The Benjamin School

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Summer is undoubtedly poking at you to move closer and closer toward the start-of-school. Administrators and office staff have been back on campus since August 4, literally racing toward the first day of classes on August 24. I hope the summer break has refreshed and renewed all the members of your family in a way that brings energy and enthusiasm to a new academic year. We ask a great deal of our students and you, their parents, here at Benjamin. By choosing this school, you have selected a rigorous preparation for your children. Your partnership in our efforts to provide the best experiences for them is critical. I have just stated the mantra of independent schools all over the country. Said another way, the partnership between home and school is essential to the success of children. I join the faculty and administration in thanking you for your brand of parenting—productive involvement in your children’s lives. We live in a country where more “independent school parenting” is sorely needed. My colleagues and I are delighted to be in partnership with you for the sake of the future. There are so many exciting additions to our program for the current year that any attempt to enumerate them fully in this letter would be tantamount to herding a house-full of cats and not leaving one sprawled on top of a cupboard and another under the bed! Not wanting to have to do that, of course, I will be as minimal as possible in this message, hoping that you will begin to revel in the richness of your children’s experiences by observation as the year reveals itself. Our vision for TBS embraces the 21st century schoolhouse, preparing our students for a world very different from the one you and I have known. Educators refer to the requirements for success in this new reality as “fluencies.” The advancing technologies of our time have isolated the category of communication as a fundamental fluency in order for your children to compete in their looming adulthood. Advanced public speaking, effective writing, ability to ask good questions, and ability to distinguish quality from quantity have all been identified as essential 21st century skills. These have long been areas of focus in our curriculum. Dedication to the value of communication in our students’ future is seen as well in our commitment to a vibrant world language curriculum. Spanish and Mandarin Chinese are studied by our W.O.W. (Worlds of Wonder 3-year-old program) children and continue sequentially throughout the early grades of the Lower School. Students in that division who are not in those grades may choose before-school classes in Mandarin as an enhancement beyond their already scheduled language. A new Mandarin teacher was hired for our Middle School which will allow morning sessions for 6th, 7th and 8th grade students who are interested this year in studying such a critical world language as an enrichment to their regular curriculum. The intention is to offer Mandarin the following year to all Lower and Middle School grades as a world language option during the school day, in addition to Spanish and French.

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