Director's Blog

As is my habit (one I have learned from many heads of school, including our own Mr. Rowell), I recently bent down by one of our brick walkways to pick up a stray piece of paper, which turned out to be a Post-it Note which contained the following list:

We have just heard the bell that marks the first loss of life on September 11th, 2001, and the first of the events we remember today.  You heard it toll twenty times for the twenty years since that day.  You have watched your classmates unfurl the flag and raise it to full staff—quickly to show our country’s resilience and diligence—then lower it to half-staff slowly to show that we mourn those that our nation lost.

As you walk between the open quads and courtyards on campus, in Chapin Hall or the Todd Quad or on this largest quad bounded by Founders, Cox, and the Athletic Center, think about how we here, through friendship and scholarship, argument and agreement, thinking and feeling, are free to work securely on the inside.

For those of you who are avid bikers, runners, or climbers, you will have found yourself at some point going uphill.

We have heard the first tolling of the bell, which marks the moment when the first plane hit the first tower in New York, nineteen tolls, and we have observed a minute of silence. We have seen the flag, which usually flies so high, carefully unfurled and raised, then placed at half-staff as a sign of mourning.