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

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

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

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 20^th 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 14^th 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

This week in my section of 9^th 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

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 20^thanniversary! 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

Question: what do bow ties, nuclear arms, and middle school students have in common?

Answer: all were present (some figuratively) at our first-ever middle school Model UN conference, run by BUA’s own Model UN delegation.

Bright and early on the morning of February 2^nd, 150 eager 6^th-through-8^th graders converged upon the halls and classrooms of the Academy to tackle serious issues like nuclear proliferation in the Korean peninsula, unrest in the Kashmir region, and the ongoing slaughter in the Syrian Arab Republic. Much to our (rather pleasant) surprise, these students had done extensive research and had given some serious thought to the topics they were to debate. The energy throughout our building was absolutely incredible, and the professionalism and cheer of the Academy students running the event rivaled that of college-level conferences such as BosMUN and BUSUN, hosted by BU and Brown, respectively.

Some of the finer moments from the weekend:

• Rachel Demma encouraged her delegates to write the remainder of her thesis (Rachel’s committee was a reinterpretation of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, something that is a major part of her Senior Thesis).
• Phill Giliver was voted “least favorite staff member” in at least 3 separate committees, an honor Phill has never yet received. Phill was also given the moniker “Phill the Exterminator” from a particularly loving delegate.
• Embarrassed at not being in vogue with conference attire, Dr. Horn (our keynote speaker) was forced to don a bow tie before getting up on stage to speak.
• Joe “Crazy Joe” Walsh was voted best vice-chair for a committee which he did not vice-chair.
• Sophia Ling, Sarah Hough, Ella Hathaway, and Katy Brown took turns dressing up as disgruntled hippies and delivering news to the delegates of the DNC.
• 26 various coffee orders were fulfilled by Saloni Jain and Matt Demma on Sunday morning. It goes without saying that the staff of the Warren Towers Starbucks were less than pleased.

You might now be wondering as to the meaning of the strange title I’ve given this article. Quite frankly, I’m still not quite sure of what this bizarre creation is … while performing my rounds on Saturday, a middle schooler from Brown Middle School (Newton, MA) handed me a note and said, “the best part of my UN resolution is the flame-breathing sparkle dragon that I included.” Indeed, the scrunched-up piece of paper I now possessed, had a depiction of an otherworldly creature, covered in specked marks. I presume that he hoped for the dragon’s assistance in fighting illegal terrorist cells throughout the world.

And so, the weekend was a raging success, with students traveling from as far away as Stafford, VA (a 9-hour bus ride) to attend! I’ll take this as a final opportunity to thank all of the Academy faculty and staff for their help with planning and running this event and for letting us use their classrooms! Thank you especially to Mr. Reed, Dr. Dawson, and the Admissions office for chaperoning. Thank you to Dr. Horn for speaking. Thank you to Ms. Freda & Ms. Reisman for helping us order everything we needed in preparation. Thank you to Mr. Berkman and Mrs. Cannon for your support from the very get go!

On a final note, if the madness described above sounds like your cup of tea, or if you just have a knack for international affairs, consider joining Model UN! We meet in Mr. Reed’s room on Thursdays at 3pm, and we don’t bite.

I peered out the window to find a sweeping expanse of sand, drifted into enormous dunes and extending as far as the eye could see. There was no sign of human habitation whatsoever. Yet for some reason I couldn’t take my eyes of the eerily haunting scene, and I only turned away with reluctance when the flight attendant wearily asked me to “Please shut the window, ma’am.” I looked up to see my screen announcing that we had traveled 6128 miles and had 482 to go. That was when it hit me. While my classmates were worrying about their English finals, I was on a 747 above Mongolia, headed to Beijing so I could, of all things, sing. I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d gotten there, and was mildly confused as to why I was going at all. All I knew was that I spoke absolutely no Mandarin and had no idea what I was going to be doing. It was a terrifying idea, but less terrifying than the idea of never trying anything new.

So how exactly did I end up on this plane? In November, Andy, the conductor of PALS, a chorus I’m in, told me that there was a possible opportunity for awesome in December. I was psyched—I mean, until I realized it was the week of BUA finals. I told Andy that I’d talk to BUA about it, but that I highly doubted they’d let me miss exams, the climax of the academic year. This was when he mentioned that the trip would be to China.

Now that was a surprise. To say the least.

With the blessings of the BUA administration, I embarked on a whirlwind of a month. The most stressful of my life, I had interminable rehearsals, countless projects, emergency trips to the State Department for a new passport, and that little thing called finals. Throughout the whole process, I forbade myself from thinking about the fact that I might actually being going, because it wasn’t a sure thing.

Finally, the day before we left, we had confirmation we were definitely going. And so because I’d never really thought about it being real, I was rather confused as I sat in that plane and stared out at the desert. But despite all of this, the plane landed in Beijing, we went through customs, and the most incredible week of my life began.

Let me start out by saying that Beijing wasn’t fun because of the tourist spots. Honestly (spoiler alert!) they were really a letdown. The Bird’s Nest was just a ginormous stadium which looks exactly the same as it does on television. The Forbidden City is just rather large. And while I know that the Great Wall should have made me think about mankind’s great and terrible power to create and destroy, all I was thinking about was how not to fall to my death. Because one thing you don’t realize until you’re hundreds of feet up in the air on a slanted surface without handrails is that it’s fairly icy in winter. Be careful, folks.

What actually made me think about “mankind’s great and terrible power to create and destroy” were the sharp contrasts on full display during the trip.

We were there to record some songs for a New Year’s Spectacular type event for children, and that part of it was, well, spectacular. There was elaborate makeup, absurd costumes, modeling shoots, and fancy studios.

But, with glitter still in our hair and stars in our eyes, we also saw the city—not as advertised in glossy brochures, but as it really is. The city, sprawling and packed with people, slapped you in the face with the realities of megacities. A layer of grime seemed to cover everything, the air was hazy with smog. There was high rise after high rise, and it made me wonder—what were all of the people in those depressing cement buildings getting to do with their lives? And why should I, a 14 year old who stumbled into China out of sheer luck, get to travel across the world? Why did I deserve this chance?

I couldn’t answer that question, but I tried to simply make the most of my luck. What more can we do, really? I sang. Played games with some Estonian girls also there to sing. Managed to have conversations with people even when neither of us spoke each other’s language. And more than that, I thought.

Because sometimes it takes being a stranger in a strange land to realize what’s bad—and good—about your home. Sometimes it takes a week in a place without clean water to realize how lucky you are, and a week of the unexpected to realize what you’re missing in your everyday life.

I’m back in Brookline now, but my memories of Beijing are still vivid. Maybe that’s part of why we travel—even when you’re back home, you’re not the same. Traveling changes you.

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

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 9^th 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