This spring, faculty members in the Lower School’s 2-3 program added an environmental unit to their yearlong maritime study, with a focus on marine debris. Teachers reached out to staff at the Rozalia Project, an organization that is committed to cleaning up the ocean and local beaches, tracking data, and looking for solutions to marine debris issues in the Gulf of Maine. A member of the Rozalia team participated in a Zoom call with faculty to help prepare for a field trip to Willard Beach in South Portland, where students recently collected marine debris.
Might adolescents possess the key to a revitalized democracy?
By Lowell Libby (Upper School Director)
There is little doubt that extreme political division in America is paralyzing the nation’s ability to meet the many challenges we face and has left our democracy floundering. When encountering people with different viewpoints or who come from different backgrounds than their own, too many are in the habit of recoiling or lashing out. Neither is a productive response, and both deepen the paralyzing divide and erode the efficacy of our democratic institutions. That leaves many adults asking, What should we be teaching our children today so that they are able to create a better future?
Good question, but perhaps it misses the point. A better question might be What can our children teach us so we can make a better today?
Young people are in the process of forming their worldviews and habits of mind. Their identities are fluid in comparison to those of adults. Adolescents have the cognitive capacity to think abstractly and the intellectual power to critique the world around them. They are naturally curious and drawn to novelty. In short, they are predisposed to possess a curious mindset.
At Waynflete, we have created Third Thought Initiatives for Civic Engagement to capitalize on this mindset with an eye toward cultivating tomorrow’s leaders. Third Thought consists of a series of initiatives that instruct young people how to be in productive dialogue, then offers up opportunities to practice with issues that are relevant to them. Some Third Thought initiatives are for Waynflete students, while others engage youth from other schools as well.
The name Third Thought came from the response of a participant in a program that intentionally grouped students with different political viewpoints and life experiences and asked them to draw on their diverse perspectives to develop solutions to some of today’s most pressing problems. At the end of the experience, she was asked what she had learned from encountering differences.
She said she had learned to say her “third thought,” by which she meant that before, when she encountered a viewpoint substantially different from her own, her first thought was often an emotional reaction and her second thought a justification for the first. Neither led to a new understanding of the topic at hand.
But when she took a deep breath and actually listened to the perspectives of others and reflected on her own beliefs, she found that she was able to transcend the either/or thinking that had limited her. Moreover, her peers did the same. By tapping into the expansive wisdom inherent in diverse viewpoints in this way, they evolved their perspectives, deepened their collective understanding of the topic at hand, and developed creative solutions to the complex problems with which they had been wrestling.
Isn’t that how democracy is supposed to work? Imagine the world we could create if more of us were in the habit of reaching for our third thoughts.
Upper School students develop classification technique to research asteroids
For the past year, as part of the Exploration of the Moon and Asteroids by Secondary Students (ExMASS) initiative run by the Lunar Planetary Institute, five Upper School students have been conducting a research project of their own design, in consultation with Dr. Caitlin Ahrens at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
2-3 students design memorable gifts for their 4-5 friends
2-3 students recently made beautiful clay medallions for 4-5 students as a service project. Student names are on inscribed on one side—shoe tread impressions are on the other.
Upper School art students collaborate with alum Nate Dubuque ’07 on pattern design and printing
Longtime visual arts teacher Judy Novey discusses a project that started with “super humble little stamps” and kept multiplying, both literally and educationally…
The hybrid learning environment presented a challenge: how could I teach a printmaking class when kids weren’t in the studio? My solution was to use color stamp pads. We took a deep dive into pattern over the course of a month-and-a-half. Students made small stamps using Soft-Kut linoleum:
Congratulations to the Class of 2021!
Having spent their entire year “attending” school during a pandemic, our senior class is closing in on their final weeks at school, preparing to begin the next stage of their lives equipped with the values of optimism, curiosity, responsibility, and resiliency instilled in them by their teachers and advisors.
Congratulations to the Class of 2021!
Cathie Connors notches 300th win
Last Saturday was a record-breaking day: Cathie Connors become the first coach of a Maine girl’s lacrosse team to cross the 300-win threshold. To add to the wonders of the day, it was Cathie’s daughter, Jess, who scored the winning goal against Gorham the day before that put the 300th win on the docket against Cheverus.
While winning is fun, what stuck out for me was the turnout of Cathie’s former players at the Fore River Fields and online to watch this historic moment. Cathie is a winning coach for sure, but she is also a transformational one for those who play on her teams. I watched Cathie mentor and guide my own daughter for four years. Cathie helped her gain a confidence and belief in herself that has made a profound difference. Cathie has done this for hundreds of girls during her tenure as a coach. In a year with so many disappointments, yesterday was a ray of sunshine for a truly deserving individual. Congrats Cathie!
