SPRING 2019 Expressing One's Voice Primary Grades Playground
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SPRING 2019 Expressing One’s Voice Primary Grades Playground Wolfhound Watch It’s all about Together, our gifts enhance the education of each student. Thank you for investing in St. Patrick’s by supporting the Annual Fund as we race to the end of the fiscal year on June 30. Your gift matters! 2018–2019 ANNUAL FUND Give online at www.stpatsdc.org/donate Have questions or need more information? Please contact Megan Maturo, Director of the Annual Fund, at 202.342.7010 or [email protected]. SPRING 2019 From the Head of School: Developing Voice ......................2 School News ..................................................4 Primary Grades Playground Opens New Identity Curriculum Wolfhound Watch Recitation Contest 2019 Auction 2019 Education in Finland Expressing One’s Voice at St. Patrick’s ..........................14 On the cover: Nursery School Celebrating 25 Years of Peter Barrett’s Leadership..............24 students get into the swing of things on the redeveloped Horizons Greater Washington at St. Patrick’s ................... 26 Primary Grades Playground. Alumni Corner ...............................................31 Alumni Notes Head of School Head of Lower School Director of Communication Kim Mazzarella, Peter A. Barrett Jenifer D. Congdon Karolina Jewett Faculty Representative Leonard Moore Rector Head of Nursery School 2018–2019 Board of Trustees Kai Reynolds, Chair The Rev. Dr. Kurt Gerhard Paul Lorenzo-Giguere Matthew Alion David Roberts, Treasurer Mashea Ashton Jim Schufreider Assistant Head of School/ Assistant Head of Upper School/ Nancy Balboa, Co-Vice Chair Nancy White Head of Upper School Director of Secondary School Peter A. Barrett, Head of School Tammy Wincup Daniel P. Spector Placement Mia Bass, Secretary The Rev. Amy C. Yount ’77 Suzanne Clark-Lebedev Editor Assistant Head of School for Michael DeSantis Karolina Jewett, Finance and Operations MacArthur Campus Director/ Tiane Doman Director of Communication Rochelle Hargraves Director of Studies The Rev. Dr. Kurt Gerhard, Rector Ann Adams Mae Grennan Photography Assistant Head of School for Gretchen Hartley, Co-Vice Chair Hugo Hentoff Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Day School Chaplain Patrick Kean, Junior Warden/ James Kegley Erica Thompson The Rev. Jenifer Gamber Day School Bill Petros Rebecca Kim St. Patrick’s Faculty and Staff Assistant Head of School for Director of Enrollment Gardiner Lapham Development Management Katherine Lucas, Suzanne Burrows Lindsay Dietel Spector Parents Association President St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School, 4700 Whitehaven Parkway, NW, Washington, D.C. 20007 202.342.2805 www.stpatsdc.org FROM PETER A. BARRETT, HEAD OF SCHOOL Developing Voice: What to Look for . Where to Look e have chosen to they have something to share with one’s interaction with the wider world. focus this spring others, and develop habits of heart Furthermore, that outward-facing edition of the St. and mind that will clarify their search destination of confident and effective Patrick’s Press on the and strengthen their ability to share expression of one’s self can be just plain idea of voice: How their findings. Ultimately, then, we are hard work. One of the primary areas we understandW voice, why voice is encouraging students to search for and in which we encourage young people important, and how we strive to develop who they are, their very essence to develop their voice is in learning develop it in young people throughout or identity, and voice becomes a way for to write well, an activity that comes our program. There are a number of us to understand the emergence of that easily only to a fortunate few. Even obvious, or perhaps traditional, ways identity, in what begins as an inward- what may appear to be the simplest of in which we encourage young people to facing process. voice-based tasks, speaking up in class, find their voice, to develop their voice, can be a challenge for some. Whether and to express it with confidence and There is a corresponding, outward- it be to ask or answer a question, to try effectiveness, including classroom-based facing process, as we encourage out a nascent idea, or to seek further activities that promote oral and written young people not only to find their clarification at a moment of confusion, expression, the Upper School Recitation voice but to develop it and then to using one’s voice, quite literally, in class Contest, and an array of vocal music express it confidently and effectively may seem too great a risk. and performance opportunities that in community. That emerging voice engage students from the Nursery becomes a means of projecting one’s self, Recognizing the challenges inherent in School through Grade 8. And the closer one’s identity, into the wider world as a identifying one’s voice, developing it, one looks—and this edition of the Press young person strives to make meaning and expressing it with confidence and is meant to invite that