Curiosity, Kindness, Inclusivity, and Resilience are the school’s new values. On the surface, the values seem simple, but their importance stretches far beyond plaques in an auditorium. The school shifted from the previous values of Respect, Love of Learning, Integrity, and Courage after the board approved the change in June 2024. The change comes after a Strategic Design Team reviewed the Jan. 2024 Community Survey results. In 2020, the school revised its mission statement and commitment to pluralism and wanted to change its values l in the coming years.
Head of School Anne Stavney said, “[the values] hadn’t been looked at in over 22 years, so it was time.” Since the three schools merged in 1974, many values have been utilized. According to Stavney, the Head of School is usually the only one determining these values. However, she wanted a more complete process that allowed everyone’s voice to be heard: “I really wanted to have a fuller process…[the decision] did involve teachers, administrators, moms, trustees, parents…to ensure that they were representative of the PK-12 experience.”
One of Stavney’s main goals was to have a set of values that spoke to all students no matter the campus. “In [the] lower school we used the welcome, safety, respect rule. In the middle school we had the HARRT code, which are six different values,” said Stavney. “We had those different values in the different divisions, even though we had school values…our school values didn’t speak to those younger grades.” Stavney noted that the process of changing values was not easy. The school reached out to “the alumni board, the Board of Trustees, the parents association, the upper school faculty, middle school faculty, and got feedback. We kept revising, we went through six drafts and then finally produced what is now our strategic plan with the values.”
Curiosity, Kindness, Inclusivity, and Resilience have meaning and importance in improving students’ experience. Stavney mentioned that curiosity is a version of love of learning that specifically applies to younger students instilling a sense of curiosity. “We see [curiosity] as really fundamental to what we’re cultivating from the earliest ages,” said Stavney.
Stavney noted that kindness is a variation of respect in that at a very root level, respect starts with being kind, which speaks to younger and older students alike. Inclusivity strongly connects to kindness in the aspect of welcoming and accepting others. “We felt that [inclusivity] was really core also to our notion of pluralism that comes from kindness and inclusivity,” claimed Stavney.
Stavney pointed out that the school tries its hardest to teach students they can make mistakes, with schoolwork or interaction with one another. Curiosity and kindness are alike because they are “essential to developing the mind and the heart.”
Upper School English Teacher Anil Chandiramani said “[the board] felt like the values collectively felt like a good compass to help sort of remind ourselves of what we do every day.”
Chandiramani noted that the values are a solid guide for students and the more students actively recall and remember these values, the better their experience. “I think students who relate to each other and to teachers…embody these values already. We can turn to the values…teachers and students alike, administrators alike can just remind ourselves…this is our norm, this is what we do,” said Chandiramani. He added, “I think other ways we can sort of embed these values culturally is to have them displayed prominently just to remind ourselves of what they are to keep them a part of the conversation.”
Likewise, Stavney mentioned “[the school’s] mission talks about bringing together a diverse set of students in an inclusive community. An example of this comes from the school’s admissions events for the Early Learning Center. Stavney explained, “We teach that you learn through exploration, you learn through investigation.” Moreover, Stavney viewed these four values as successful if they impact who students become in the future. “If these four values are really key to who people have become, I think we have lived our mission,” said Stavney. She asserted, “I think [the values] are foundational to living a good life and being a contributor.” Chandiramani added his opinion: “The values are sort of part of the educational experience that students cultivate while they’re here and they’re sort of those core traits I think that they can take with them as they move on to university and professionally.”
These values are also vital for educators. The school just finished developing a document called “Portrait of an Educator” which is “essentially a more developed version of values,” said Stavney. According to Stavney, lifelong learning, and intellectual curiosity about different viewpoints are what the school is seeking in its educators. Stavney emphasizes the importance of resilience stating that “it certainly is important to developing as a professional to have resilience because things aren’t gonna be perfect all the time.”
As an English teacher, Chandiramani reflected on the importance of the school’s values and how they apply specifically to the classes he teaches. In his literature classes, he believed these values directly apply to the curriculum and to the texts the class reads: “I think…the values in terms of curricula could be useful.” When thinking about incorporating these values into the class, Chandiramani urged students to consider how the school’s values work in the text and how that understanding of the value compares to our institutional and individual interpretation of the values.
Overall, though it may seem like a simple change, the school’s new values provide an opportunity for students of all ages and faculty to connect with the institution, their classmates, and themselves more. These new values serve as a guiding principle for students and the school’s vision moving forward.
