Term Ends

People are pretty bad at judging what will make them happy.   People vastly overvalue work, money and real estate.  They vastly undervalue intimate bonds and the importance of arduous challenges.”

·       David Brooks: The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement

 “I started with CircumBurke, and then I wrote about some early races … I wrote about how hard CircumBurke was, especially when I was alone on the trail. And then how much better it got once I found a group of friends. …. My Term End is really about learning from failure.”

These were the words from one of our students last week. The kids have been writing their winter Term Ends and the topic has sparked some of our daily conversations this week.

Burkies have been writing Term Ends since the founding of the school. They are shared with everyone. Before the days of computers, we would put our papers in a basket in the living room and folks would sift through the pile and read. Today we share them on a Google folder.

Self-reflection and community sharing are two cornerstones of BMA. Those values connect the Greek value of “Know Thyself” with a belief of BMA that the spirit of the school is everyone’s responsibility.  We assess our own work and we share those thoughts.

Last spring, I read Term Ends for the first time in many years. One parent sent me his daughter’s Term End with the simple statement that I needed to read that essay to really understand his kid. Another Term End sparked some controversy among the kids; so much so, that the author rewrote her Term End to reflect on the controversy itself. I’m not sure she had to rewrite it, but I loved the passionate dialogue the essay sparked among the community about school values. These were just two examples of know thyself and shared community spirit. These are reasons we still do Term Ends at Burke, 46 years later.

At dinner the other night, two students talked about how they had gone back to read their 9^th grade term ends. “They are so embarrassing!” they exclaimed. When I asked why, they said, “I was such a bad writer back then.” I said to them: First, it’s great you are looking back. Second, now you see how much you have improved as a writer at Burke!  The Term Ends also display growth. They are snapshots in time of kids growing, changing, learning, and risking failure. That’s right from our mission statement:

Burke Mountain Academy provides passionate ski racers the opportunity to pursue their limitless academic and athletic potential in a community based on trust. BMA embraces an ethos in which hard work is held in the highest esteem and risking failure and learning from success provide exceptional preparation for life beyond Burke.

  

Take care,

 Jory