October Letter from Head of School

Dear Bush Community,

 

It has been a magnificent first month of the school year here at The Bush School, and I marvel at the many examples of resilience, integrity, courage, and partnership which I witness daily. From the classrooms and athletics fields to the art studios and performance stages, Bush continues to be a community which inspires me deeply and provides me with a tremendous sense of hope for the future.

In thinking about my own secondary school years, I continue to reflect on a deeply pivotal moment of development and growth around resilience and integrity that occurred for me in Sixth Grade. The youngest of three children (with my two older siblings being very high-achieving students), I placed immense pressure upon myself to measure up to my brother and sister. In the spring of Sixth Grade, I had a science final on geology and landforms, topics about which I was concerned that I didn’t know enough about to get an A. Rather than just doing the best I could with what I knew and believing that I could only get an A for the semester if I aced it, I decided, for the first (and only) time in my schooling life, to hide some notes under my desk, and essentially, cheat. Mrs. Zoerbe was pretty spacey and didn’t typically look up from her desk once we were working, so I figured it was a safe bet to get away with this risky choice. 

What I neglected to factor in was my classmate Christin, the daughter of the town doctor, quickly picked up on what I was doing and reported it to our teacher right away. I was caught red-handed and given a zero for the final, making the highest grade I could possibly earn for the semester a C. I was devastated and thought the punishment far too harsh, and assumed my parents would rally to my defense. Surely they understood that this was out of character for me and would pressure the teacher and the principal (who attended the church at which my dad was the rector) to be more lenient with their consequence, especially since I’d never been in this kind of trouble before. 

Alas, I could not have been more wrong, as my parents stood firmly behind the school’s decision and spoke a few simple sentences that would stick with me forever: “Sarah Elizabeth, integrity means doing the right thing even when you think no one is looking. You will bounce back from this mistake, but only if you really learn from it and decide that integrity matters.” I was not particularly pleased and likely yelled something along the lines of “Why don’t you all ever support me when I need you to?” No good parenting deed goes unpunished during the teenage years. 

Three plus decades later, I can see how right they were and how clearly they focused on the bigger picture of my core values formation rather than the short-term challenge in front of us. While a C for spring semester science in Sixth Grade may have impacted my short-term GPA, the critical lessons I learned about honesty, resilience, and integrity shaped my future forever. I have tried to channel their approach into my own parenting and hope that all parents and guardians with whom we are in partnership at Bush will trust the learning process that unfolds here at Bush, even those that sometimes bring painful lessons. For on the other side of the harder growth lessons which emerge from our mistakes come the formative experiences which help us discern how we want to live our lives and move through the world. 

At Bush, it is always our goal to nurture young people and support their development of resilience, courage, integrity, and curiosity. Each student has a different journey towards those ends, and we rely on a strong partnership with parents and caregivers built on communication and trust to ensure that we are successful in this effort. As we move forward this fall, please stay connected by attending school events, participating in conferences, and communicating with your child’s teachers, division leaders, and advisors. These conversations deepen our understanding of your child and strengthen our ability to support their growth and development.

With appreciation for your partnership and trust,

Sarah Smith

Head of School