Headmaster's News

                                                             January 2009

 

 

A MESSAGE FROM THE HEADMASTER

               A Thought or Two for the New Year         

Several months ago, I shared with you some observations offered in The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein.

 

Below (*) are some additional statistics from the same source that might offer an interesting perspective for the New Year:

 

•    A child reaching his 18th birthday has been alive for about 158,000 hours.

 

•    If he has attended school without miss – no absences for 6 hours a day, 180 days a year, for 12 years – he will have spent almost 13,000 hours in school.

 

•    If we add kindergarten, the number increases to 14,000 hours.

 

•    But that is only (about) 9% of his time on Earth.

 

Now granted, the average Brunswick School student spends more than just 6 hours at school each day (it is probably closer to 8 hours). Nevertheless, the statistics above demonstrate that close to 90% of a given Brunswick School student’s life is spent somewhere other than in school.

 

Certainly in terms of hours spent, this situation seems to impose some pretty strict limits on the impact of formal education.

 

In essence, should a student’s time away from school (at home and elsewhere) reflect priorities and activities that are inconsistent with the messages to which he is exposed at Brunswick then we are, and more importantly he is, in trouble.

 

As each New Year seems to come with resolutions, I ask you to consider the following:

 

•    How about taking a few minutes as 2009 starts to review what messages you are most hopeful and expectant that your son will assimilate while at Brunswick. Just to get you started, some possibilities might include: intellectual curiosity, team work, hard work and discipline, and of course, Courage, Honor and Truth.

 

•    Then consider all the other activities and organizations with which he is involved (the things that fill in the other 90% of his days) and see if the messages and experiences he gains in those activities are consistent with those which you value for him at Brunswick School.

 

If you see any inconsistencies, whether it be with other formal organizations or teams outside of school with which he is involved, or how he spends his free time at home (too much “screen time” and not enough reading or playing outside) then the start of a New Year might be the perfect time to make some choices and re-focus his and your priorities.

 

As I see it, we want to make the very most with the 10% we are given; any mixed messages that come his way in the other 90% are best left in 2008.

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

                                       

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