy students were taken by this talk and highly engaged. You would have been proud of the sophisticated questions asked of this Harvard Law professor, which he juggled with meaningful and vivid answers. Ultimately, he made clear, our students have inherited a broken system, and it is their generation’s challenge and opportunity to find a way to fix it…either through the internet tools they use so well to force the kind of legislation for public funding that Professor Lessig suggests (and which he  illustrated has worked with an example of legislation involving unwise censorship of the internet), or coming up with their own ideas to address the problem. But ignoring the problem, he stated, was a sure-fire way to watch our democratic republic deteriorate…an option we all agreed was unacceptable.

And in my own 9th grade English class an hour after ASM, we not only continued the debate on substance (How would a voucher system be funded?), we also analyzed why Professor Lessig’s talk was so entertaining and engaging…which only proves our students know how to take advantage of these exciting exposures to top-notch experts. As I said before, you would have been proud!

Warm regards,
James S. Berkman
Head of School

 

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No Hybrid Program Quite Like Ours

February 15, 2013 at 5:47 pm

Dear Academy Families,

With a “Head of School Holiday” (HOSH) unfortunately transformed into a pedestrian snow day last week – and, yes, it really was meant to be a day off for no good reason other than to give relief to the February doldrums when it was originally planned weeks in advance – and now with a three-day weekend ahead of us, I am starting to believe that four-day school weeks are the trend of the future. In thinking of short weeks, I recently learned that France, which traditionally has much longer school days, tempers that by letting everyone off one day each week (usually a Wednesday), but  is now considering inserting a half day on Wednesday, while shortening the other four days by 45 minutes each.

At the Academy, our daily/weekly schedule and annual calendar are bound by our joint high school/university curricula to adhere to a schedule and calendar tightly tied to Boston University’s. This creates several anomalies. For example, University courses usually start up after winter break by as many as 10 days later than Academy classes begin. This is balanced in spring break, when Academy students taking BU classes get just one week, while younger students and Academy faculty enjoy two. Or with our Commencement the day after the University’s Graduation, our seniors are done in the third week of May, while all of our other students continue into early June. And perhaps most vexing for seniors, we schedule All School Meeting (ASM) for 8 a.m. on Thursday in order to minimize conflicts with University electives they might want to take.

All of which confirms that the world is not a perfect place, and that trade-offs are required to optimize  the merging of our high school with a major research university. The same pattern that applies to calendars and daily schedules also rings true for budget planning, building and facilities questions, and employment practices. In my almost 30 years in independent school education, I can safely say that there is no hybrid program quite like ours! And that, I believe, is a real strength from which our students benefit…even if we can’t cancel University classes when I might next call a HOSH!

Warm regards,
James S. Berkman
Head of School

 

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A Semi Formal Persuasion

February 1, 2013 at 3:31 pm

| FROM ACADEMY PRESS | BY ANNA LIN-SCHWEITZER | JANUARY, 2013 |

I’m a big believer in going to dances. They are a fun way to relieve stress, hang out with friends, and (most importantly) get free food. On the whole, a majority of the student population attends each BUA dance—Fall Festival, Semi Formal, and Spring Fling. Yet of the three, Semi has always been the most controversial. Whenever I put in a good word for it, the most common response has been, “Why should I pay all that money just to see the people I see every day for another four hours?” While I believe this to be a rhetorical statement, I have some answers:

First, what you really missed out on this year was the boat. I admit it; I was ambivalent at first. Though Semi had been traditionally held on a boat before I came to BUA, I questioned the sanity of this endeavor. In my naivety, I wondered how the food would stay on the tables, and searched out the Dramamine before I left the house. Prejudiced by a whale-less whale watch this summer, I associated boats with crashing through cold and windy weather with no land in sight. Indeed, I was quite wrong. For one thing, I didn’t even notice when the boat set off. I was pleasantly surprised when I happened to glance out the window and noticed the lights of Boston blinking by. And they kept blinking by. We did not lose sight of land at any point on the trip, and seasickness was the last thing on my mind.

Additionally, the food remained on the tables. I would have cried if it had not. I am easily impressed, but have been a picky eater my entire life; when it comes to food, not everything goes. However, I can confidently say that I was very sad when my plate was empty. The buffet meal at the beginning hosted the World’s Softest Bread Rolls, accompanied, of course, by an array of lovely salad, beans, mashed potatoes, pasta primavera, and chicken. There was even a carving station for sirloin and pork! Dessert was equally, if not more, impressive: cheesecake with white chocolate ganache and raspberry topping, and not only chocolate chip cookies but also chocolate mousse truffles on chocolate cookies. My mouth is watering thinking about them.

However, food only took up a small part of the evening. Music played the entire night and for most of it, the dance floor was overflowing. For such a small school, we are really great dancers. And those of us who are less great at dancing can still feel okay about ourselves because nobody can really see who is who anyway when there are strange colors flashing from the ceiling all evening!

You also missed out on seeing all your friends dressed up. While not to the same extent as Prom, most people put effort into their outfits, so you should make that work worth their while! My only complaint was not pertaining to the dressing up part as such, but to the shoes-on rule of the boat. Due to the potential safety hazard of broken glass, many dress-wearing individuals had to totter around in heels for four hours. Personally, I did not strive for comfort when I picked out my shoes and came expecting to take them off. As a result, I found several new places on my feet that I didn’t even know could blister. Next year, I think I’ll be wearing sneakers, just to be on the safe side. Another incentive to come: seeing me in a dress with running sneakers!

Even though I could barely walk by the end of the evening, I am not at all sorry I went. Even in heels. The ultimate highlight of the night was going on the top of the deck to see the entire Boston skyline over the water. Despite a deceptive sixty degree Monday that melted all the snow, Friday evening happened to be a particularly cold day of the week and my bare legs did not thank me for spending close to 10 minutes in the open air. But this just goes to show how beautiful the view was! I personally do not get to see the Boston skyline over water every day. Or night, for that matter; most of the time I am surrounded by tall buildings and towering people. Sadly, the view was short-lived, owing to my very exposed and very numb legs, yet there’s something about being surrounded on all sides by what you see that looking out the window at the top of the GSU doesn’t match. You had to be there.

After hearing all about this fantastic night, I can’t imagine that you are glad you missed Semi. Apply what you learn daily at BUA: nothing daunts a scholar! Not even a dance. If the boat aspect doesn’t appeal to you, you must be tempted by the World’s Softest Bread Rolls. They were so soft, I almost didn’t want to eat mine; all I wanted to do was stroke it. Even just seeing your friends in pretty clothes is a novelty. Great minds frequently prioritize work over dress; at BUA, it’s not every day you get to see a bunch of nicely dressed people all in one room! Yet whether or not you are considering going next year or ever, I’ll always have fun remembering the view, the dancing, and the food.

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