A powerful and courageous community

Dearest Gordon Family,

There is something special about our school.

Among ourselves, we often call it “the Gordon magic,” but it’s palpable to all who visit our school or join our community. Unlike popular magic (which is a lot of fun, too!), the Gordon magic is not based on illusion or misdirection. Gordon’s magic springs from a unique brand of excellence that is joyful and purposeful, an excellence that places students at the center of all that we do. Gordon’s excellence is multidimensional, a combination of several elements that create an environment in which students can thrive as courageous learners and compassionate leaders. Ours is an excellence with a purpose.

This fall, I have had the good fortune to experience Gordon’s excellence through a newcomer’s eyes. Throughout the campus, I see purposeful physical spaces designed for children and that grow with them. I stand beside superb teachers who truly know their students and give them the freedom to take on challenges and explore their own and the world’s possibilities and limits, teachers whose curricula are grounded in real-world experiences that foster critical thinking, curiosity, and deep engagement. I hear the sound of children of all ages playing with unbridled exuberance, gaining strong social and leadership skills, and developing a robust sense of identity. I see the way students and alumni light up when they see their former teachers. And I feel the love of a community that is intentional about including people—“everybody in, nobody out”—so that all members of the community feel safe, seen, and valued, and so that they all have access to the opportunity to be their full, authentic selves.
 
My goal as Gordon’s new Head of School is to ensure that Gordon is the best that it can be, in every way. I want our excellence with a purpose, our magic, to shine brightly. Across the entire school, we are thinking about innovation and adaptation, and we are reflecting on systems, structures, and processes, all in keeping with our mission. We also are thinking deeply about how we use rapidly changing technology purposefully, and getting outdoors and using our campus as a classroom as much as we can. This year, we are also focusing on the Middle School experience: highlighting our strengths and all of the wonderful things that make Gordon’s Middle School unique, aligning our student support team and services so that support is holistic and integrated, and bolstering signature experiences for each year of our students’ middle school journey. We are incredibly excited by all of this work.

We’re also amplifying the ways we listen, respond, and care for the unique needs of caregivers in these difficult times. The strength of our community is essential to the Gordon magic. For a whole host of reasons, life beyond Maxfield Avenue has been extremely challenging for many of us. These challenges are life-changing: some people in our community have lost jobs, or their employers have lost funding, making the future uncertain; others serving in the military have been deployed; still others have lost access to health care; and others yet are directly impacted by hostility towards immigrants. And on top of it all, parenting and raising children has gotten more complicated, stressful, expensive, and lonely.

While Gordon may be limited in what it can do to relieve any of these hardships, in the spirit of “everybody in, nobody out,” I want to make sure we find ways to authentically and compassionately sustain one another. So here is my simple but purposeful ask: please stay in touch. If you are experiencing particular stresses on your family at this time, or if there are new pressures negatively impacting your family’s day-to-day life, make sure someone at Gordon knows. Email or call me or any of the Assistant Heads, or reach out to your child’s teacher, advisor, dean, or division director. Nurse Kaine and Ms. Kristi are also here to support your family. The more we know, the better equipped we will be to help find ways through this difficult time.

We’ll do it together.