closer look—the of that world. It may take the form effectiveness, we come to understand more evident it becomes that voice of inquiry, of explanation, of careful just how essential it is that a young represents a thread that ties together argument, or of advocacy. It may take person engage them in a classroom virtually every element of the work the form of an essay, a painting, or a environment in which he sees that he is that we do and, in turn, binds us to one sculpture, of poetry, dance, or song. known, loved, and respected. Students another. If we can characterize identity as the need to know that they are safe in inward-facing destination of this process the classroom, that their identity is As we have discussed this theme and its of developing one’s voice, perhaps we valued, their very being is safe, and that significance to our program, I have been can identify agency as the outward- they can take appropriate risks—not struck by its duality, its paired inward- facing destination. That is, as a young without the possibility of failure but facing and outward-facing processes person recognizes that she is a unique with confidence that their efforts will or characteristics. My statement individual with her own special place be acknowledged, welcomed, supported. above, about “encourag[ing] young in and understanding of the world, she Voice, then, emerges most effectively in people to find their voice,” suggests realizes that she can project herself into settings that recognize the risks inherent that those young people know what that wider world and act on that wider in the work, the kinds of settings we they are looking for or, perhaps to world, having an impact rooted in her strive to create here. begin at the beginning, that they even own determination and creativity. know that they should be looking for I should note that this process involves something, for anything, and where This process of identifying one’s voice, not only expressing one’s own voice they should be looking. As with so developing it, and expressing it well but also developing the ability to know much of the important work that we is not without challenge, nor is there when to listen intently to others’ voices. do here, especially with our youngest anything linear about it. Indeed, there Ultimately, it is the interplay among students, we are setting them on a path, is nothing fixed about what I have voices, those of classmates and teachers, creating opportunities for teaching called the inward-facing destination, in conversation or in song, that make St. and learning to help them understand one’s identity, which will continue to Patrick’s such an exciting, dynamic place themselves better, recognize that emerge over time, in part based on for our young people. 2 / ST. PATRICK’S PRESS / Spring 2019 Nursery Schoolers excitedly race down the slides during recess. ST. PATRICK’S PRESS / Spring 2019 / 3 SCHOOL NEWS AN ANONYMOUS DONOR to the Campaign for St. Patrick’s at Sixty offered a matching-gift challenge to name the redeveloped Primary Grades Playground in honor of two longtime leaders of the Nursery School program, Pat Spector and Nancy White. The Parent of Alumni, Alumni, and Grandparent communities rallied to the challenge and exceeded the $25,000 match requirement by $100,000. Nancy and Pat are thrilled by this great honor and the beautiful play space for the youngest Wolfhounds. The Patricia R. Spector and Nancy C. White Primary Grades Playground Opens! he preponderance of early-childhood research opportunities for our children to grow in confidence by taking clearly establishes that developmentally appropriate perceived risks and successfully completing them. Outdoor play opportunities to play offer an exceptional vehicle to increases a child’s overall fitness by negotiating the playground’s promote the social-emotional, cognitive, language, and intentionally designed terrain and carefully selected equipment. self-regulation skills that build each child’s executive The Primary Grades Playground is specifically designed to functions.T Our new playgrounds encourage students to play encourage children to engage in novel physical movement which, together or explore independently and to create new games research shows, has a direct relationship to improving cognitive alone or in collaboration with their peers. We know that play is function. Our new playground has also been designed to nurture a particularly effective and efficient way to develop three critical each child’s inherent imagination. It particularly provides the executive-function skills important to a child’s academic success, children with unique spaces to use their voices by organizing including working memory, impulsivity control, and cognitive their own games and participate in unstructured group activities flexibility. The Day School recognizes that importance and that are less solitary. At St. Patrick’s, we know that time spent has been a leading proponent of intentional and guided play outdoors in a natural environment is calming, improves a child’s throughout its 63-year history.