News from Lisa
Blizzard of 2009 Strikes Girls School!
Who needs reality? The "blizzard" lasted less than five minutes and consisted of some nice large flakes, but it was enough of a reason for everyone to run around the courtyard in gleeful excitement. A perfect start to the "winter season!"
Yesterday, as I watched our robotics team (the Purple Fire) make a presentation for the VIPs at the regional competition, I wondered whether I would have done as well at that age. The three girls (a 6th grader and two 8th graders) explained the evolution of their robot and the design features they had incorporated, as well as the ones they had discarded. While listening to them, it was easy to imagine them making a presentation at NASA's JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab) or in the boardroom of a yet-to-be started hydrogen car company ("and we added this line-following feature so that the car would stay on the road...."). Kudos to the girls for their tenacity; this is the third year that each of them has participated in robotics at GSA and in the results show.
Like the Purple Fire, our school continues to evolve. We have requested proposals from architects to complete the drawings for the Windsor House remodel and (this is the most exciting part) to develop a campus master plan. If we are going to stay here on this lovely campus, we need to find out what we can do with it. Can we have enough classrooms and still add a multipurpose room? What about a library? Is a kitchen possible? What about outdoor spaces? We love our outdoor spaces and see them as an extension of our classroom, and it doesn't take anyone very long to notice that our girls spend a lot of time outside. We'd like a more expansive gardening program...and a place where our girls can cook the things they've grown. And we need spaces for "free play." Rock moving and various spontaneous construction projects are not optional at GSA!
Our school has grown from 5 girls in a house to 115 girls on a darling campus in Tarrytown. Our lower school is full, and there is significant "admissions pressure" in kindergarten (there are many more girls who apply than we have spaces for). We are fending off (more or less) the evils of middle school madness with our new advising program. All of this is good. Meanwhile, we are in the middle (or wait – are we at the end??) of the Great Recession—a financial reality that has impacted several of our families. Never the less, the future looks bright if we remain focused and take bold and smart steps forward. That means remaining true to mission: a school where creativity, intellectual challenge, and girls matter.
We have a couple of interesting events for you to put on your calendars, or radar screens, or Blackberrys, as the case may be. To start, this winter we will hold our first annual Grandparents Day on Friday, February 12. We've chosen to hold this special event on the same day as our Chinese New Year celebration. This project is being led by kindergarten parent, Leigh Christie, and we've got a great team of parents working on it with her. The team is looking into having traditional dancers, an activity that can be done in the classrooms with teachers, students, and grandparents, and a Chinese food lunch. This is, in fact, a Grandfriends Day, so please do invite any grandfriends your child might have!
About one week later (February will not be dull) GSA will host a symposium on Children and Nature, to be held Sunday the 21st. David Sobel, author of Childhood and Nature, and director of the Place-Based Education center at Antioch New England, is the keynote speaker and will be joined by other folks involved in green architecture, garden programs, etc. Copies of David's publications will be available in the lending library (a shelf reserved in the main office for publications of interest) so please feel free to borrow one or more in the weeks leading up to the symposium.
As you may notice, a number of themes are emerging this year—a reverence for our ancestors, a fascination with the future, and a concern for planet we live on and the people we live with. Could this be our recipe for success?
Lisa K. Schmitt
Head of School
(12/09)