Moments of: The Blog

The View from Here: Community

by Janet Durgin, Head of School
Community Meeting is the beating heart of SA. We always begin with a moment of reflection and in those seconds when we hold the silence, I have always cherished the opportunity to look away from whatever is scurrying around in the cobwebby corners of my mind and be one, with the community, in deep quiet. It’s harder these days to feel one with community when we can’t quite feel the vibration of each other’s hearts, when we might not hear the little breath that so frequently precedes a speech, or see each other’s faces closely enough to catch all the emotions passing through. 

But, darn it, it was more than good enough—in fact, it was great and a huge relief—to come together virtually this week for our first community meeting since March, live streamed from Darren’s garage. The admin team accentuated the Community Meeting feeling by getting on a Zoom call to watch it together—our version of being side by side in the bleachers, and it was a refreshing little taste of familiarity during an unsettled time. 

Our two community meeting facilitators stepped seamlessly (even with some tech difficulties) into their roles and it was a pleasure to watch them improvise and riff as they introduced each new segment of the meeting. How reassuring to have some familiar beats: a moment of reflection, presentations from the JHC and the Marketing & Communications interns, a musical number, and even PS, which, for I think the first time ever, was defined with its actual dictionary definition, rather than any number of silly though fun non sequiturs. (Ask Jamie Murry about the true origins of P.S.)

The Judicial Honor Council (JHC) put a little video together where they extrapolated the implications of the Honor Code as they apply to our world together online. A little history on the honor code: When Darren Duarte, Drew Gloger, and the student JHC membership at the time developed SA’s Honor Code in 2014, they wanted it to reflect our creative and dynamic culture. Rather than a list of rules, our Honor Code uses student-created images and simple examples to drive home the point that “honor” means to do the right thing. On Wednesday, the Honor Reps explained that doing the right thing online means remembering you are not anonymous even if it might seem like it and expectations of academic honesty live in virtual space as well as in the classroom. They noted that we as a school have a history of coming together and supporting each other in times of difficulty and that first and foremost the qualities of supportiveness, patience, and compassion for one another are paramount as we navigate our new reality.

Community Meeting is even more essential now than ever because the sustained nature of what we are living through requires that we restore ourselves every day through meaningful connection, exercise, fresh air, and good food. Let’s face it: these days online are long and have a certain sameness; it makes me think of what it must be like in Alaska in the winter...a constant twilight. Community Meeting put sparkle back in my day and I am so grateful, as I know you are, too, to Darren and our creative students who keep it “so SA.” 

As for putting more sparkle into our days and weeks, we heard in the parent feedback this week a strong desire to see more of the non-academic connection points for our students. See the article below where we detail what we are doing to address the need for more social interaction and more “exploratory”-like opportunities throughout the school week.

I hope some of you might try watching next week’s meeting in a Zoom call with some of your friends. If you missed this past week, you can view it here: https://youtu.be/CKQA7csqxUk, complete with the movement program hosted by Zoe Ades. Zoe will be doing this every week following Community Meeting, as well as offering some “live” workout sessions for students in the coming weeks.

I wish you the very best for a restorative weekend with less screen time. We’ve been blessed with a goodly amount of April rain, putting a dent in the drought, and bringing forth blooms that are paying no attention to the news.



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