The Flywheel Continues To Turn

In reflecting on the journey that we’ve been on together over these past twelve months, I’ve found myself returning to the many big moments we’ve shared this year -- those signature “Stone” moments when the imagination and humor of our school has been most fully on display.  The raucous Stone Cold Convoy last Spring and our first virtual All-School meeting last March.  The Pop-Up Graduation Ceremony, and the Drive-In, and Stonehunt, and opening the school year at Climbers Run, and that spectacular bonfire at Rock Lititz. 

In thinking about those moments, it occurs to me that though they do provide public evidence of what Stone is capable of, everything we do well emanates from routine, daily practices in which our students collaborate, think critically, and solve sophisticated problems.  When they navigate a complex conversation in Race and Resistance, and also when they work together to open an independent music label.  When our juniors and seniors design solutions to The Workshop and The Defense, when our ninth grade systems theory students design policy actions to address systemic racism.  When our Outbreak students research the history of pandemic, and our Middle School Civics students learn how to canvas at Central Market, and our Upper School students obsess over the United States Census.  When our students test Newton’s 3rd Law by designing hoverboards, or when they learn how to process the DNA of microbes.  When they consider the sociology of blue jeans, or create ethnographies of Facebook communities, or examine ecological issues within indigienous cultures.  

That’s the value of skills-based education: students show evidence of growth every single day of the school year.  Practice those skills every day and a kind of flywheel begins to turn, the product of which you begin to see all over our community -- in our classes, in those “big public events” up at Rock Lititz, even in a multi-tiered joke about snow on Slack.  You see it in our Parents’ Association book meetings and trivia contests and Mod pizza nights and socially distanced hikes on the Northwest River Trail.  You see it in the way our ninth graders laugh over the air hockey table between classes and in the tenth grade’s obsession with fly fishing.  In the Wednesday pop-up dance sessions (with Hot Dog) in the Middle School, in the quiet games of Go played between faculty and students, in the Friday afternoon meet-ups between Middle School LFH students and on-campus students at Market, in an afternoon Bus Band rehearsal, when you come across a lone 7th grade student quietly designing a submarine in CAD during a free period.  

And you see it particularly clearly when our student body takes over Morning Meeting in order to hold up notes and cards and posters of gratitude because they just want to say thank you.

Here at Stone, we practice Mission, values, principles, and skills in everything we do, and in that regular practice the flywheel turns faster and faster.

A year ago today — February 11th, 2020 — I couldn’t possibly foresee what was to come only five weeks later.  Today, as we design and plan for school in 2021-2022, I remain uncertain of what the future weeks might look like.  But I am absolutely certain of this: at every level our community -- students, faculty, parents, Trustees -- we will relentlessly design, build and exhibit joyful experiences.  

And regardless of context or learning environment, our flywheel will continue to turn.  

Mike Simpson

Head of School