What’s Happening at Bement
The last two weeks at Bement have featured two of our most treasured spring traditions: Spring Fling and Grand Day. Bement rang in the month of May with Spring Fling on May 1st, and it delivered its usual carnival atmosphere, delectable cookout treats, and organized chaos under sunny skies. There is always so much going on at Spring Fling, it is hard to pinpoint particular highlights. But this year’s petting zoo attracted a large crowd thanks to a hungry baby goat who seemed to be chewing on anything in its path including students’ shoes, hair, and clothing. And, of course, my favorite event of the year is the mascot race, which featured half a dozen eager 8th and 9th graders dressed in inflatable costumes careening across the field hockey field in search of glory. One bittersweet moment at this year’s Spring Fling was the final running of Dave Belcher’s Fun Run – Mr. Belcher led the crew of harriers on a mile-long run to Bement’s North End and back and was greeted by a cheering throng when he returned for one last jog through Bement’s main campus.
Each year, Grand Day provides the many special adults who love and support Bement’s students a chance to come to campus and join in the fun and learning of a Bement day with their grandchildren, great nieces & nephews, and the like. “Grands” proudly wear their buttons each year featuring the smiling faces of their associated students, and they are invited to partake in academic classes, P.E., a performing arts showcase, and so much more.
What I’m Reading, Watching, and Listening To
I recently read the widely circulated report from Yale University about declining trust in higher education. This trend, the erosion of trust in so-called “elite” colleges and universities, has been well publicized and is in line with a much longer-term and broader trend of Americans losing trust in institutions in the decades following the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. The report is worth reading for anyone who is interested in the economics of private education (independent schools being a part of that sector, even if we shrugged off the “private” tag years ago), as costs, return on investment, and “consumer” behavior are all significant parts of the discussion of the public’s perception of higher education in 2026.
What stood out to me most from the perspective of a K-9 school head, however, was the section on how elements of the classroom experience contribute to the eroding sense of trust. Namely, I was struck by the sentence, “In our conversations with faculty and students, few concerns came up more consistently than the problem of sustained attention.” This phenomenon has also been well reported in the national media–students arrive for college without having read a complete novel in high school, rigorous habits of scholarship are disappearing from schools everywhere, replaced by technological shortcuts or, worse, distractions, etc.
In my view, this solution to this problem begins in the elementary and middle school spaces. Schools like Bement where wonder, curiosity, and joy dwell alongside struggle, challenge, and resilience in the academic program are best positioned to produce a group of graduates who will reverse the trend on display in today’s college classrooms. The Bements of the world can’t do it alone, but we can do our part, and be a part of the larger conversation about how to best prepare young people for the middle of the 21st century and rediscover the limitless possibilities of deep, engaged learning.
Poetry Corner
For my most recent Friday morning meeting poem, I chose “A House Called Tomorrow” by Alberto Rios. This was a special selection for the Grand Day audience, one that I like to trot out each spring for that special day. Enjoy!
“A House Called Tomorrow” by Alberto Rios
You are not fifteen, or twelve, or seventeen—
You are a hundred wild centuries
And fifteen, bringing with you
In every breath and in every step
Everyone who has come before you,
All the yous that you have been,
The mothers of your mother,
The fathers of your father.
If someone in your family tree was trouble,
A hundred were not:
The bad do not win—not finally,
No matter how loud they are.
We simply would not be here
If that were so.
You are made, fundamentally, from the good.
With this knowledge, you never march alone.
You are the breaking news of the century.
You are the good who has come forward
Through it all, even if so many days
Feel otherwise. But think:
When you as a child learned to speak,
It’s not that you didn’t know words—
It’s that, from the centuries, you knew so many,
And it’s hard to choose the words that will be your own.
From those centuries we human beings bring with us
The simple solutions and songs,
The river bridges and star charts and song harmonies
All in service to a simple idea:
That we can make a house called tomorrow.
What we bring, finally, into the new day, every day,
Is ourselves. And that’s all we need
To start. That’s everything we require to keep going.
Look back only for as long as you must,
Then go forward into the history you will make.
Be good, then better. Write books. Cure disease.
Make us proud. Make yourself proud.
And those who came before you? When you hear thunder,
Hear it as their applause.