Dear Brown School Parents, Friends and Families,

Have you noticed how younger people are, they seem to see the
world in terms of opportunities rather than "problems"?  And the younger
they are, the more pronounced this tendency is. Before they have to worry
about college, career, mortgages, etc., they just see the
world in terms of exciting stuff to do - managing their iPod, hanging out
with their friends, a concert by their favorite group, the latest cool thing
that one of their friends is doing, etc.

A few years ago Lee Ann Womack recorded a popular song ("I Hope You Dance")
that had a heartfelt lyric that describes the spirit of youth that keeps young
people focused on opportunities - perhaps you remember it:
 
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger.
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one-door closes I hope one more opens.

That would be a wonderful keynote idea for a graduation speech to our 8th
graders.
 
Yet somewhere along the way, usually around the middle school years, life
gets a little heavier (or at least it seems that way to them.) This is
probably because that is the time of life when the view shifts away from
vast opportunities to the usual complications of adolescence. It is a time
when all kinds of cross currents arrive to make opportunities harder to see
our students are sometimes obscured by the stresses and strains of growing up.

Our main job, as I see it, is to keep the Womack Attitude alive for them. It
is not just a matter of academics, while of course that is very important,
but also rather a spirit of optimistic wonder. Children need to get their "fill but always
keeping that hunger" for opportunities, rather than getting weighted down
with the "problems" of life. That is, until they learn from a positive
approach to life that "problems" are often just opportunities in disguise.
(And sometimes they are very well disguised, indeed!)

So it is with a school as a whole. The natural tendency is to see the
immediate things because they impress themselves on us minute by minute. The
trick is to never lose our "sense of wonder" and "keep that hunger" for what
a school can become, if we want it to do everything for your students of
which we are capable as a community.
 
Sincerely,
John Barry