MountainNews from the School SPRINGSPRING 20182008 PEARLS PEARLS AND AND SEAWEED SEAWEED NUMBER NUMBER 35 57 Let the daily tide leave some deposit on these pages, as it leaves L et the daily tide leave some deposit on these sand and shells on thepages, shore...This as it leaves may sand be and a shells calendar on the of Full Circle shore...This may be a calendar of the ebbs and Doris Emerson Conardthe ebbs and flows offlows the of soul; the soul;and and on onthese these sheets sheets asas a abeach, the waves may cast up pearls and seaweed. beach, the waves may cast up pearls and seaweed. The Van West Family Returns to Vershire -Henry David Thoreau –Henry David Thoreau By Alden Smith, Director — Jenny Pettitfew yearsVan West ago,, f84my friend Jack Kruse visited experience there: building community around something I love. Doris Conard in the nursing home in Haver- Today, that’s what I do in music, performance, and advocacy. Auch of hill, what New I had Hampshire. understood Jack about wasn’t education—and sure how I was farM Doris’blessed Alzheimer’s with a great had one—gently progressed, dismantled and he brought on arrival in I never completely recovered from leaving the Mountain School. alongVershire. with I himdoubt a brochurethat was the from intent the oforiginal the founders, Mountain but it was That could sound depressing—and it has been at times—but it’s School,replaced printed with something in the 1970s. that Hemade gave a lot it tomore Doris sense and to me. The the searching that unlocked the meaning of my time there. That watchedcurriculum her had read roots it—slowly, in the landscape, page by and page. one When classroom she subject has been the lasting gift. shed light on another. There was a fluidity to all the forms of work finished, she looked up at Jack, smiled, and said, “What a and play. Heady intellectual discussions were broken up by (or wonderfulconcurrent idea!”with) barn cleaning, wood stacking, food harvesting, and long“Yes,” itchy Jackafternoons said. “Andin the ithayfields. was your Whileidea, the Doris. adults were —Jeff Van West, f84 Youdefinitely wrote thisin charge, brochure. we greeted You built our teachersthis school.” by their first names. We workedTwo together. decades We before relied David on one and another. Nancy Grant con- he older we get, the more we see things come full circle. This vinced Milton Academy to purchase the Mountain School Tisn’t déjà vu so much as returning to the same point from a new andWhile turn the it intoacademics the country’s were rigorous, first semester they could program, halt for Mac a day perspective. It’s the same valley but from the higher switchback on andof reloadingDoris Conard wood bought so we thedidn’t farm run from George Winsor the trail, or the other side of the out (true story). No one was getting looking glass. and established it as a four-year boarding school. David McDonald’s coffee at midnight to log andtwo Nancy more recentlyhours writing reminded a ten-page us of their predecessors’ Full circle meant returning to extraordinaryoutline of a partnershipdense, 75-page at Doris’history memorial service at the TMS library, where I had theassignment. Mountain That School. was “Younot the never life weheard Mac’s name history class with Bernie in withoutwere living. Doris’, We or Doris’had chores name beforewithout Mac’s,” said 1984, and listening to Alden Nancy.breakfast “They and werewere a physicallygreat team.” worn David and Nancy were tell us parents of Fall ’17 how speakingout at night. to a Welarge worked group hard, including played Doris’ family, former difficult the return from TMS students,hard, and townspeople, slept hard. Much and of Mountain what we School teachers can be. I think Sue saw me nod ate had been grown on the farm before knowingly: Yes, it is. and students. we came. Much of what we harvested Mac and his three sons were a little bashful about and processed would be eaten by future and teachers worked together toThe arrange loss flowers,when departingset ta- a asking us to host the service. They respectfully suggested students. Baxter, Jeff, Charlesblecloths, and Jenny rehearse Van West music,transformative organize place parking, is real. move It doesn’t chairs, matter that such an event might disrupt the semester. In fact we and greet visitors. Thethat Conard no one sons died. created No fortunes the bulletin were lost. wereFast honoredforward 33to doyears so—what and it’s betterDecember place 2017. to remember We’re picking Those are perspectives that come with later circles. Besides, grief and arranged photographs. The service included two of Dorisup our than oldest the son school