Living in the Future
In my mind, I am already there; living in the future, that is. It is a better place than where we are now: less stress, better health, sharper minds, greater humanity, warm, sunny days with rain overnight. We can act on stage together, play recreational or competitive sports, and go to the theater or arena to imbibe some art or root for the home team. Nostalgic, I know. And while a future replete with nostalgia would be comforting, the future we will inhabit won’t look exactly like the past. It can’t. It has to be the future, something evolved from the past.
In my mind, there does live an evolved future, which includes many good parts from the past, still present in their revised form. For example, I can visualize myself sitting in the sun-filled stands along the first baseline of Brimmer’s new Iuliano Stadium as Zac Adler throws strike three past the final Providence Country Day batter to seal the victory in the NEPSAC Small School Baseball Championship of 2022.
While my mind may be working hard at conceptualizing the future, it is not my mind that matters. It is the minds of our young people, our student population from pre-school to undergraduate, that matter, and matter quite a lot. What does the future hold for these minds? (Let’s be mindful here: we can predict the weather reasonably well, but not the future; that we can only imagine.) If we examine our present situation, which is all we can do, we see a loss of classroom time and a reduction in student engagement in learning throughout K-12 education. Because of the pandemic, we can’t get students into the classroom or reach students academically now as we could previously. Experts describe these circumstances with phrases such as “lost ground,” “expanded opportunity gaps,” and “major challenges” for our students.
We also see a worrisome trend in higher education with fewer students enrolling in postsecondary studies from community college to 4-year universities. According to the National Student Clearinghouse, “Overall postsecondary enrollments declined 2.5 percent in fall 2020, nearly twice the rate of enrollment decline reported in fall 2019… The nation’s fall, total unduplicated postsecondary enrollment fell from 17.9 million students in 2019 to 17.5 million students in 2020.”
This reads as quite dire, nationally and internationally, but let’s look closer to home at the local level, here at Brimmer, as we head into our winter break. Looking back at last spring, despite being remote for the final ten weeks of school, we saw a significant uptick in attendance across all divisions. We held classes; students attended. Teachers taught, continued with both formative and summative assessments of student progress, provided opportunities for collaboration and exhibitions of skill and mastery, and worked against the circumstances to provide a high-quality education for our students.
This trend in attendance and student-centered approach to teaching and learning (augmented by significant professional development during the summer months) has continued this fall with 3.5 months of in-person and concurrent education for our students. While the school has necessarily had to reduce classroom learning time to provide a safe environment for our community, it has not necessarily reduced important student learning. Content and pace have certainly been impacted, but the learning of essential skills such as computation, literacy, problem-solving, analysis, writing and speaking, and the development of thinking routines, as well as discipline-specific and interdisciplinary skills and the exploration of creativity, continued at the core of the classroom experience. Teachers strove to plan and design lessons to keep learning moving forward, help students stand their intellectual ground in the face of potential and realized loss.
As we head into 2021, we have 394 students who can take a break (but maybe still do some leisure reading, please) from their work and rejuvenate themselves for the continuation of their learning in the new year. We have 32 students in the senior class who have applied to at least one college to date (January deadlines are imminent, but they are ready for them). They have already received 32 admittances (not one each, however). They are looking to continue their education among the ranks of college students despite the pandemic, and they are preparing themselves to find success in their studies by dedicating themselves to their classes at Brimmer this year. With a vaccine hopefully in hand for all this summer, they will enter that evolved future with some nostalgia, perhaps for a fondly remembered past, but with much hope and the ability to adapt and use their minds well to continue to reimagine it and make it evolve to the benefit of all.
Brimmer and May School
69 Middlesex Road
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
617-566-7462
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
617-566-7462
As an inclusive private school community, Brimmer welcomes students who will increase the diversity of our school. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, or any other characteristic protected from discrimination under state or federal law, in the administration of our educational policies, admissions practices, financial aid decisions, and athletic and other school-administered programs.