Head of School’s letter

From Head of School

The Viewfrom The Mountaintop

Tony Dunn said, “It is important to realize that education is an end in itself. Its by-products — the high school diploma, the college degree, the professional job openings — are not nearly as important as the expansion of the mind and the subsequent flowering of the personality. The view from the mountaintop is the reward of the climber.”

Sixty-five years later, the view is still the same. We still cheer wildly as a community from the sidelines when we beat Midland in sports and know the gopher holes on our practice fields like the back of our hands.

We still stuff our journals, full of reflections from Joshua Tree or Yosemite, into our backpacks and feel the stiff soreness in our arms from paddling the Colorado. We still smell like Santa Barbara surf and track the dust on our footsteps from forest treks through winding trails of our beautiful valley. or dress up for Halloween. We still squish together in the barn, laugh, and applaud as we watch the school play. We dishwash, bricklay, stone-turn, fence-paint, landscape, and embrace any job that teaches dedication and service.

We don’t attempt, we achieve.

I’m the 9th headmaster at Dunn School, and I’m proud to serve in the model set by Tony Dunn. A model that champions Whole Student Education. Whole Student Education is when a student is fully seen, heard, and known.

I was not lucky enough to go to a school like Dunn as a child. I was a public school product and due to my family’s economic situation, I lived a transient lifestyle in my high school years. It was in high school that I did hit the lottery by being placed in Tommie Lindsey’s rhetoric class by mistake. He was a whole student educator, who dug into his own pockets to make sure I could afford speech and debate tournament fees and have food to eat. He would drive me to

wherever my family was staying, so that I could be safe from the gang-related violence that surrounded my school.

Mr. Lindsey saved me. He single-handedly made sure I made it to college and beyond. I was seen, heard, and known because of Mr. Lindsey. So, at every life-changing moment, I reach out to him to celebrate — whether it be my marriage or the birth of our children. And so, when the moment came, I called him up to announce I was named Head of School of Dunn School – and these were the words we exchanged:

“Mr. Lindsey, I wanted to let you know I’m going to be the Head of School of Dunn School in Los Olivos, California.”

“Say that again.”

“Los Olivos, California?”

“I went to boarding school in Los Olivos, California.” What poetry! The teacher who I’ve been chasing as an educator learned it all at the very place I was now moving to.

He was the snake of justice captured in our crest who wrapped his coils around me and faced me in the right direction and led me on the right path. Here I am now, ready to do the same for our students at Dunn.

Ne Tentes Aut Perfice is alive and well as part of the vision for the Robert W. Jurgensen Entrepreneurship Program, our athletics teams, and the residential life opportunities. And we continue to define ourselves in these terms and in the spirit of Tony Dunn.

We are thriving. The intersection and strength of Whole Student Education is exemplified by our core values, by entrepreneurship as defined in our motto, and by our residential life, where teaching, advising, and coaching are not limited to the school day. Dunn School students are seen, heard, and known.

Attempt not but Achieve.

Or, get it Dunn.