after she his andsemester Mac createdat the Mountain together? School. We We is non-linear. It’s like a gas expanding to fill the existing space. As Mac’s favorite hymns, moments of silence, and a time for settledwere able on theto empathize. dining hall We as had the not right been venue, with him a twelve- in that place, at someone who has walked both sides of this experience, it seems those present to stand and talk about their memories of sidedthat time, building with thatthose they people—that and their belonged students to had him designed and his class. acknowledgement without temperance is useful. There’s a hollow However, we knew what it meant to have Jack Kruse as a teacher Doris.ring to, Nat “It Conardwill be okay.” talked It aboutis not okay:his mother Friends as are a visionarydeparting, the and built together in 1971. Mac told me before the memo- and mentor. He had been ours as well. educator,door is closing, an unconventional the golden age gardener,is over. However, and a “super-it is true to offer rial service that he and Doris originally envisioned this mom”that, “ Youbefore will there be okay. ever Yes, was this such sucks. a term. You’re Andy right, but I promise structure as a way to unite the central campus and as a I told him it took me about 25 years to figure out the takeaway Wasserman,you will be okay.” a neighbor And then, of the thought Mountain but not School, spoken, spoke “... in of time, place for students and teachers to meet, prepare meals, from the experience, but for him it would probably be much themuch Conard better homethan okay.” as a place that always welcomed her andfaster. hold I pursueddances andthe experiencesother events. I had there; I threw myself at and her children. Others in the room spoke of Doris’ organic Wefarming, prepared became for a the contra service dance in fiddler,just the hikedcollabora- the Pacific One of the gifts of TMS is that everyone arrives without a history. tiveNorthwest, way that and Mac lived and in DorisVermont. ran I their even school.married Studentsa classmate. But Our children’sSee Rememberingnew peers see Doris, page 6. it wasn’t until my 40s that I discovered the Holy Grail of my own them as they are right now. As continued on page 7-Van West 1 1 Letter from the DIRECTOR Time and Place By Alden Smith At the Mountain School, you are free after 9:00 p.m. No one can send on guns. And yet, study after study links social media with teenage you a late-night snapchat or text you at 2:00 a.m. You are allowed to loneliness, sleeplessness, depression, and poor body image. Phones sleep and read and talk and really do anything other than wait by a connect our students to a world that is vast and complex, awesome small, glowing rectangle. and terrifying. The pace of change will only increase; we’re not going back to 1983. -Clio Rose, s18 Graduates sometimes ask me why the Mountain School doesn’t ban lio’s journal entry, written shortly after spring break, reveals the phones altogether, as some camps do. If Clio feels free at night without Cfreedom she finds in Conard House, where she has no access Internet in the dorm, wouldn’t unplugging everywhere on campus to the Internet. There, she is free from social debt: texts to answer, ensure a more complete freedom? streaks to keep, status updates to like. She is accessible only through the one old-fashioned phone she shares with her dormmates. One answer: Making the phone choice for students robs them of agency. If we want them to choose wisely in the future, then they need Daytime is different. Anyone can open a laptop and check Instagram to practice these skills—together and thoughtfully—amid competing on central campus, where WiFi pulses through the buildings. Also, temptations. Social media platforms do not want students to think after the four-week ban on handheld devices expires, students can carefully about their clicks any more than other large industries want have their phones back—no questions asked. The notifications and them to consider their sources of food, energy, or news. In an economy groupchats, texts and tweets, streaks and posts keep ringing and that makes choices for them—sometimes unethically, without their racking up through the semester. It’s not as easy for students to sign consent—critical thinking gives students their best shot at freedom. off as some adults imagine. Those who give up social media must pay social consequences. Hats off to this generation of kids, truly; I found So choosing whether or not to take back your phone has become an adolescence complicated enough without having to bounce between important, if messy, part of our week-four curriculum.