On a Sunday evening last autumn , I poked my head around the library stacks looking for a conference room tucked away in the back of the Middle School library . Kacy Song , one of our teacher librarians and now Director of Libraries , had invited me to a discussion of Chinese and Western poetry , and I eagerly looked forward to the conversation . Nothing in my previous experience in boarding schools , though , prepared me for what I was to find that night : a bright room filled to overflowing with members of the Keystone community , students and teachers together , reading poems aloud in unison , earnestly discussing their meanings and contexts , and telling stories about the great Chinese Poets . I had never seen anything like it – not at Phillips Exeter , not at Loomis Chaffee , not at Hotchkiss – and it was then that I felt for certain that our boarding program , and our school , was going to be something uniquely successful .
Certainly having the right physical structures sets the stage for a great boarding school . Keystone Academy students are fortunate to have large , well designed dorm rooms , comfortable common spaces and close proximity to faculty apartments right on their corridors . Our academic buildings and sports facilities are marvelous . But it is the people that live and work in those wonderful spaces that create a lively social and intellectual atmosphere . That night , it was Kacy Song and our Chinese language and literature teachers Li Haiyan and Pei Lu , along with a couple dozen of their students , who made our boarding program sing .
No one was required to be there on a Sunday evening . There were no assignments given , no assessments required or expected . The group came together because they loved poetry , and wanted to explore it together . This is exactly why my wife Rachael Beare , the Dean of Admission , and I have chosen to be part of a boarding school . Great boarding institutions allow for the development of a rich school community that can only exist when creative , intelligent and committed teachers , students and administrators are willing to share their energies and talents beyond the classroom setting . This , I can tell you , is one of the pleasures of being a teacher at a place like Keystone . Living as a community with this group of adults and students is a privilege , and a joy .
As Dean of Faculty , I am very keen on continuing to improve the quality of our classroom settings . It is my experience that encountering students in a variety of ways outside of class always reflects back in improved teaching . When I see a student competing in a basketball game , or dancing on stage in the school play , or hard at work during study hours on a particularly tricky math problem , I come to understand more about their particular strengths or weaknesses . Bit by bit , we as teachers learn about our students ’ commitments , intellectual and otherwise . There are moments on a hike or a shopping trip when we can connect with the kids as persons – and they with us – rather than only as students in a class . It is this being seen and being known that encourages students to go farther in their studies , and take intellectual risks in class . When they feel that their teachers truly care about them and their thoughts , students blossom and are less afraid to make mistakes . This is when teachers can begin to engage those open minds with true rigor , and students can make substantial rather than superficial progress . Of course , this can happen in all sorts of school settings . I am convinced , though , that for secondary students it happens more quickly and more deeply in a residential community .
It is also just plain fun . A boarding school is a great environment to be a student , to be sure , but it is also a great environment to be a teacher . Meals in the dining hall afford an opportunity to see friends and colleagues . The faculty kids run around and play in the quad after supper , while the adults have a chance to chat and to catch their breath . One group of teachers swims in the early morning – they call themselves the “ Keystone Carps ,” a pun that has more resonance in English than in Chinese – and another meets every evening to enjoy the pool with their families after the work of the day is done . There are spontaneous Ping-Pong matches with the students , dessert evenings with friends , book discussion groups that bring together Chinese and expatriate faculty to examine literature available both in Mandarin and English , community football matches – any number of opportunities for community members to form bonds of admiration and friendship . What this means for our students at Keystone is that they will enjoy , over time , the heady atmosphere of bright , talented , and accessible adult mentors who have come to love the place and commit themselves to its success and to the success of the students with whom they work .
One specific instance comes to mind . Imagine the impact on a student ’ s education of going out to lunch with a group of teachers to a local Japanese restaurant to participate in a discussion of Yasunari Kawabata ’ s Snow Country . The book appears on our IB Diploma Programme reading list , and the teachers had gathered to explore some of the book ’ s themes , imagery , and spare language . Right next to graduates of Beida and Columbia , Harvard and Tsinghua , the student took her place at the table : listening , yes , but also offering ideas , questioning and laughing with the rest , an essential partner in the conversation . I think that this lunch outing shows Keystone at its best – inclusive , supportive , and respectful of the talents that all our members bring to the school .
In the end , our boarding community develops both the head and the heart . From Friday night in the Design Technology space constructing trebuchets with Mr . Baxter , to engaging veteran actor Lei Quesheng in conversation , to a memorable evening in the library reciting classical poetry , life here at Keystone is incredibly rich for students and adults alike . This , then , is the art of teaching and learning in aboarding school : together we commit to discovering and developing the best in ourselves , but more importantly , in one another .
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