Page 3 - Priorities 4

From the Headmaster
Benedictine spirituality has been central to the Woodside Priory School sinceitsbeginnings. Whatisnew these days is the growing interest in other, most unlikely places. The great popularity of Kathleen Norris’s recent books, Dakota and The Cloister Walk placed the themeof monasticlifeon thebest seller list.
Br. Edward, O.S.B., Mr. Michael McGough, our visiting scholar, and I discovered a variation of
thisphenomenoninWashingtonlastNovember. The Council on Religion in Independent Schools spon- soredanintenseweekendworkshoptitled “The InteriorLifeofEducatorsCreatingCommunity.” We were the only Benedictine and Roman Catholic school among the 27 schools represented. The text of theweekend: the1500yearoldRuleofSt.Benedict.
The seminar sponsors shared a belief that this ancient document provides the best blueprint for a schoolanditsleaders. Wereflectedonthemessuch as community, listening, humility, authority, forgive- ness, care, and service — all at the heart of Benedictine identity. I believe everyone left the con- ference with the conviction that their schools would respond more fully to the deepest needs of students by incorporating the wisdom and grace of St. Benedict’s reflections. The three of us from the Priory left more deeply convinced that we have a great trea- sure in our Benedictine identity — the heart of our educational program.
Last year many faculty joined in biweekly seminar sessionsreflectingontheBenedictineRule. Thisyear our faculty retreat will include work on making St. Benedict’svaluesmoreexplicitinourschoollife. As our Board of Trustees is drawn more fully into the school’s governance, a most important part of their preparation will be an understanding of Benedictine values as the heart of the school’s mission.
Let me turn now to a somewhat more recent addition to our educational program — advanced information technology. Rebecca Van Dalsem describes our commitment and progress in the article
onPages8-1l. Herearesome visions for the future.
• Teacher experience is crucial. We will foster and encourage it in every waywecan. Ihaveaskedfacultyto submit personal research proposals and several will be funded for this summer. Continued support from Bill and Rosemary Hewlett is mak- ing this possible.
• Sharing of student work can be encouraged. Jeff Rasp is thinking of having his sixth grade students research cities of the world, build on-
line reports, and link the reports together as a class- wide publication. Ihopetoseemoresuchprojects, which encourage a sense of contributing to (not just taking from) the world’s information pool.
• Students can be on-line teachers and learners. The “learning community” model illustrated by Project GLOBEonpage11hasgreatpromise. Oneapplica- tion: we soon will join St. Elizabeth Seton School in Palo Alto over the Internet for math-science tutoring. • Home-to-school communication can grow. Student teleconferencing on homework assignments may soon be practical. Teachers can each have a per- sonal spot on our web page. Students might send homework in on e-mail (The dog can’t eat it). Internet newsgroups could provide a convenient forum for parent issues.
• We are looking into sponsoring short trips abroad for selected students; if this is possible, Internet contact will be a part of it. We are also looking for ways of sponsoring access to information technology for our families that do not have it.
It’snicetoberidingthetechnologicalwave. Itis even nicer to see that there is a strong wave connected to values and spirituality that has been proceeding for centuries and is still building up its force, not only at the Woodside Priory School but now on a much wider strand.
Sincerely,
Frank J. Cody, Headmaster
3