What is a river? What is a school?

What is the Oliverian Brook, which meanders through our campus and is our namesake? It’s not the water itself, which is never the same actual water from one moment to the next. It can’t be the shape, which changes over time as the ever-changing water erodes the sediment around it.  It can’t be the depth and speed, which vary with rainfall and snowmelt. Yet it’s clear that this is the same stream day to day, year to year.

At times I have similarly struggled to define what exactly makes Oliverian Oliverian. This school has an essence, a character, a spirit that is difficult to define but easy to experience. That essence lives on through comings and goings of the individual people that make up the community. It lives on through changes to the campus, the curriculum, the programming. So what is Oliverian made of, then? We feel its essence in our bones, but how do we define it?

I believe that a significant aspect of that essence is embodied in core values, which were present at the founding of the school and have persisted ever since. These values are both part of the lived experience of our daily lives, and are also aspirational – reminding us of who we want to be.

I am delighted to share a newly worded statement of those long-held values. These core values are linked in pairs which may at first glance seem to be in opposition, but in fact are mutually enriching. The perpetual effort to balance the two is where we find the greatest wisdom. Oliverian is a place where profound acceptance goes arm in arm with a deep belief in the human capacity for change, where we recognize that joy and discomfort are inextricable.

Defining our values is one important step towards pinning down that Oliverian essence. Before I try to take any more steps in that direction, though, I think I’ll walk down and dip my feet in the river… whatever that is.

Warmly,

Abby
Head of School