Making a Community

Hello and welcome! I am Allison Gaines Pell, head of school at Wheeler. I’m delighted to see so many of you here today. Welcome to those who are here for the first time, and welcome back to the many of you who are back again.

I know you aren’t here for me this morning, and that I stand between you and some magical hours with your grandchildren and special friends. So I’ll be brief!

I decided to wear something special today because each GrandFriends Day, I try to bring my own grandparents to school, because I miss them and think of them often. So this is my grandmother’s charm bracelet. It chronicles the course of her life. I like to follow along and speak to her in my mind with my own life milestones. This is one of my favorite days of the year because you – whether you are a grandparent or special friend – are the people who inspire our students; you are the ones they might speak to in their minds. We are very pleased to be sponsoring some cherished time together today, since we already feel so lucky to spend time with these amazing students daily.

One of the things I loved about being with my grandmother was that it seemed that time would stop when we were together. We would dance, sing, and eat cookies madly, away from the gaze of my parents. I recently saw a picture of me in the room next to hers, sitting on a golden, perfectly laid bedspread. I was a little girl of no more than seven or eight in a white silky nightgown of hers and a tiara with a gigantic smile on my face. I was sure that I was a princess, and as I remember, we were about to go outside to dance. My memories of her are among my best experiences of connection and warmth in my whole life. Those moments are certainly fleeting, and as a society, I know we all worry that we suffer from a lack of connection. And yet still, I know everyone here has moments they cherish that easily come to mind.

At Wheeler, we are thinking a lot about how to make sure that bots cannot come between us, and that the connections we share at school are authentic and woven throughout every day. This is why we have extra time for recess in the Lower and Middle Schools, and why we’ve reorganized our Upper School schedule to allow students more time to connect with one another. It’s why our classes are discussion-based. It is why every division comes together for assemblies to share with and hear from another, to enjoy the very act of making a community.

It is also why one of our most important initiatives over these past few years has to do with Wheeler Farm, just ten minutes from where we sit today. Most of the 120 acres that make up the farm were purchased by Mary Colman Wheeler, our founder, in 1913. She believed, as we do, that one needs both a busy urban buzz and also all that a natural and bucolic environment can provide. Our farm campus has for years housed our athletic fields and our summer camp. But now we aim to make sure that every child in every grade has a meaningful experience at the farm, whether it is Forest Days in Lower School, the 6th Grade Farm Program, 7th-grade AGILE projects, or poetry writing and environmental science research in Upper School.

Right now, we are building a home for our highly popular nature-based early childhood program, the Nest. We’re also rebuilding the trails, constructing free-standing classroom cabins out in the woods where teachers can bring their classes, and creating a beautiful amphitheater in the heart of the campus, where groups will gather to present and perform.

In addition, we are building a new state-of-the-art aquatics center that will house our dynamo swim team and where people from across the region and families close by can gather to play in the water and learn to swim year-round under the Wheeler dome that will keep it warm for the whole year.

Access to the farm campus for our students means high-touch learning away from screens; it means the mental health lift that comes with access to nature; and it means building muscles for curiosity, problem-solving, and field research at every age – from counting earthworms to testing the PH of the pond substrates.

We’re thrilled about these projects and hope that if you cannot spend time there today, you one day find your way there to go for a walk. It is truly a balm for the soul. If you cannot see and feel it with your own eyes, you can see a video and learn more at our website to see what we’ve planned. And, before you know it, you’ll be out at the farm for your grandchild’s graduation under the big tent on a beautiful day.

Just like the farm, today is about finding moments of joy and connection. The scientists tell us that we will all be healthier if we make less time in our lives for our human instinct to notice the negative, and instead make more time to go out hunting for joy, savoring it, slowing down, and relishing little bits of joy together. That’s what we get to do today. I hope as you go through school today, you will see our students in their joyful modes as they hold your hand and walk you from place to place, and regale you with tales of this school they are proud to attend.

I also hope you will get a sense of why they are so proud to be here. As our mission guides us, we are a school that aims to ensure that we learn our powers and become answerable for their use, where we create experiences that help each young person chase and catch their ambitions and dreams. I hope you will get a sense of the many ideas they pursue and experiences they have, and most of all the wonderful faculty and staff who guide our young people towards lives of purpose, meaning, intellect, and joy, in the here and now and for the future we all share.

Thank you so much for being here today.