Team Captains: What’s in their playbook?
In the pool, around the track, across the courts, and on slopes and fields, student athletes strive to perform at their best. While their coaches constantly guide and teach, team captains significantly affect the experiences in an athlete’s season. Elected by peers to lead, team captains are typically seniors who bring their experience from previous seasons. Most teams have two or three captains, and occasionally a well-respected player from Class II or III gets the nod of teammates. Each team has unique needs, but the roles that team captains play are similar, regardless of the...
Read More“What do you mean, ‘curriculum renewal’?”
Heather Sugrue, math department chair, along with the faculty in her department, have undertaken a comprehensive review of math at Milton. Math is taking the lead in a renewal process that every department at Milton will conduct, in sequence and at regular intervals. “Ongoing, rigorous, curriculum renewal” is a key tenet of the Strategic Plan adopted by the trustees in January 2013. One of the central architects on the Strategic Planning team, Heather co-chaired its Student Life Task Force. Heather is pioneering the first major example of the process the plan intends. Milton’s priority...
Read MoreOn Purposeful Percolating
An article by Carolyn Johnson in the Boston Globe titled “The Joy of Boredom” made its way to my file because of how it highlighted two insightful thinkers. Richard Ralley and Ned Hallowell have written extensively about the danger of modern society’s fear of boredom. They argue that our desire to be stimulated, constantly, threatens our potential for creativity. Mr. Ralley, a lecturer at Edge Hill University in England, notes that, “The most creative people are known to have the greatest toleration for long periods of uncertainty and boredom.” Dr. Hallowell, psychiatrist and author...
Read MoreOne Little Glitch
By Luke White ’99 My mother, Pam White, retired from Milton in 2002. As a Health Center counselor, head of the peer-counseling program, and longtime leader of Octet, Pam used her vibrant spirit and warmth to touch many at Milton. Since that time, Pam enjoyed starting a small private practice as a clinical social worker, playing tennis, and becoming a grandmother three times over. As she would put it, “there’s just one little glitch”: in 2009, shortly after her 61st birthday, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Everyone whose life has been touched by this illness...
Read MoreLida Famili, Member of the faculty 1987-2012
For 25 years at Milton, Lida Famili has embodied John Dewey’s idea: “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” Lida views her role primarily as helping students develop into young adults, and teaching chemistry only secondarily. Lida deeply respects and cares for students; her focus, in combination with her excellent background in chemistry, has made Lida the heart and soul of the science department. As one Class II student said, “Ms. Famili brightened my day every time I saw her. I will miss her daily hugs. I’m blessed to know Ms. Famili.” Lida’s...
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