We Call Them Specials: Chances to Try, “Fail,” Learn
Each day, projects in music, woodworking, visual and performing arts, and physical education add context to what children are studying in mathematics, social studies, science and language arts. In the Lower School, both grown-ups and children refer to these courses as “specials,” and in these classrooms, creativity reigns. K–5 specials are strong curricular components, fully integrated with the academic curriculum. In these fun and challenging classrooms, students ignite and develop particular interests and talents. Specialists may be...
read moreWho made it happen? Reunion Classes Holding the Bowl
Every school depends on committed volunteers. At Milton, volunteers not only have a great time working with equally energetic people on a shared goal. They also make sure that faculty and students this year—as in past years—will thrive, learn and grow in that particular Milton environment. Last year, reunion classes broke records and won the Bowl. For 40 years, the Jackson Bowl, named for Henry B. Jackson ’23, celebrates a “select few” who have done the most to promote annual giving at Milton. The classes of 1978 and 1993 both...
read moreStudents Vow to “TextLess” in Merritt’s Honor
February 3 was the third “TextLess Live More” day on campus, when the majority of students shut off their cellphones for the day. Students wear blue bracelets to show their commitment to the campaign. Three students—Emmie Atwood ’14, Kaitlin Gately ’14 and Abby Lebovitz ’14—founded the TextLess Live More nonprofit to honor Merritt Levitan ’13, who was killed when struck by a car during a group cross-country bike trip last summer. “Often, we live not in the real world but in the virtual one, checking our Facebook pages, our...
read moreHigh Energy Math Makes Tracks
The math department has taken 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. Heather Sugrue, math department chair, and her colleagues have pioneered the first major example of the process the plan intends. The energy surge sparked by this process has resulted in many outcomes; Heather established a new speaker series—Pi Talks, pairing math discussion and...
read moreMessages: Chris Herren
This year’s Talbot Speaker, former basketball star Chris Herren, spoke with students about his very public 14-year struggle with drug and alcohol addiction. In his powerful talk, Mr. Herren urged students to think about the “whys” as well as the consequences of drug and alcohol use during their teenage years. Mr. Herren runs the Herren Project, a nonprofit that assists individuals and families struggling with addiction. One of the nonprofit’s initiatives, Project Purple, aims to create a sober culture within schools. “Studies show...
read moreMessages: Brendan Caine ’03
Brendan Caine ’03 served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps with deployments to Iraq in 2009 and Afghanistan in 2011. This year’s Veterans’ Day speaker, Brendan asserted that several military acronyms, such as PFC and GPS, relate powerfully to Milton students’ lives at School, opportunities here, and choices ahead. Before joining the Marines, Brendan attended the University of Southern California, where he earned degrees in biology, psychology and neuroscience. Since fulfilling his active-duty commitment, Brendan is...
read moreMessages: Kevin Young
Kevin Young’s lyrical poems draw on themes of birth, death, food, heritage, New England and the South. The award-winning poet, this fall’s Bingham Visiting Writer, read a selection of new and old work to students. He read poems from his collections about the death of his father, the birth of his son, and his student/teacher relationship with poet Seamus Heaney. Mr. Young earned his A.B. in English and American literature from Harvard University and an MFA in creative writing from Brown University. He is the Atticus Haygood Professor of...
read moreMessages: Chris Messinger
Where do stereotypes come from? Chris Messinger discussed some of the answers with students. Mr. Messinger is the executive director of Boston Mobilization, a youth-serving nonprofit that works with hundreds of teens each year. Mr. Messinger spent three years after college as a community organizer and then three years as a classroom teacher in Boston. He is the co-author of Speak Up!, an anthology of personal stories being used by independent and public schools around the country. “We all hold conscious and unconscious stereotypes. However,...
read moreMessages: Jim Cullen
This year’s Henry R. Heyburn ’39 Speaker, Jim Cullen told students their “inheritance” is today’s America of prosperity and political stability, true since the end of World War II. Mr. Cullen, chair of the history department at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City, yet warned that this “overstretched empire is starting to contract.” Mr. Cullen earned his B.A. in English from Tufts University, and his A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in American civilization from Brown University. He is the author of many books, including...
read moreMessages: Tectonic Theater Project
Students performed The Laramie Project this winter, a play in which actors portray various members of the Laramie community, the Wyoming town where college student Matthew Shepard was beaten and killed by two local men in 1998. This year’s Melissa Gold Visiting Artists, two members of the Tectonic Theater Project, the show’s creators, visited campus. Actor Andy Paris and director Leigh Fondakowski spoke with students about Matthew Shepard, the creative theater process, and the role performance can play in national conversation. “In the...
read moreMessages: Irene Monroe
Reverend Irene Monroe talked with students about the rewards and challenges of developing a diverse community as the 2014 Martin Luther King speaker. Rev. Monroe is a pastor and syndicated religion columnist. Her writing focuses on how religious intolerance and fundamentalism perpetuate other forms of oppression, like racism, sexism, classism and anti-Semitism. A Brooklyn native, Rev. Monroe graduated from Wellesley College and Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University. She served as a pastor at an African-American church before...
read moreIn Sight, Spring 2014
“Nicky” and “Rod,” brought to life by Shaheen Bharwani ’15, Mack Makishima ’16 and Charlie Barrett ’15. Milton actors became puppeteers for the first time in this fall’s production of Avenue Q: School Edition, which meant puppet boot camp for...
