The Dream Lives On

My high school saved me. I was on a bru­tal down­ward spi­ral in sixth, sev­enth and eighth grades, and in high school I went to an uncon­ven­tion­al school that pro­vid­ed tremen­dous free­dom and respon­si­bil­i­ty on its stu­dents. In many ways it appeared to be an «eas­i­er, soft­er way» but it pro­vid­ed its own form of chal­lenge to the stu­dents. We were giv­en enough rope to hang our­selves. The stu­dents were treat­ed as peers to the fac­ul­ty. We were on a first-name basis with our teach­ers. Our teach­ers’ knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence stood for itself with­out appeal to any author­i­ty inher­ent in their posi­tion. There was tremen­dous skep­ti­cism about this approach, but it helped me onto the path to find my own voice. There­fore I can­not ful­ly express the loss I felt when the Ham­monas­set School closed its doors for­ev­er, a few years after I graduated.

I was already gone when it closed, so I guess I got the ben­e­fit from it, but I still have to live in this world, and The Ham­monas­set School made the world a bet­ter place. I feel a bit­ter­sweet pang when friends go to their high school reunions. My twen­ti­eth reunion would have been last year, but there’s no school to return to. Some­times it’s poignant that I can­not go home again.

So I’d like to report some glad news. This arti­cle is from last year, but it is news to me: a teacher from my senior year, who was him­self a grad­u­ate of the Ham­monas­set school, is now head­mas­ter at a school in Ari­zona that seems to have a phi­los­o­phy not so dif­fer­ent from Hammonasset’s.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/fromcomments/144322.php

I have not vis­it­ed the Green Fields Coun­try Day School, and have no illu­sions that it is a clone of Ham­monas­set, but read­ing what their web­site says about edu­ca­tion, it looks like they are fol­low­ing the lead of a great edu­ca­tor, Mr Deac Ether­ing­ton. Or at least that Deac has found fel­low spir­its and inno­v­a­tive thinkers like him­self with whom to join. Either way, it glad­dens me.

We used to joke, as each year brought new finan­cial crises that brought the school clos­er to clos­ing, about the myth of the Phoenix com­ing back each year «like a Ham­monas­set School ris­ing from the ash­es». How fit­ting that I’d find Deac only a hun­dred miles South­east of Phoenix.

To the stu­dents of Green Fields Coun­try Day, con­grat­u­la­tions. Your time there will give you an advan­tage in life that not many schools can offer. I don’t know any­thing about your school’s rat­ings in test scores or col­lege admis­sions, and I don’t need to. I know Deac Ether­ing­ton and the val­ues he holds. He is the most valu­able kind of asset a learn­ing estab­lish­ment can have. I know that you are being encour­aged to inde­pen­dent, cre­ative thought. I know that you aren’t being shoved through a fac­to­ry of names and dates. I know that you are being taught to find and refine your own true voice in what­ev­er you do in life and are not being fed some­one else’s voice. You have a shot at being ful­ly and authen­ti­cal­ly who you are meant to be.

The world is a bet­ter place with Deac involved in education.