Head's Reflections

  • Posted January 6, 2012

    Deciding Upon Citizenship Responsibilities: A Case Study from Nazi Germany

    A Chapel Talk, January 4, 2012

    A Reading from the work of Father Richard Rohr on Contemplation:


    Contemplation is meeting as much reality as we can handle in its most simple and immediate form, without filters, judgments, and commentaries. Now you see why it is so rare.

    The only way you can contemplate is by recognizing and relativizing your own compulsive mental grids—your practiced ways of judging, critiquing, blocking, and computing everything.

    When your mental judgmental grid and all its commentaries are placed aside, God finally has a chance to get through to you, because your pettiness is at last out of the way.

    The Truth can stand revealed. You will begin to recognize that we all carry the Divine Indwelling within us and we all carry it equally.

  • Posted December 9, 2011

    Approaching Diversity and Inclusivity at St. Mark’s in the 21st Century

    The topics of diversity and inclusivity have been, and continue to be, challenging for independent schools. Like its peers, St. Mark’s has experienced that challenge. I am proud that our School has developed a Diversity Statement to serve as a reference point and a source of aspiration, and I am proud that we are working very hard to ensure a systematic and thoughtful approach to these complicated topics. Important work lies ahead for St. Mark’s to develop a best in class approach to diversity and inclusivity.

  • Posted October 28, 2011

    Encouraging Reflection in a Complicated School and a Complicated World

    A tension exists at St. Mark’s between the desire to ensure that students and faculty have sufficient time for reflective thinking and the desire to support a rich array of opportunities to facilitate student advancement. This tension can manifest itself in frustration. At a January 2010 Faculty meeting, for example, I asserted that St. Mark’s could—and should—become even more intellectually vibrant. The Faculty discussion that followed focused primarily on impediments: what stands in the way of the intellectual climate at St. Mark’s being as exciting as it can be. A major impediment, many Faculty argued, was a daily, weekly, and annual schedule which was too busy, not allowing enough time for the reflection necessary for intellectual creativity. On the other hand, our engaging ambitious and curious students and Faculty want to be part of a School that features a program with many curricular and extra-curricular opportunities. And, students, faculty and parents know that in order to be competitive at a highly selective college, a student must demonstrate excellence, and excellence requires a greater and greater investment of time and a greater and greater investment of effort on specific tasks. For example, admission to highly selective colleges is highly influenced by standardized test scores, the GPA, a transcript that demonstrates impressive rigor, and something that makes the student stand out, be it lacrosse, an artistic endeavor, or an academic subject approached in a distinctive way. Supporting these goals requires a substantial investment of time by the individual and the existence of a rich, full—and very busy—school program. For these good reasons, students, parents, and Faculty push the School to provide more, and they sometimes express frustration at the limits the School imposes as we try to support time for reflection, time for all of us to just “be.”

    06)

  • Posted September 13, 2011

    Convocation Speech -- Friday, September 9, 2011 -- "Small Incremental Steps"

    I hope you found Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies a powerful read. I certainly did. Few of us, I trust, will be faced with such profound choices as the Mirabal sisters. But we are all presented with choices which this book can help us think about.1 Thank you Department Heads for selecting such a provocative book to begin our consideration of citizenship, the theme for the first year of the Gray Colloquium. Through the generosity of Boyden Gray, St. Mark’s Class of 1960, we have instituted a new program at St. Mark’s: we will focus in a systematic way on a theme for the entire year. Consideration of that theme will be incorporated into class discussions, guest speakers will help us reflect upon the theme, and we will cancel classes for a day in March to engage in small group seminars about the theme, led by graduates, parents, and friends of the School. Considering what it means to be a citizen in the 21st Century, what our responsibilities are as members of communities small and large, is a worthy enterprise for 2011-2012.

  • Posted May 24, 2011

    Celebrating the Life Long Pursuit of Knowledge

    Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-20

    12 Wisdom is radiant and unfading,
    and she is easily discerned by those who love her,
    and is found by those who seek her.
    13 She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her.
    14 One who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty,
    for she will be found sitting at the gate.
    15 To fix one’s thought on her is perfect understanding,
    and one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care,
    16 because she goes about seeking those worthy of her,
    and she graciously appears to them in their paths,
    and meets them in every thought.


    17 The beginning of wisdom* is the most sincere desire for instruction,
    and concern for instruction is love of her,
    18 and love of her is the keeping of her laws,
    and giving heed to her laws is assurance of immortality,
    19 and immortality brings one near to God;
    20 so the desire for wisdom leads to a kingdom.

    I very much enjoy the passage because it celebrates learning. If you want to be wise, the author tells us, you must find joy in learning. Becoming wise is a good thing, the passage asserts, and is a path open to anybody: “wisdom…is found by those who seek her. She hastens to make herself known to those who seek her.”

See All News
 
John Warren ’74, Head of School

Archives