read moreFortitude and Finesse: Girls’ Hockey Demands Both
Ponytails flying behind them, these young women will skate circles around you. Girls’ ice hockey players don’t hesitate to tell you that being a hockey player takes toughness and commitment. “It’s a challenging sport, both mentally and physically,” says Katherine Flaherty ’15 who has played competitively since she was 5. “It’s a huge commitment. You play through the 5 a.m. practices when you are 10 years old. You make yourself shoot 500 pucks a day to get to this level because it’s so competitive.” Kaitlin Gately ’14,...
read moreAttracting Teaching Stars
As educators, Nancy and I were treated like rock stars by Milton families and friends in Korea, China and Hong Kong last spring. Every educator deserves to feel like a rock star. Every teacher deserves to be celebrated for having chosen to teach. How do educators in the United States feel about their careers? In America, baby boomers answered the call to educate at rates ahead of any generation since. Today, 40 talented faculty members who have each been dedicated to Milton for more than 25 years are a source of our strength. How will we fill...
read moreA Victim, A Soldier, An Activist: Memorias de protesta | Memories of Protest
By Salomón-G. Díaz-Valencia Translated by Mark Connolly Bien decía Rousseau: “Ofrecemos nuestros sentimientos cuando hablamos y nuestras ideas cuando escribimos”1. Las ideas se transforman cuando adquirimos la capacidad de analizar diferentes perspectivas. Quizás por causas del destino nací en un país en el que la guerra civil subyugaba y aun hoy no encuentra su fin. He vivido ahí la mayor parte de mi vida. La memoria más fuerte y clara que guardo de mi niñez se remonta a cuando yo tenía 4 años. Mi padre tenía un taller de...
read moreMagic Marks the Spot The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates: Book One, by Caroline Carlson ’02
Magic Marks the Spot The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates: Book One by Caroline Carlson ’02 HarperCollins Children’s Books, September 2013 Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. She can tread water for 37 minutes. She can tie a knot faster than a fleet of sailors. She particularly enjoys defying authority, and she already owns a rather pointy sword. There’s only one problem: The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates refuses to let any girl join their ranks of scourges and scallywags. But Hilary is not the kind...
read moreA Complementary View
by Vcevy Strekalovsky ’56 Our culture values the practical over the artistic. Arts education is often considered a luxury, outside the base curriculum, yet Harvard’s Howard Gardner shows in his “multiple intelligences” theory that visual and performing arts awaken and engage students, leading to self-esteem and follow-through—transferable effects. Our global competitors seem to understand this dynamic. Business leaders who are liberally educated understand that they are managing much more than the bottom line. Creativity, teamwork,...
read morePrincipled, Indefatigable and Charming, Jack Reardon ’56 Helps Harvard and Milton Make Headway
During the last half-century, both Milton Academy and Harvard University have counted on a single alumnus—Jack Reardon, Milton 1956 and Harvard 1960 ...
read moreThe Goal Is Having Fun At the 92nd Street Y
José Ortiz ’99, director of the teen center and 92nd Street Y after-school programs, says that his days really ramp up around 2:30 p.m. when children and teenagers from nearby schools start pouring in for after-school programs that run into the early evening. José directs the Y’s enrichment and community service–based programs throughout the school year. Three hundred school-age children and 1,500 teens participate in these programs. Every afternoon roughly 40 interns and community- service volunteers join the children to help...
read moreDogged Pursuit, Tactical Focus, and Taking the Long View
In early April of this year, I interviewed Brina Milikowsky ’96 about her work with Michael Bloomberg’s gun-control coalition, Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Shortly thereafter, the Senate rejected a bipartisan bill—supported by a strong majority of the American public—to expand background checks for gun buyers. Flanked by victims of the Newtown school shooting, an unusually angry Barack Obama described the defeat as “a pretty shameful day for Washington.” If our government couldn’t enact limited but lifesaving legislation that...
read moreCommon Sense and Core Values Drive Edgy Business Decisions
When Nai Ko ’00 joined his family’s company, he had already decided that conventional retail car sales was not going to work for him. With a degree in industrial engineering from Columbia, Nai was convinced that the business prototype could change. Fully committed to the family business his father had started in 1989, Ko Automotive Group, Nai broke new ground. He re-imagined the sales process and ultimately earned top customer ratings among Toyota dealerships in the nation. In addition, Wellesley Toyota’s new building proclaims the...
read moreWendy Millet ’86 believes that understanding connections–land, animals and people–is transformative
“Horse” was the first word that Wendy Millet ’86 ever spoke, according to family legend. This beginning could not have been more fitting. Wendy says “horse” a lot these days. A Northern California resident by way of Boston, upstate New York ...
read moreLiving in the Active Voice: Things Don’t Just Happen. People Do Things.
Adults at Milton—administrators, faculty and staff—are the architects of students’ experience. They work hard to provide a context that encourages a teenager to take ownership of his or her life: in the classroom, as a teammate, in a production, as a roommate. Taking responsibility for yourself is a prerequisite to sharing responsibility for others. These steps are developmental building blocks for leadership. Whether formally through elected office, or informally through attribution, leaders commit themselves to affecting the lives of...
read moreWhat They Think: Four students revisit the prospect and the reality of choosing to lead.
How did you come to the decision to run for office? I started thinking about it last year. Seeing Robert Bedetti and Casey Caine (head monitors, 2010–2011) and admiring them helped me realize that you have to step up. People are doing that for us, now, so we need to, as well. I saw Jess Li and Nick Maragos (head monitors) in action this year, and thought about the impact they would have on the School. I love meeting new people. I wanted to give back and get people excited about all the cool things here. —Cameron Milton helps you understand...
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