A Welcome Back Letter from Head of Lower School Kate Hewitt P’30

Dear Lower School and Nest Families,

My favorite yoga teacher asked a fortuitous question during a recent practice: “What are you creating?” The first answer that popped into my mind was community. I take very seriously my responsibility to shape a healthy community of belonging amongst both the children and the adults who comprise our Lower School. Schools are uniquely positioned to serve as bastions of hope, possibility, and community within this polarized and often dehumanizing time in which we find ourselves. Schools are places where relationships matter because the most important learning can take place only within relationships. As I look ahead to my first year at Wheeler, I am thinking a good deal about the actions that I will take to create a thriving community, and the actions that I will ask students, families, and teachers to take alongside me.

I am lucky to be guided in my actions by David Brooks’ beautiful book, “How to Know a Person.” Thank you to Wheeler’s Summer Learning Committee for giving me the opportunity to read it!  Brooks asserts: “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen…Seeing someone well is a powerful creative act. No one can fully appreciate their own beauty and strengths unless those things are mirrored back to them in the mind of another…In how you see me, I will learn to see myself.” 

I commit to you that I will see all of your children well this year–I will approach them with respect and receptivity; I will be curious about their experiences and interests; I will do my best to get inside their perspective; I will name and appreciate their strengths and talents; I will be present for them when they encounter sadness or struggle; and I will give them the gift of what Dr. Becky Kennedy calls “the most generous interpretation” when they make a mistake. Brooks gives an apt name to this kind of seeing: He calls it “beholding.”

I will be accompanied in beholding your children by Wheeler’s stellar Lower School and Nest faculty. As we shine the light of our loving and thoughtful attention on our students, we will help them to see themselves accurately and empower them with the skill and knowledge to become their best selves–to learn their powers and be answerable for their use, as Mary Wheeler would say. We will endeavor equally to behold you, our partners in their learning and growth, and to behold each other, modeling the skills that we ask our students to practice in relationship to their peers. 

I invite you to join us in our commitment to behold one another and to forge the strong connections that create a healthy community of belonging. As a start, I hope that you will join me for coffee and conversation in the coming weeks. Please check out the dates and RSVP here. (You can find additional important dates and other helpful back-to-school information in this document; September dates are noted below this letter). 

I’d also love to engage in dialogue with all of you about this idea of “beholding” and how we can bring it to life in our parenting and teaching practices. You will notice that I quoted Dr. Becky Kennedy earlier in this email; the strategies that she shares in “Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be,” are concrete tools that support us in deeply seeing and being seen by our children. If you’d like to join me in a book club to discuss “Good Inside,” please complete this short form to share your interest and availability.

I can’t wait to begin this year’s adventures and to immerse myself in the day-to-day interactions in which relationships are built–ordinary moments that open up the opportunity for extraordinary connection. Here’s to the profound creativity of beholding the remarkable humans who surround us at Wheeler!

Yours in community,

Kate

P.S. Nest families, I also wanted to note that you will hear from Michelle Dolan with Nest-specific details and dates. Michelle is your incredible leader and primary point of contact, and you will hear most often from her throughout the year. I will be in touch more intermittently, but please know that Michelle and I stay in close communication and work in partnership. I will be on the farm regularly, and I am always happy to hear from you!

View Michelle Dolan’s Letter
 

Important September Dates for Lower School on PVD Campus 

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