I do believe that these simple commitments, when made consistently, show us the path towards our strongest community, culture, and school year, with everyone pulling an oar in the water towards our best Berkshire, and ultimately our best selves.–Mr. Mulder
Be kind.
Kindness is deeper than merely being nice. Nice can at times be felt as superficial, fleeting, only as the moment requires. Kindness is deeper, authentic, lasting, and impactful. I'd love for all of us to be kind to ourselves, first and foremost. That's an important kindness that we want for all of you here at Berkshire. Be kind to others as well, which usually means being a great listener first, showing and sharing empathy, and working hard to put yourself in somebody else's shoes and experiences.
Be respectful.
Be respectful to yourself, to the choices and decisions you will make this year in support of your best self. Be respectful of others, particularly those whose experiences might be different from your own. And please, always be respectful of our place. It is our great fortune to live and work in these remarkable spaces and places across our campus. Let’s take care of them. Let’s “leave no trace” as you leave your classrooms, dining hall tables, locker rooms, your common room in the dorm. Let’s not leave a mess for others to clean up behind us.
We also need to be respectful of each other's ideas, opinions, perspectives … again and especially if they're different from your own. That's going to be a good part of our work together throughout the entirety of our school year. There is an incredible diversity in this room: so many stories, backgrounds, identities, perspectives, beliefs, traditions, religions, geographies, languages, and cultures. This richness may well be the greatest gift of your experience here. Let’s acknowledge that we're not going to agree on everything. There are going to be some principled disagreements. But at Berkshire, we will disagree civilly, respectfully, and in principled, as opposed to personal ways. A central part of being a Bear is learning to live well, compassionately, and respectfully in a community that mirrors so much of the world beyond us.
Be inclusive.
My hope for everyone in the room this morning is that you brought every piece of yourself up the driveway. That when you rolled onto campus, you didn't have to leave a single part of yourself behind because you weren't sure it was going to fit in or belong here. To me, this is what a true sense of belonging means at Berkshire, that you bring every bit of yourself and your story up the driveway, and not just in hopes of fitting in but to feel that you … all of you … belongs here. Even better, start sharing “you” with the rest of us so that we can learn and grow and be a richer and more interesting place because of you.
Be on time.
8:29 a.m. I was standing on the steps of Berkshire Hall at the start of classes, and there wasn't a single student in Buck Valley. Everyone was into their classes and the start of their day. Well done you. This means being on time, of course, for all of those scheduled moments during your day. We should also be on time with your homework, reading assignments, lab reports, papers, and other assessments. On time to meet with your teachers outside of class. Being on time also means being on time for a roommate, a friend, or a teammate who needs you. Be on time for them, too. Make time for them when you sense they could use some help. Let’s be a community that’s on time in all these important ways.
Be present.
Being present is “eyes up” at Berkshire, engaging, talking, and connecting. It is leaving your cell phones behind whenever we come together as a community. It was awesome to stick all our phones in bags during Monday’s Mountain Time as we left on our hikes and spent time together outside. You were present, engaged, laughing and joyful, in part because you weren't on your phones, you weren't eyes down, and you weren’t alone with a screen. Instead, you were connecting with each other and enjoying the morning in our beautiful place. A big push for us this year is to go eyes up and engage all year long. Remember that it’s no cell phones in our academic classrooms, or in Allen Theater, no phones in the dining hall. Being present leaves a lot more room for joy and for each other.
Be in dress code.
Look sharp, be sharp. Our dress code is our academic uniform during the class day, it’s intentional, and it directly supports the distinct sense of purpose that we all bring to our academic day. It was updated a few years ago, and it’s straightforward, accommodating, the same for every student, and every one of you was in it on Day One. Well done you. It’s also easy to remember: No hooded sweatshirts, no T-shirts, no ripped or torn clothing, no hats inside of academic spaces, Allen Theater, the dining hall, or the library. The whole world dresses differently for different occasions, and we do at Berkshire as well.
Be a good teammate.
Be someone whom your friends, classmates, teammates, or dormmates can depend on. This isn't a commitment for the world of athletics only. Be a great teammate on all the teams that you’re a part of at Berkshire. Be someone whom your teachers, coaches, afternoon program directors, dorm parents, and advisors can count on. Being a good teammate means you're a member of our family. We can count on you. Others can count on you. A big part of success at Berkshire is being a good teammate.
Be accountable.
Be accountable to yourself. Similar to being respectful to yourself, to being present for yourself. Let’s all hold ourselves to a high standard. Let's be accountable to ourselves first, and then accountable to each other next. Much of our job as adults here at Berkshire, in all our many roles, is to help hold you accountable. What I'd love to see as your independence emerges at Berkshire is for you to begin holding yourself accountable for the language, behavior, actions, choices, and decisions that you make … all on your own. By doing this, you're acknowledging who you ultimately want to be and beginning to live without the need for the guardrails put up by the adults in your lives.
Be patient.
It's the first day. Take a deep breath. Give yourself a little permission and grace. Be patient with the settling in, particularly if you’re a new student. It's not all going to happen today, tomorrow, by the end of the week. Your teachers, coaches, dorm parents, and advisors are here to help you be patient, and they do this really well. I preached the same patience to all our new families on registration day. You can be accountable to yourself and still give yourself some time and grace to settle in. We’re just starting a long year together. Let’s be intentional and patient at the same time.
Be your best self.
Or maybe I should say, try every day to be your best self. This is hard. It's hard for me as an adult in our community, it's hard for all of your teachers, coaches, dorm parents, advisors … hard for all of us as adults to honor that standard every single day. We all have bad days. We're going to make mistakes every day. I know I do. But if you can commit to trying to be your best self, and think of that commitment then multiplied across our entire school, then we're going to be a great community, and you're going to be at your best many more days than not. You've all got a great first day rolling, so let's continue to work hard to hold it throughout the year.