Park is Top Choice

It is admissions season around here, not to be confused with wabbit season. By admissions season, I mean letters of acceptance have gone out and now it is time to convince those students and their families that Park School is their best option.
For what it’s worth, I’m convinced. And here’s why:

Last week, I had the good fortune to substitute teach in an Upper School English class. The class was in the middle of reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. We discussed chapters XVII and XVIII, which focus primarily on Southern sensibilities and feudin’. The kids were brilliant and engaged. Where else would you discover connections between Huck Finn and mixed martial arts, the Ravens, and Donald Duck? One of the better definitions I’ve heard for intelligence is the ability to apply material learned in one context to another one, and these kids did that in lightning fashion. Not only that, they did it with ease and humor, and then they were able to back up their positions with textual references. Needless to say, I think we all walked out of the room with a good understanding of the reading and some new things to ponder.

Two weeks ago, aforeblogged Park graduate and author Adam Gidwitz ’00 was on campus. In the morning, he spoke with fourth and fifth graders. The kids asked him all kinds of questions about the life of a writer and the back and forth conversation was candid, heartwarming, and ultimately inspiring. Park will most certainly be producing a good many more celebrated authors in the not too distant future.
In April, we will be holding an alumni event in New York featuring a panel discussion with three of our alumni in the media world, Ruth Franklin ’91 who is on the editorial board of The New Republic, Rahsan Lindsay ’90, Vice President, MTV2, MTVU & Palladia, and Josh Tyrangiel ’90, editor of Bloomberg BusinessWeek. A dynamic trio to say the least, and they all graduated within one year of each other. That’s not to mention that earlier this month we were in New York for an event at The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted by Malcolm Daniel ’74, Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs. Malcolm discussed the Stieglitz, Steichen, and Strand exhibit he had assembled. He was both expert and accessible.

I could keep going and going. Park fosters intellectual curiosity, and it galvanizes the passion and perseverance to follow it. For those who have the opportunity to be here, treasure it. “Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” Mark Twain