Parents' Weekend Remarks Fall 2017

“I would like to thank all of you for helping us buck a growing trend in schools. Much is being written about how institutions and schools—colleges, universities, and high schools alike—have become much more transactional. How they are understood mostly as a stepping stone onto other heights, with a quid pro quo, a 'this for that' mentality that so much of the consumerist, contractual world around us increasingly expects. That’s a trend that, in many ways, all of us here at Berkshire are working hard to buck. Thank you for helping us continue to define a Berkshire experience differently.

I don’t share this naively, without understanding the sacrifices of time, money, distance, and the heart that all of you as parents make in sharing your children with us. And I don’t share this without also understanding that a Berkshire education, of course, is a powerful stepping stone onto important collegiate, professional, community, and life experiences for your kids. But we’re aiming for the now at Berkshire as much as we’re aiming for whatever comes later. The partnership we’re committed to building with you aspires not to be a ‘this for that’ arrangement, but a more powerful ‘this for this.’

The ‘this’ for your children is a really strong first six weeks of the school year. The second ‘this’ is, I hope, a growing level of intellectual curiosity, self-awareness, maturity, respect, independence, empathy, perseverance, and resilience. At Berkshire, thanks to our faculty, thanks to all of you, and thanks to our students, that growth is the goal all on its own. Not only as the next rung on any ladder to somewhere, but as a special, transformative point in your children’s lives where they are beginning to discover their best, most interesting, most talented, and most passionate selves right now.”

—Head of School Pieter Mulder, excerpted from remarks made over Fall 2017 Parents’ Weekend