Letter from the
Head of School
L
ast September, when I addressed this year’s student body, faculty, and staff, as well as many parents and friends of Pennington at our annual Convocation ceremony, my speech centered on the theme of perseverance and grit. Students had begun the year working together in groups to build and launch model rockets capable of carrying a fragile glass ornament up into the air and providing a way for it to return safely to the ground, an exercise created to acknowledge the anniversary of man’s first steps on the moon. Given no instructions to follow, students had to embrace trial and error to get it right. Each brought different talents to the task at hand, and many modifications had to be made along the way. But by the end of the afternoon, there was much to celebrate: our students in grades six through twelve had worked creatively and collaboratively to achieve a meaningful goal. And at the close of Convocation, I offered this quote attributed to Winston Churchill:
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” I reminded our community that in most instances, noteworthy accomplishments do not happen in a vacuum but rather are the result of a community that encourages, supports, challenges, and inspires each of us to give our best. Our outstanding faculty work tirelessly, creatively, and with great passion to help our students find their own individual excellence every single day. As author Zig Ziglar said,
“When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.” I challenged all of us to reach this year for a goal we believe in and that we find important or even difficult, to go outside of our comfort zones and push beyond what we know we can do and imagine all that we might do. This “growth mindset” helps each of us persevere through the setbacks that we will inevitably encounter. 2
Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020
