Bears Repeating from Jess Hill: In Common

Sometimes, I marvel at all of the ways we can personalize our life experiences. From how we order coffee at Starbucks or how we curate our news feeds to whatever our hidden algorithms may bring to our screens, we are able to customize so much about our lives, either knowingly or unknowingly.

In the realm of education, trends suggest the need for more individualized learning plans, which, at face value, seem to have a great deal of merit. Most recently, new school models use AI as the instructor so that students are able to move at their own pace with their own structure and with each person’s interests and curriculum choices taken into account. This could be the wave of the future, and at the same time, I hope a very important component of education is not lost.

I am sure vast improvements and efficiencies will be implemented in many areas. Who’s to say how different our schools will be in a decade? But the heart of a school that I hope never changes is the power of a shared experience — in the same moment and in the same place. Being together, students and teachers, listening to a speaker, watching a performance, or singing in unison the words that at least 725 students, 150 faculty, and 6,000 alumnae know verbatim — “as here each girl finds for herself, the joys that will abide.”    

In a time that offers remote and hybrid careers, self-checkout lines in stores, and individual playlists with earbuds or headphones, standing and singing the memorized verses of an alma mater seem less likely in 20 or 30 years. Putting our arms around each other and swaying as we sing the verses will surely become apocryphal. Still, I am willing it not to be so. We know too well what it feels like to lose that type of connection. 

During the pandemic, the cornerstone of the school experience — our daily interactions in classrooms and hallways — was taken away. On our screens in our homes, trying to connect and learn new content, it became clear that we lost a foundational part of the educational experience that we had all taken for granted. School, we were reminded, is about so much more than equations and essays.

The values taught and examples shown in our weekly assemblies and community time create the bonds that our students carry with them when they leave. The deep need for bringing all of us together remains crucial to building a community where empathy is fostered, laughter is overflowing, character is modeled, and leading a life of honor and integrity is affirmed. 

My favorite two words that describe what we experience on our best days of learning and growing alongside each other are “collective effervescence.” Researchers describe collective effervescence as the sense of energy and harmony people feel when they come together around a shared purpose. We might experience it on a team, in a choir, or in any problem-solving session. Think of how different it is to laugh alone at a line in a movie than it is to laugh in the midst of a crowd chuckling at that same line and movie.  

I am reminded of the eternal question that students ask their teachers when they return to class after being absent for a day. “So, did I miss anything yesterday?” And to that question, I say: “Yes. You missed the wonderful experience of us learning and being together — and we missed you, too.”