Head of School

Good afternoon from a quiet Hillside. There is only one camp using our facilities at the moment, while others will move in next week. The students all return on August 22.  We are getting ready for Year 98!

In the past two newsletters, I have addressed academics and athletics, and this month I will delve into our Community Life Program, the third leg of the SKS stool. Today, we work to retain the principles, positive traditions, and values that have always buttressed an SKS education, while trying to meet the demands of the rapidly changing world for which we are preparing our boys. Community Life is the area where this balance between old and new is the most evident.    

South Kent School prepares young men to succeed in college and thrive as thoughtful and engaged citizens in a rapidly changing and intensely competitive world.

St. Michael’s Chapel

Without question, my favorite part of the day when school is in session is Chapel. I do not think I can say, truthfully, that was the case when I was a student - in fact, skipping Chapel was a big deal that only the most rebellious students would do, though the rest of us talked about it quite often - but I certainly appreciated Chapel. 

St. Michael’s still has the same smell of lemon oil mixed with candle soot. The sounds in Chapel are the same as they have always been: the tentative voices struggling with unfamiliar hymns, the confident roaring of the familiar ones, the staccato thudding of prayer books and hymnals as they get dropped into the racks, and the creaking of the pine pews as the boys sit, or pull themselves up to stand. Most of all, Chapel has always felt the same as a place of togetherness, serenity and renewal. Chapel remains at the heart of who we are and what we do.  

Students are expected to attend the three all-school services per week, which usually consist of the celebration of the Holy Eucharist on Monday evening and brief services of Midday Prayer on Wednesday and Friday. In addition, there are voluntary celebrations of the Holy Eucharist on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and a voluntary service of Compline on Wednesday night.

During the academic year, there are special Chapel observances and services. These include Founders’ Day recognition, the blessing of the campus animals on the Feast of St. Francis, All Saints Day, Thanksgiving, Lessons and Carols, the Nativity Play, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Holy Week and Easter, Confirmation, Memorial Day, Prize Day, and the Installation of the Sixth Form and Induction of Prefects. The school community also shares in the Adoration Service once a term in lieu of the Monday evening celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

Members of all faiths are expected to attend chapel services and find there some measure of comfort, inspiration and peace. The Chapel is the one place where the whole school can reflect upon our place in the world and pray. No one is expected to abandon his own faith while at South Kent School. Rather, the School, in its faithful adherence to worship in the tradition of the Episcopal Church, provides a stable context for each person to engage with his own spiritual journey.
 

Formal Meals

Next to Chapel, seated meals are the most communal events that we share.  Five days a week we gather at lunch, with students assigned to tables headed by faculty members.  There are times when the boys need reminders about manners, but these are important lessons as we prepare them for wherever life takes them.  My mother regularly reminded me growing up that the chances of me having dinner with the Queen of England were slim, but I could do it if ever invited; we can hopefully say the same for our graduates today.  On Mondays, when we celebrate the Holy Eucharist in Chapel, we have a more formal seated dinner at night.

Assemblies

All school Assemblies take place twice a week.  Run by the prefects, these gatherings usually consist of announcements and recognitions but may also include a speaker from the faculty and staff, or a student, or occasionally someone from the “outside.”  

 
Prefects

Every year we select a few older boys to be Prefects, both to help run the school on a daily basis as well as to serve as a conduit between the boys and the faculty.  Last year, because of COVID, our underformers did not have a chance to step up and prove themselves as “prefect-worthy’, and so this year we have only selected two boys to lead the school for the first few weeks and will add to their number as fall progresses. 

As more leaders emerge, they will be asked to serve as prefects, team captains, or tour guides.  Each leadership position carries different responsibilities, but all bear the same expectations:

• To lead by example, abiding by all of the guidelines of the school community and expecting a similar level of support for school rules from peers
• To exhibit a positive attitude, contributing to school spirit at all times
• To address violations of school expectations when observed
• To support and supplement the work of the faculty in making school life enjoyable, healthful and productive

Jobs

Many of the routine maintenance jobs of campus are performed by students. While perhaps not as robust as the twice daily jobs from back in the day,  students wash the dishes, take out the trash, collect and sort recycling, and clean many of the public spaces on campus. At least once a week we have a “Cardinal Cleaning” period where the dorm rooms and common areas get extra attention. 

The Thrive Program

This fall will mark the beginning of a new program, when we hope to capture the “essence” of what makes South Kent School South Kent School.  There have been different iterations of the Thrive program, but we are excited about what we will do differently and deliberately this fall to instill the Community Life standards which build towards the School’s five characteristics: Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, and Spiritual Awareness. 

Three faculty members will serve as Thrive Mentors this year: Max Pfeffer, Michelle Borsavage, and Jesse Brennan. They have developed a curriculum that teaches the five Characteristics, above, and ties them to the Characteristics to our traditional Trinity of Values: Simplicity of Life, Directness of Purpose, and Self Reliance in a series of lessons, exercises and experiences. The goal is to encourage thoughtful young men by instilling healthy habits of mind in a caring and supportive environment.

South Kent School boys clean up the local roads as part of our annual Earth Day Cleanup.

Each South Kent School boy is encouraged and expected to engage in meaningful acts of community service. These expectations are not limited to several days each term, but infused in subtle as well as more apparent ways in everything we do on campus every day. Fr. Klots regularly takes boys to work in soup kitchens. We help with events in the town of Kent at the Library, churches or other institutions and functions. Regularly-scheduled "Midnight Runs" take place throughout the year to take donated clothing and food to the homeless in New York City. "Service" takes practice, and many of the boys come to realize that the reward may be greater than their sacrifice as they give back to their school, local and national communities.

Chaucer and other Traditions

The boys still recite the first fourteen lines of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. They still climb Bull Mountain. We still have various social activities on the weekends, and we still play a majority of our athletic competitions on the weekends. All of the above is to say that we continue with the rich traditions that have set us apart over the last 97 years though all parts of our education have had to adapt to modern times. Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the above observations or explanations.