Dear Chadwick Community Members:
We enter a new decade with new classrooms and laboratories, new technology, and new possibilities for delivering the comprehensive education that will help our students succeed in college and in life. It’s time for a fresh look at how we achieve our mission — and that’s what we have been doing with the faculty and the Board of Trustees
during the last twelve months. As I write this message in mid-October, we have nearly
completed the Chadwick Strategic Plan for the coming decade. It’s an expansive vision for a remarkable time in education, and I believe it addresses the tremendous opportunities and important challenges that lie before us in keeping with our mission and values. Our mission, as expressed by Margaret Chadwick, has
always been to develop productive global citizens who demonstrate academic excellence, exemplary character, and self-knowledge gained through a variety of experiences. Our Strategic Plan addresses Mrs. Chadwick’s vision in three ways. It calls for us to:
• Provide an exceptional education that is student-centered and experiential
• Attract and retain world-class faculty • Build the resources that will make all of this possible
What do we mean by “student-centered” and “experiential”? Student-centered simply means that we take seriously Mrs.
Chadwick’s directive that the school should discover and develop the individual giſts of every child. We’re aware that each student needs to know and be able to do certain things in order to thrive in college and the world. Te starting place, however, must be that individual child. When we bring out all of their latent giſts, passions, and interests, our children will take off on their own. By experiential, we refer to learning by doing. In chemistry,
for example, it’s one thing to sit down and memorize the periodic table of the elements; it’s another thing to be confronted with a problem and to design an appropriate laboratory experiment to explore that problem. Our philosophy has always been to emphasize the latter: learning through real world, hands-on experiences followed by reflection. We believe that’s the best way to foster important traits like initiative, discovery, accountability, self-reliance, perseverance, intellectual honesty, and the ability to deal with uncertainty. Tose, in turn, are habits of mind that underpin academic excellence and exemplary character. Bringing out each child’s giſts is the job of our faculty.
We’re justly proud of our buildings and other facilities, but it’s the daily interactions with outstanding teachers that make the critical difference for our students. Especially with the opening of Chadwick International, we’re taking a global
2 THE COMPASS
view of teachers and teaching. Distance-learning technology now makes it possible to have a course in Asian history, for example, taught by a teacher in Asia. We’re also taking a wider, more long-range approach to identifying teaching talent. We want to find the best educators in the world, before we need them, and be in a position to bring them to Chadwick when suitable opportunities arise. Our students need to be surrounded every day by people
who are not just excellent teachers but also caring adults and strong role models. We know from 75 years of experience that this is what makes our students accomplished, compassionate and moral people. It is also, quite frankly, why education is so expensive. It’s a very labor-intensive process. Tat brings me to the final element of our plan — building
resources. Maintaining an outstanding faculty and student body requires considerable financial wherewithal. We are fortunate to have a solid base of committed friends who share our vision as well as a high level of satisfaction among alumni regarding their Chadwick experience. In 2010-11, our alumni increased their involvement and investment in Chadwick for the third year running, and we greatly appreciate their ongoing friendship and support. In the coming months and years, we look forward to continued collaboration with the entire Chadwick Community in pursuit of our aims. Developing our vision for the coming decade has been
invigorating for the Trustees, for the faculty and staff, and for me personally. Like Commencement every June, the new Chadwick Strategic Plan will not mark the end of our efforts. Rather, it will launch the next eventful chapter in the history of this great school, one in which we embrace emerging opportunities to achieve the mission that has served our students so well for the past three-quarters of a century.
Yours Sincerely,
Frederick T. Hill Headmaster
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