The Lastings

The end of every school year brings feels of accomplishment, of achievement, and of lasting. Accomplishment and achievement are well-understood and are easily and rightfully recognized in the posting of final grades, awarding of certificates of completion, conferring of honors and diplomas. Lasting, meaning having endured to the end, could be construed as a recognition of success in its minimalist form—“Whew. I made it!”— an acclamation of bare-knuckled survival. For students this can apply to, for example, that challenging AP course and exam; a Humanities debate that requires public speaking and spontaneous response; music lessons and practice leading up to the public music recital; the Presidential Physical Fitness Test (especially the “endurance run”), and a host of other experiences that need abiding. As learned over and over again throughout life, most often, in retrospect, one can look back at many of those experiences that were “lasted through” and realize that they were either not so bad after all or represented real learning, character-building, beneficial opportunities in the end.

 

“Lasting” does have a host of other conspicuously wonderful applications at this time of year. Several familiar phrases capture the essence of the end-of-the-school-year aura, including the culminations inherent in Grade 5, Grade 8, and Grade 12. These phrases are many and meaningful: lasting learning, lasting impact, lasting power, lasting impressions, lasting relationships, and lasting friendships. 

 

Brimmer’s Mission Statement seeks to develop life-long learners and its curriculum and pedagogy—including during remote learning—provides students with lasting learning. For Lower School students, the preparation for the Grade 5 Capstone Exhibition includes skills that can last (and be built upon) for a lifetime: organization, writing, research, public speaking, and design, among others. This demonstration of mastery, among the many other student experiences at Brimmer, has a lasting impact on the students, as does the character education embodied by the Life Rules/Core Values and the supportive school community.

 

Graduates often relate that they are well prepared for their college studies, particularly for their writing tasks. This speaks to the lasting power of a Brimmer education for our students. Beyond writing, students say they gained fundamental knowledge. These same graduates remark about the lasting impressions their teachers and advisors have left upon them, particularly in the development of their thinking and their interests. Many express the sentiment that their teachers really helped shape their interests, define their approach to learning, and form their values.

 

The final three lastings go together: lasting relationships, lasting friendships, and lasting memories. These have been developed individually, in small groups, in grade cohorts, in classrooms, on stage, and athletic courts and fields, in common spaces, and on buses, and in many other circumstances and places. While these lastings are typically represented in yearbooks and videos, photographs and documents, they do now and will going forward exist in our hearts and souls. At the end of each year, we carry away with us valuable lastings of many kinds, and for this, we are everlastingly grateful.