Letter from the Head of School
A sense of limitless opportunity and possibility always infuses the beginning of every new school year. Even though I recently concluded the thirty-second opening of school in my professional life, those times still feel fresh and exciting to me. And although the annual orientation sessions, meetings, and reams of information can be viewed as necessary tedium to help prepare a community for a smoother year, each new school year must also be seen as a time for articulating one of the greatest requirements an academic community has of its members: a vision of greatness from all members of that community for themselves individually and for the community collectively. A new school year is a time of intersection between the past and the future, a time of decision when vision is a necessary quality to bridge the past to the future and to provide a sense of purpose and direction.
What are some of the sources of such vision, and why is that quality important for individual human beings and for schools like Mercersburg? Familiar words in the Book of Proverbs remind us that "where there is no vision, the people perish." In this sense, vision is the imaginative consideration of the possibilities of life, the ability to see things not only as they are, but as they can become. For each of us, this vision is made up of many elements, many kinds of understanding and perception, which we gain as we become more fully educated and mature and aware. That vision involves the very meaning of human life itself, of what gives life its value and significance. And surely our acceptance and affirmation of life is more than just the urge of living organisms to go on living. And surely, therefore, our vision of the meaning of life must find some of its beginning in our spiritual views and commitment.
We would do well to find some time for reflection, to spend some time in prayer (if prayer is part of our belief system) or to spend some time simply contemplating those issues of spirit which we all need to be concerned about—love, peace, kindness, compassion. Our vision of life can also be informed by literature, which has nourished us in every age. To read and ponder literature is to become, in some degree, a different person, to have a clearer vision of the meaning of life. For when we finish Hamlet, for example, in spite of the sense of waste and loss, our chief impression is that life is enormously worthwhile. If life were only a mean or trivial thing, it wouldn't matter that Hamlet himself lies dead at the end of the play. We would do well to read more throughout this year. We can also catch something of the vision of life's meaning from great figures of history—from a Jefferson, a Lincoln, a Schweitzer, a Mother Teresa. We should consider some of our historical heroes whose particular visions have been validated over time. Or we can also learn the value and meaning of human life from the little known and uncelebrated—from our friends, our families, our teachers.
The patient and perceptive mind can find almost everywhere some part of the vision of the ultimate meaning of human life. Of course, unrealized vision can be a cliché, and much of that failure of imagination and potential can be linked to a failure to plan. A culture of planning permeates Mercersburg, and we are once again beginning a new phase of strategic planning; I look forward to that process unfolding and to observing the collective vision that will emerge for the school and to planning a course of action to achieve our desired goals. Beginning with the founding fathers' vision for this place, Mercersburg has prospered through the years because it has wisely focused not only on its "being" but also its "becoming," a clear and steady vision that will ensure the continued greatness of this school.
Douglas Hale
Head of School
