Head of School Welcomes TSA Community at Potluck
Families from Rochester at the 2018 TSA Potluck
The following was excerpted from Michael Livingston’s speech at the TSA Potluck on Friday, August 31.
TSA Welcomes Chelsea Families
Welcome.
We are thrilled to welcome the largest incoming group of students in TSA history. Fully 33% of our school is new to TSA this year. We are thrilled that, for the second year in a row, despite a decreasing school aged population in Vermont, we have the two largest incoming groups of students ever.
All of us here at school want to take a moment to appreciate the faith you have placed in our school community – thank you so much for entrusting your children’s education with us. Over 85% of our student population come from sending towns. We have students from up to 20 different towns attending TSA in any given year. You all comprise a very diverse group of families and we want you to know that we recognize and embrace that diversity.
I especially want to take a moment to recognize our families from Rochester and Chelsea. Both communities have seen dramatic changes to their educational systems over the last year and we understand the challenges that has imposed on so many. We are really excited to have your children with us and we are completely committed to making their transition as smooth as possible.
We’ve had a wonderful day on Wednesday welcoming all the new students to our community. At the high school, the days’ events were entirely planned by returning students and I’d like you to join me in thanking them for many hours of thoughtful preparation.
Yesterday and today were, by my direct observation and participation and by all other reports, simply outstanding. I continue to be so impressed by the work our middle and high school faculty and staff do to prepare for these important re-entry days. We have all been delighted to see the earnest and thoughtful way your children have embraced the various activities. Standing in this field yesterday with the entire school, grades 7-12, and all faculty and staff in one big circle, participating in some fun activities designed to help us all get to know one another, literally took my breath away.
In that moment I simply couldn’t imagine being anywhere else or doing more important work. I took a moment to reflect on how incredibly fortunate we are to be part of a very intentional school community. On Thursday I reminded the students, as I remind all of us now, that we can’t for a moment take this community for granted – it requires all of us to be vigilant about our level of participation. It insists upon our thoughtful consideration. Functional communities take a lot of work to build and to maintain. We ask for your support as we maintain this community. Please stay involved with us, volunteer, stay in touch, ask questions. We need you, all of you.
My final thought is substantially more global in nature – I have learned so much from all of you, parents, students and faculty and staff over the years – it’s enormously humbling. One of the most important lessons has to do with something you won’t find in our course catalog, the program of studies, or on our web site (yet) – it has to do with the importance of imagination in our lives, in the lives of our children. In this instance I mean instilling in them the ability to imagine their best self, to imagine possibilities they may not have previously considered. One of society’s greatest failures is the failure of imagination. Please join us in our collective work of instilling imaginative capacity in all of our children – a capacity that will fundamentally alter not just their lives but the lives of all those they reach out and touch.