A C A D E M I C S
Liberal Arts AND THE
By Brandon Bennett, Associate Head of School and Middle & Upper School Head Ever since the founding of Waterford School 40 years ago in 1981, curriculum has been an overarching preoccupation. True excellence in student learning rests upon the foundation of true excellence in program design. An outstanding teacher can facilitate outstanding learning with very little beyond a robust fund of knowledge, an informed sense of teaching strategy, and the meeting of curious minds. But, of course, truly excellent facilities can make the learning process much easier and more impactful.
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With each new building Waterford added to the Sandy campus, there was a corresponding leap forward in the quality of our program. For example, the construction at the end of the last century of what is now the Nancy and Dustin
Heuston Center for the Arts led to the emergence of truly world-class programs across all the arts, from the orchestra to the photo labs and art studios to the black box theater and ballet stage. At the same time, there was a cultural transformation within the student community, as the arts took their rightful place alongside the academic disciplines and athletic pursuits at the center of a compelling liberal education. But without outstanding artist-teachers developing outstanding arts curricula, the facilities alone would have been meaningless. Our science faculty have kept this truth in mind over the 20 years or so they have been thinking about, planning for, and breathlessly anticipating the construction of a new science center equipped with truly