Read Michael Hoffer’s recognition of this amazing moment
Cathie and daughter Jess ’22 share a moment following the victory. Photo: Ross Burdick
Waynflete takes first and second place at 2021 Maine State Science Olympiad
Waynflete Upper School teams took both first and second place at this year’s Maine State Science Olympiad tournament, which was held virtually over two weeks in April. The events include tests of content knowledge, the scientific process, and engineering build events. Although the school normally places among the top three schools in Maine, this is the first time that Waynflete’s teams have earned the top two spots. Upper School students won a total of ten first-place medals at the event.
Upper School students participate in Climate (EX)Change program
Several Upper School students recently completed a four-week Climate (EX)Change with peers from Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in South Paris, Maine, and Friends Seminary School in New York City. This collaborative storytelling project resulted from community engagement programming at Waynflete’s Remote Learning Hub.
Lunch with Boni
On February 4, Boni Kabongo ’14 welcomed the first of thirteen guests to “Lunch with Boni,” a speaker series running over the spring semester. These events give Upper School students the opportunity to chat with college seniors and recent college graduates about their fields of work and study.
The Reading Without Walls Challenge
During his tenure as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang challenged young readers to open their eyes to new ideas and experiences by initiating the Reading Without Walls Challenge. Readers are encouraged to step outside their comfort zones by reading in three categories:
- Read a book about a character who doesn’t look like you or live like you.
- Read a book about a topic you don’t know much about.
- Read a book in a format you don’t normally read for fun (a chapter book, graphic novel, poetry, etc.)
LitMag – Spring 2021
Click here to read the latest issue!
Image: Michael Kourakos
More faces on campus!
It was a big week for Waynflete students in grades 7–12! After careful consideration, and in line with CDC guidelines, we increased the percentage of students attending classes in person from 50 to 75 percent. (Students in preschool–grade 6 have all been on campus throughout the school year.)
It was wonderful to see more faces on campus—and they brought beautiful weather with them. Looking forward to 100 percent in September!
4-5 Neighborhood Collage Triptychs
As part of our Harlem Renaissance unit, 4-5 Art students studied the work of Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden. Using recycled materials, students created a collage triptych in the style of Bearden’s “The Block,” a six-panel collage of his Harlem neighborhood.
Third Annual Waynflete Chamber Music Festival
Waynflete hosted its third annual Chamber Music Festival on Sunday, March 7. This event was a big milestone for the school—the performance by the Upper School Chamber Ensemble was the the first live musical performance in Franklin Theater since January 2020!
Congratulations to organizer Andy Happel as well as all those who participated.
Celebrating Black heroes
The Middle School recognized and celebrated Black History Month in February with the first-ever Black Heroes Project. After a presentation from Middle School Director Divya Muralidhara about two of her heroes (Jacqueline Woodson and John Lewis), students and faculty were invited to submit brief testimonies about their Black heroes. They shared over 85 heroes with the community at their last assembly in February. Grade 7 students Rodas and Tessy introduced the assembly and encouraged the community to see this presentation as one of many steps in honoring Black history every day.
Visual Arts Chair Jona Rice is shown above installing the entire presentation in the Arts Center.
Waynflete senior introduces former President Obama at Telling Room event
Barack Obama recently spent an hour online with students from The Telling Room in Portland. The former president discussed writing, storytelling, and his recently published memoir, “A Promised Land.”
Khalil Kilani ’21 introduced the Telling Room program to President Obama.
Intern Mohamed Kilani creates inspirational artwork at Waynflete’s remote hub
With support from the Winter Break Community Engagement Fund (established by the McKeen Center for the Common Good), Bowdoin senior Mohamed Kilani has been interning at Waynflete over the past few weeks.
Mo is pursuing a double major in Hispanic studies and education and has been assisting Waynflete Spanish teachers in their online and in-person classes. A former art educator at Chewonki, Mo is also serving as Waynflete’s artist-in-residence at the school’s remote hub location at One Canal Plaza. After seeking input from hub students, Mo created a mural with four hands spelling out the word “love.”
Read an article on Mo from Bowdoin.edu
Meet Mo in a Zoom call hosted by Waynflete’s Boni Kabongo
State of the School 2021
On February 11, Head of School Geoff Wagg gave a virtual State of the School address to the Waynflete community from the Klingenstein Library in the Lower School. Geoff reviewed the past year, outlined the elements that will help shape the future, and discussed the issues we must grapple with in preparation for the next academic year.
