October 2017
Very soon Mill Brook School will begin the recruitment process to welcome families and their sons to the school’s inaugural year. These trailblazing families will help us to set the tone that we expect will last for many years – hopefully decades – to come! I thought that this month I would address a common concern of parents as they make decisions about where to send their son or daughter to school. I write these words more from the perspective of a parent rather than from the perspective of a Steering Committee member. But these considerations are foremost in the minds of the Steering Committee as we create the tone that we want to have at the school.
It is common to feel a slight sense of trepidation when making a decision that seems so important at the time. The truth is, yes, it is an important decision but often not for the reasons that parents may think. Your son will obviously need to learn basic skills in reading, writing, arithmetic, science, etc. But there are other considerations that should be discussed by the parents and agreed upon. First, does the school support what you are doing at home to raise your child to be a responsible member of the community? Second, do the adults at the school have a genuine interest in all aspects of your son’s development: intellectual, social, physical, moral, spiritual? And third, is there a clearly discernable ethos at the school in which your son will thrive?
We purposefully chose to start with grades three through eight because these formative years are so influential on the development of the boy’s outlook on life, his world view one may say. And it is this outlook, along with his character, that will matter most when he is an adult in the middle of the world in just a few short years.
We are committed to the idea that it is the parents who are the primary educators of their children. Our faculty will be well versed in the importance that we give to developing the whole child. And we are very confident that through the efforts of the faculty and staff to whom you entrust your children, we will establish and preserve an ethos of service, respect for others and the intrinsic value of hard work. We look forward to enrolling your family in this exciting enterprise.
