From the Desk of the Head of School- September 25, 2020
Dear Parents,
Typically, Harding celebrates our 100th day of school each year with various celebrations and parties. For our youngest students, it allows them to demonstrate an understanding of numeracy and order and for our older students it represents a transition to the light at the end of the school tunnel. This week, though, we crossed a threshold we would not normally celebrate: 25 days in school. It’s a big number in 2020 and I want to thank you all for helping us make it happen.
So now, in some ways, we are settling into our new normal and the teaching and learning has moved into a familiar rhythm. In fact, I found myself taking time to think about our mission this week and how it might look if we considered it a profile of a Harding graduate. It is an easy transition as the characteristics are clearly outlined therein.
Our mission: To educate and inspire young people to become thoughtful, creative, lifelong learners and self-disciplined, responsible, caring citizens.
In this mini-exercise the first step I took was to define each term in our mission. The one I found most interesting was the definition of self-discipline:
Self-discipline, n. the ability to control one's feelings and overcome one's weaknesses; the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it.
Just this one character trait seems rich for exploration in terms of our whole child approach across academics, arts, and athletics. But we have more - much more - in our mission to guide us: caring, creative, thoughtful, responsible, lifelong learners, and citizens. There is plenty to guide us as we consider a profile of a graduate.
Many profiles are formatted such that a graduate is described in an adjective, noun order. For example, lifelong learner. The next step in this mini-exercise was to break out the terms and consider what would fill in the blanks.
Typically, Harding celebrates our 100th day of school each year with various celebrations and parties. For our youngest students, it allows them to demonstrate an understanding of numeracy and order and for our older students it represents a transition to the light at the end of the school tunnel. This week, though, we crossed a threshold we would not normally celebrate: 25 days in school. It’s a big number in 2020 and I want to thank you all for helping us make it happen.
So now, in some ways, we are settling into our new normal and the teaching and learning has moved into a familiar rhythm. In fact, I found myself taking time to think about our mission this week and how it might look if we considered it a profile of a Harding graduate. It is an easy transition as the characteristics are clearly outlined therein.
Our mission: To educate and inspire young people to become thoughtful, creative, lifelong learners and self-disciplined, responsible, caring citizens.
In this mini-exercise the first step I took was to define each term in our mission. The one I found most interesting was the definition of self-discipline:
Self-discipline, n. the ability to control one's feelings and overcome one's weaknesses; the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it.
Just this one character trait seems rich for exploration in terms of our whole child approach across academics, arts, and athletics. But we have more - much more - in our mission to guide us: caring, creative, thoughtful, responsible, lifelong learners, and citizens. There is plenty to guide us as we consider a profile of a graduate.
Many profiles are formatted such that a graduate is described in an adjective, noun order. For example, lifelong learner. The next step in this mini-exercise was to break out the terms and consider what would fill in the blanks.
| Adjective | Noun |
| Lifelong | Learner |
| Citizen | |
| Creative | |
| Self-disciplined | |
| Responsible | |
| Thoughtful | |
| Caring |
I’d be interested to hear what you all think. What would fill the blanks for you?
Have a great weekend and stay safe and healthy.
Inspiring The Mind • Nurturing The Spirit