Brewster Academy Blogs

By Nancy Hughes
English Teacher

I can only conjure two memories from my Parents’ Weekends when I was in high school. The first is more vague than the second. My parents had arranged a dinner in Hartford, close to where we lived, for my friend and her parents who were from South Carolina. Two other girls whose parents were unable to attend the weekend joined us as well. I remember feeling happy that my parents were close and thus could be with me and proud that my parents were able to host a family from South Carolina, a place that seemed to me – someone who had never been to the South – almost a foreign land. (I also remember my mother’s commenting to me quietly after the meal about how awkwardly my friend held her fork.) Continue reading “Navigating Family Weekend” →

By Craig Gemmell
Head of School

After a day of rain and snow on campus, the GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) met at Lord House on Monday evening. Sitting in the comfortable bay window looking out on Main Street, students and faculty talked about fostering an inclusive school climate. Tuesday’s senior Lobster Bake, a tradition sponsored by Alexis Pappas ’88, brought successful tech entrepreneur Nate Drouin ‘10 back to campus. Nate talked to students with tremendous legitimacy about the virtue of finding a passion and figuring out how to learn what is needed in its pursuit. Wednesday night was a double bill: a faculty discussion about inclusion after dinner followed by a meeting just south of campus, at All-Saints’ Church, to hear about plans for a homeless shelter in Wolfeboro. All interesting and provocative topics. Many viewpoints, ideologies, agendas, stories, realities. I listened intently.

Continue reading “Listening” →

By Craig Gemmell
Head of School

Winter’s snow only a memory, excepting the residual white fingers slowly retreating up the slopes of Gunstock Ski Area across the lake. Early yesterday morning Lamb Green was frosty, and I left footprints in the grass, yet temps had soared to the mid-seventies by the time sailors and rowers made their way to the docks in the afternoon. Seniors cluster in eddies of conversation on their patio; I wore shorts last night after the school day had ended. Culminating and celebratory events fill the calendar, prom-posals are happening at a frenzied rate (Jake and Casey are going together if you haven’t gotten the memo), and the project period approaches quickly. Spring is here in all its mayhem.

Continue reading “Rites of Spring” →

By Craig Gemmell
Head of School

It’s Friday: the final two days of a seven-day boarding school week stretch before me. I’ve been scrambling because members of Brewster’s Board of Trustees are driving and flying from points near and far for a stretch of weekend meetings.

I’ve pored over the budget for weeks, prepared hours of content to shape the meetings and worried over details. I know I should be fretful. I won’t be able to answer every question perfectly and sweat my way through the challenging stretches. But I’m not all that wound up about the meetings because tonight we’re honoring the legacy of Bob and Shirley Richardson and I’m distracted. Though Bob passed away in 2014, Shirley will be with us.

I want to do right by them and have thought much about what they mean to this place — and in the process my thinking has spiraled from Bob and Shirley to Brewster to the very act of teaching and, ultimately, to the really big questions.
Continue reading “The Real Work” →