The 96th Opening of School

New Saints, returning Saints, and a culture nearly a century in the making come together to open the school year.

The 96th Opening of School went very much like it has every year before—brought to life by the contagious (and loud!) energy of a community of teenagers who couldn’t wait to welcome the newest additions to the St. Andrew’s family home to Middletown.

Prior to Opening Day, Saints had begun to arrive back on campus, like the senior class for senior orientation, international students, fall athletes, and more. But on August 29, the full school community came together for the first time.

We welcomed 66 new ninth graders, nine sophomores, and six juniors to campus. These 81 Saints hail from 20 states plus Washington, D.C., and eight countries. From Idaho to Rhode Island, Wyoming to Texas, and Arizona to Florida, new students represent every corner of the United States, while new international students hail from China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, India, Germany, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. The magic of St. Andrew’s is what happens when a kid from McCall, Idaho and a kid from El Salvador call the same dorm hallway home.

Saturday was a flurry of activity, which began at the gates of the Main Drive, where students took shifts welcoming new arrivals with handmade posters, chants, and gravity-defying jumps of joy. Seniors led the charge when it came to settling students in their dorms. They hustled boxes, problem-solved with parents, answered questions, and, most important, each one checked in on their “Little Sibling,” the new student every senior is paired with for support and mentorship.

As students got acclimated to dorm life by meeting with their dorm parents and new neighbors Saturday afternoon, parents gathered in Engelhard Hall for remarks from Head of School Joy McGrath ’92.

McGrath spoke to the strength of the culture parents were entrusting their children to. “Your child will be known here,” she told them. “They are seen as a reflection of the divine, as worthy of love and suffused with dignity. They are worthy of formation, and flourishing.”

She traced that culture back to the school’s founding. “Nearly 100 years ago, Felix duPont built this school in a cornfield because he believed that a certain kind of education—Episcopal, rigorous, deeply human—should exist in the world, and that it should be open to any student who could thrive here, regardless of their family’s financial means.”

McGrath described St. Andrew’s culture as something built daily, not taught. “It’s built by thousands of small acts, choices we make every day. … We do not have a course entitled ‘Restraint,’ and there is certainly not an AP offered on ‘Grace.’ Your child will not earn a grade for ‘Friendship.’ But these are among the most important things your child will practice here.” She promised parents the proof was visible. “Just visit and look around. Go to the Dining Hall. Pause during Chapel. Go out on the Front Lawn. Visit athletic practice or peek in the door to a class. What you will see is something the world badly needs.”

That culture made itself felt immediately, as students filled the Front Lawn at dusk for the Opening Day Square Dance, a beloved, decades-old tradition. Saints made wrong turns, they laughed so hard they couldn’t hear the dance caller, they found a partner, lost them, and found a new one, and they were willing to look a little silly next to friends they’ve known for years or the ones they made just five minutes ago.

After students helped clean up the last bales of hay, country boots and cowgirl hats were traded for dinosaur costumes and tutus, among other wardrobe choices, for Open Mic. Each student who stepped into the spotlight—including some brave ninth graders—was met with a standing ovation 300-plus-strong.

On Monday, August 31, the first official day of classes, St. Andrew’s restored an old tradition: Convocation, an official academic ceremony marking the opening of the school year. Headlined by History Department Chair Matt Edmonds, his speech began with a confession that doubled as reassurance for any nervous students in the room:  “I once wandered into a philosophy lecture thinking, “Why not?” he said, “and walked out five minutes later having understood nothing.”

From there, Edmonds turned to the school’s motto, “faith and learning,” and the idea underlying both: choice. “You are an individual with free will,” he told students. “Homework? Your choice. Getting a good night’s sleep? Your choice. Breakfast sign-in? Your choice.” He was candid about how hard real choice has become in a world built to erase it. “Try as we might to create a culture at St. Andrew’s that isn’t dominated by devices, we live in a world that makes it easy to not be curious or motivated—to disconnect from your own thoughts and drown yourself in an endless sea of ‘content,” he said. “I would argue we live in a world that makes it increasingly easy to not have any thoughts.”

But learning, and particularly at St. Andrew’s, he reminded students, requires deep thinking. “Some of your ideas are bound to be incorrect, or at least unpopular,” he said. “When this happens, there will be strong social incentives for you to adjust your thinking—and sometimes you should. Not because you want to go along with the crowd, but because learning about and from the crowd convinces you that there are better ideas out there. But sometimes the idea in your head is the one that the world is lacking. The ultimate aim of learning is the ability to tell the difference. We call that wisdom, and that is the work of a lifetime.”

Faith and learning, he argued, are not concepts students will master during their time at St. Andrew’s. “They are what philosopher James Carse has metaphorically called ‘infinite games,’” he said. “Games that have no winner, games in which the entire point is to keep the game going as long as you can.” He sent students off with a charge: “I wish you all a wonderful year, and I have faith that you will—more often than not—choose learning.”

 

To see images from Opening Day, visit our SmugMug.