It has been a fun week, despite the messy weather. On Tuesday afternoon, the students eeked out a narrow victory against the faculty and staff in a spirited basketball extravaganza, complete with a halftime show! Tonight many students will stay on campus for the semiformal dance. And with spring break around the corner, spirits are […]
In a funny scene in Act II of The Tragedy of Macbeth, a drunken porter responds to a repeated “knock, knock, knock” at the door to the castle imagining that he is greeting sinners at the gates of hell. I visited a ninth-grade English class earlier this week where students were acting out that scene […]
“Can I come back and go to school here?” I heard this question a few times on Tuesday from those who joined us for Parents and Guardians Day. For several hours that morning, adults in our community walked through their children’s class schedules, sitting in on actual math, science, language, history, arts, and English classes […]
Who feels included when we use the word “diversity”? Whom are we talking about? Dr. Derrick Gay posed these questions to our students during our all-school meeting this week. Dr. Gay is one of the leading strategists and thinkers around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) work in independent schools around the world, and his work extends […]
I’m writing to you from Camp Burgess, where our 9th and 10th graders have enjoyed several days of ropes courses, rock climbing, kayaking, swimming, cards, board games, and bonding. This year promises a return to normalcy we have not experienced since the start of the pandemic, including the revival of traditions like this one. It is heartwarming to see […]
We are excited to announce that, starting this fall, BUA English teacher Dr. Monica Alvarez will step into the newly-created Director of Equity and Inclusion role at our school. Dr. Alvarez came to BUA following fourteen years at Trinity School in New York City, where she taught English and helped lead that school’s DEI efforts […]
Yesterday’s afternoon all-school trip to the Red Sox game was just what we needed. Several teachers and I were seated a few rows in front of the students. I spent much of my time looking up at them rather than at the field. Some of that had to do with the fact that my brother […]
This is the week when our seniors present their senior thesis projects. Through their year-long studies, they have explored topics ranging from the housing crisis to haptic assistive technology; bessel beams to the resource curse; quantum mechanics to playwriting; white dwarf systems to reaganomics. They have written well researched, compelling, and sometimes publishable papers on those topics, […]
This week, BUA held its first ever volleyball game. A group of 18 players came together; a few clearly had some experience, but many had never played the sport in any organized way. There were some beautiful serves, sets, and digs. There were also some misses and confusion about the rules! And the whole time, […]
On Tuesday evening, BUA welcomed Dr. Claude Steele for a Zoom talk as part of our Parent Education Series. Dr. Steele is one of the world’s leading social psychologists, best known for his 2010 book exploring stereotype threat, Whistling Vivaldi. It is one of a handful of books that has had a lasting impact on me […]