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FROM THE HEADMASTER
Living Today While Looking Ahead
The beginning of a new year is a natural time to reflect on the past year, anticipate opportunities and challenges ahead, and make plans for the upcoming months. We may resolve to do some things differently, continue on a successful path, or pursue exciting opportunities – sometimes all of these.
While planning for the future is an important skill that supports achievement, the ability to appreciate and integrate daily experience is critical to a fulfilling life, both now and in the future. Fully engaging in the present can increase enjoyment, strengthen relationships, lessen stress, and promote well being. This is especially important when the future holds challenges and uncertainty. For many of our children, upcoming exams and grades are “looming” on the horizon and can be a source of considerable stress. Learning to balance their academic and co-curricular activities with their daily life is a developing skill, and they may easily feel overwhelmed.
As adults, we can see further down the road to the point where a well-lived life matters more than any one achievement, fulfillment comes in many forms, and rich friendships are an ongoing source of happiness and support. We owe it to our children to remind them that they are much more as individuals than their academic challenges and accomplishments. Encouraging them to break away from their books, to take time for friends and activities they enjoy each day, and to get adequate sleep can go a long way in alleviating their stress.
So much of a Chadwick education is absorbed moment by moment – moments of cooperation as a group navigates a ropes course, of creativity and hilarity in an improv performance, of exhilaration in artistic expression, of triumph and defeat in competition, of self-discovery in relationships with faculty and friends. None of these experiences will receive a grade, yet they are essential to character, happiness, learning and success in life. Our children need us to share our broader definition of success, help them to live in the present while planning for the future, and assure them that who they are will always be more important than what they achieve.
As headmaster, one of my responsibilities is to promote a school environment that supports and encourages engagement and broad experience. As a parent in the trenches, I appreciate the community of parents and faculty that makes that environment possible – especially this month.
Chadwick community news
Community Improv/Robotics Fun Night This Friday
Teachers, students and their families are invited to the first Chadwick Community Improv and Robotics Fun Night this Friday, Jan. 11 in Christensen Hall. Players from the ChImps, Chadwick's improvisational theater group, will help get the creative juices flowing as the community helps Chadwick's Wicked Wobotics Team brainstorm their next robot design. The event will be held from 5 to 7 p.m., and dinner will be served. Come join the fun!
Internet Safety Workshop Planned For January 23
Chadwick's technology department will present "Keeping Our Children Safe in the Digital Age: Internet Safety 101," a special K-12 parent education night, on Wednesday, January 23, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Christensen Hall.
Guest speakers Lori Getz, technology specialist for the Brentwood School, and Agent Randall Devine of the FBI will discuss technologies our children are currently using, popular social networking sites like My Space and Facebook, and strategies for protecting our children and ourselves in the digital age.
For more information or to R.S.V.P., contact Deborah Levy, Chadwick's technology integration specialist, at deborah.levy@chadwickschool.org.
Alumni Profile: Stephen Spurr '61 Found His Calling In Teaching
During his Chadwick days, the last thing Stephen Spurr ’61 ever imagined pursuing as an adult was teaching. It wasn’t until his 30s, when he was well into a successful career as a tax lawyer, that Spurr realized what he really liked doing was writing, doing research and, ironically, teaching. After some personal “re-tooling,” he’s now a professor of economics at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
“What is really exciting to me is when I have discovered something new that I think is important and, when I include it in my presentation, a bright student or colleague sees the point, even before I have finished presenting it,” said Spurr. “Nothing can beat that.” Among other courses, Spurr teaches the economic analysis of law and has written a textbook, “Economic Foundations of Law,” published by Southwestern Publishing Co/Thomson Learning in 2006.
Read more about Spurr and other Chadwick alumni on the Alumni Profile pages of our Web site.
Annual Fund Challenge Surpassed!
We are very excited to report that our parents met our $115,000 challenge by giving a total of $154,678 in new and increased gifts to the Annual Fund this year. Kudos to everyone who reached further this year to make this possible. Extra special thanks go to our anonymous family, Board of Trustees, and Annual Fund leaders who contributed the matching funds.
As of Dec. 31, we have raised $1,249,675 from 74 percent of our families. Thank you to everyone who has given for your outstanding demonstration of support for our school. Because of your generosity, every aspect of Chadwick is enhanced and every student and teacher is enjoying the benefits this year.
If you have not yet given, we still need your support. Even though the challenge dollars are no longer available, your participation ensures that we are able to continue to offer the high-quality education that sets our school apart. To make your gift of pledge, please click here or call 310.377.1543, ext. 4068.
Upcoming Admission Events
A special information night for incoming sixth-graders will be held at the Laverty Center on January 16. The presentation features a DVD current Chadwick sixth-graders have created about life at the school. The students will take questions afterward.
Home receptions scheduled in January offer families a relaxed setting in which they may meet administrators, parents and Chadwick students in their own communities. Home receptions are held from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the following areas:
| Manhattan Beach | Tuesday, Jan. 15 |
| Ladera Heights | Thursday, Jan. 17 |
| Palos Verdes | Tuesday, Jan. 22 |
Village School admission tours, scheduled for January 17 and 23, round out the list of opportunities for families of prospective students to familiarize themselves with Chadwick as the January 25 application deadline approaches. For more information or to make a reservation for any of the above events, contact the admission office at
310-377-1543, ext. 4025, or admissions@chadwickschool.org
Community News Online
Keep up with the Chadwick Community on the "News Flash" page of our Web site, always available via a link in the lower-right corner of our home page. Online at publication time:
Alumni Athletic Day Draws A Crowd
All-School Events In January
| Jan. 11 | Chadwick Community Robotics / Improv Fun Night, 5 - 7:30 p.m., Christensen Hall |
| Jan. 12 | Kindergarten Admission Evaluations, 8 a.m., Kindergarten classroom and Village School blacktop |
| Jan. 16 | 6th-grade Admission Information Night, 7 p.m., Laverty Center |
| Jan. 17 | Village Admission Tour, 8:30 a.m. |
| Jan. 21 | School Holiday, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day |
| Jan. 23 | Village Admission Tour, 8:25 a.m. |
Internet Safety Workshop, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., Christensen Hall |
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| Jan. 24 | Diversity Council Meeting, 7 p.m., Library |
| Jan. 25 | Admission Applications due |
| Jan. 26 | ISEE Testing (Grades 5-12), Roessler Hall |
| Feb. 4 & 5 | Student Holiday, Semester Break |
Click for Village School Events, Middle School Events and Upper School Events listed in this issue of the Navigator. A complete, searchable school calendar is always available at www.chadwickschool.org — just click the "calendar" link in the upper left corner of every page.