From the Desk of the Head of School- September 6, 2019

Dear Parents,

This week I spent time in a middle school English classroom and became engrossed in the conversation between the teacher and her class surrounding the types of characters they encounter in their novel. The teacher laid out four “quadrants” of character development: flat or round, dynamic or static. A flat character is one where we don’t have many details or know much about the person. A round character is one where we know many details and understand the context around that person. A dynamic character experiences an epiphany and changes as a result of that, while a static character remains the same throughout the story. Being a round character doesn’t always mean they will be a dynamic character, nor does being a flat character prevent that person from experiencing an epiphany. 

This, I thought, was a key insight and the piece of the conversation that I latched onto. It made we wonder about how we are serving our students through and towards our mission of educating and inspiring young people to become thoughtful, creative, lifelong learners and self-disciplined, responsible, caring citizens. It seems to me we are here to facilitate the dynamism in our students’ lives - to inspire them towards change in perspective, understanding, and self-awareness. We work hard to make sure all of our students and their families are round characters in our story, in our learning community. While the story in a novel comes to an end, there is always the opportunity to contemplate what might have come next. In our case, as Harding graduates go on to high school and beyond, we are able to see their story continuously play out.  What we see is that our graduates are round, dynamic characters actively writing the story of their lives, while transforming the world through their creativity, thoughtfulness, and care. 

Have a great weekend.
 
 
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