To Friends of The Willow School:

     The education of our children is a lifelong process.  The Willow School takes its mission seriously and recognizes its responsibility to lay the foundation for each child’s journey. I will be sending you a series of commentaries, each centered on a specific feature of The Willow School Mission.  It is natural that I should choose academic excellence as the subject of my first commentary, for it lies at the heart of the education we offer.  It is a primary reason that parents choose the school.  At The Willow School they can expect a detailed mapping of where their child is going, grade by grade, in sequence and scope.  Curriculum building and program planning provide a stable foundation to guide the teaching and learning process of the school.  I invite your inquiries and, as always, welcome you to the school for a visit.

	Richard Eldridge Head of School, 2003-2006

Academic Excellence

     Academic excellence can be defined as the act of thinking well.  Thinking well means that a child be given the time to ponder and to wonder, the freedom to question and to probe, the facility to articulate clearly and accurately the consequences of the query, and to use the consequences of the conclusion as a tool for change.  The absence of any one of these moments of thinking reduces academics to less than excellence.

     To urge children to question what they have not thought to ponder dulls the curiosity, unless the urging carries them to a state of wonder.  If the topic is not worth probing, the language children use will be without importance, no matter how effective or beautiful.  Even if the conclusion results in a fine piece of commentary, it is empty if children do not grow from the wisdom of their words.

     The inherent motive for academic excellence is a joy of learning and the wish to be thoughtful in exploration and celebratory in accomplishment.  These come at the earliest age of schooling, which begins at home and continues in the elementary years of school.  Each moment matters, and the teachers at The Willow School know that excellence in thought is achieved beyond even what the child could have anticipated.

The first in a series of commentaries by the
Head of The Willow School, January, 2004