Head of School

Every day, as I watch Hewitt girls rise to the challenge on the field, the court, and the stage, I think about how we can help them transfer that bravery and healthy aggressiveness to moments of academic assessment, including standardized tests.

When I joined the Hewitt community three years ago, I never anticipated that conference day would become one of my favorite days of the school year. Yet it is. Why? It is because all day long, I bear witness in our two lobbies to a steady stream of parents and students, coming and going, full of anticipation, pride, determination, and hope for the future.

I joined 154 other New York heads of independent schools to sign an open letter that appeared in The New York Times on Sunday, February 25, 2018. I am proud to stand with my colleagues as we insist on the safety of our schools and our children.

At Hewitt, everywhere I turn, I see teachers, students, staff, parents, trustees, and alumnae unified by the same vision of a world where girls grow up knowing that their voice is their power; where women have agency over their lives, their careers, and their bodies; where women have the confidence to stand up for themselves and for those who cannot do so on their own.

To flourish means that you are engaged in your world, that you have good relationships, that you feel accomplished, and--above all--that your life is connected to a purpose that is bigger than you. I like to think that if there is a sacred inner core of Hewitt, it is this wholehearted commitment to nurturing the kind of soil in which students, faculty, staff, parents, and indeed the school itself can flourish.

I still hadn’t moved from my chair—yet in my stillness, I realized that my choice not to react to my daughter’s mishap created the condition for her to learn and grow from it. In order to allow her to square off against her fear, I had to square off against my instinct and desire to protect her. I had to sit with my own anxiety and not act on it. Just because she was scared did not mean she needed my protection. If I stepped in, it would be about my needs, not hers.

When I first joined the Hewitt community, someone asked me this question: “If a Hewitt girl could be any character from a movie, who would she be?” I wasted no time in answering, “Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games.” So why Katniss Everdeen? When I stop to reflect on the answer to this question, there are three main reasons, and I’d like to share each with you in turn.

It is both a fascinating and a daunting time to be educating young people. While many of us in the field of education believe that unity is foundational to a school’s mission every day, I believe we need to rethink the way we understand and teach this seemingly timeless concept. 

In times such as these, I believe that teachers and schools must resist the search for silver-bullet answers. I believe that teachers should resist the urge to be master deliverers of content, when the content is truly beyond any single one of us to master. And I believe that the role of the teacher and the school in such a time is to model civil discourse, which is learning at its very best.  

Parents are under unprecedented pressure to supply the perfect childhood, give their children the best of everything and ensure they excel at everything they do. And as a school principal, I feel a little extra pressure to model good parenting. Maybe that’s why my children had never seen me fail until recently. But wiping out in front of them became one of the most important lessons I could teach as a parent.