A Note from Chris | Transformations and Traditions at The Whitfield School

August 7, 2024

Dear Friends, 

Although the first day of school is still a couple of weeks away, Whitfield is busy with preparations for the 2024-25 school year: faculty, staff, and administration are finalizing plans, setting up classrooms, and getting ready to welcome back our students—the reason we do what we do! 

In the weeks ahead, we are excited for the familiar, well-established Whitfield traditions that mark the new school year—the Back-to-School Bash, meet and greet conferences, the senior clap-in, and Back-to-School Night. In the year ahead, as always, you can look forward to our annual homecoming Spirit Week, outstanding athletics and performing arts, W-Day off-campus experiences, academic exhibitions across a range of disciplines, and traditional Whitfield community celebrations like the Gala, Reunion, and graduation. 

At the same time, you will also notice some changes this year, new ways of presenting and talking about Whitfield and the important work we do empowering young people to discover and become their best selves.  

Some of the newness will be in our appearance: we are updating the Whitfield green, making it deeper and bolder; we are changing the fonts we use for our communications, especially and specifically the font we use for the school name, retiring the older lettering in favor of a more modern styling; and we have added a definite article to our name. Going forward, we are not just any school, we are The Whitfield School.  

Why do these things?  

We believe that these changes, including updating and improving the way we talk about the transformational education we provide, will better represent who we are as a school. Indeed, while we have strong, long, and important Whitfield traditions, we do not provide an old-fashioned, “traditional” college preparatory education. On the contrary, while we prepare our students to thrive in college, including some of the most selective colleges and universities in America—Whitfield has a long tradition of innovative teaching.  

Since our founding, we have been willing to reject rigid, hide-bound educational approaches in favor of what students actually need and what research tells us about how students actually learn. Our hope is that our refreshed, updated appearance will better reflect this essential, forward-looking part of our identity. 

Look for evidence of these changes around campus and over the course of the year, from the website to social media to the t-shirts and other Whitfield swag for sale in the campus store. You’ll see new door signs in the hallways and our new mission and vision statements on the wall of every classroom and office. You’ll see new car magnets and magazine ads. In addition, we have reimagined our annual school magazine, now called Engage. Where Insights functioned as something of a yearbook, a compendium of short pieces and news items, Engage will, like Whitfield’s educational philosophy, go for depth rather than breadth. The magazine will share exciting stories of the Whitfield experience: life-changing learning opportunities, celebrations of athletics and the arts, and alumni profiles and events. Watch for the inaugural issue, due out in mid-September, where, among other stories, you’ll have a chance to read about our new strategic plan, Whitfield 2030.  

Perhaps more subtly but even more important, you may notice a shift in the way we talk about Whitfield and the educational experience we provide. Indeed, you will see that we are quite intentionally emphasizing this word experience because it is central to the way we approach teaching and learning.  

In a real sense, this focus on “experiential education” is a return to our fundamental beliefs and values, to the research-based idea that students learn most deeply, most enduringly when they learn through active, hands-on engagement. At Whitfield, in collaborative, student-centered classrooms, young people learn by making and doing and experimenting, developing the critical thinking and problem-solving skills they will need to thrive in college and beyond. As you will see and hear us say, at Whitfield, it’s the experience that counts. 

Change can be exciting, but it can also be disconcerting, especially for schools, places where there are traditions and memories and ways of being and doing worth preserving. For those who might worry that, say, a change in font might represent a change in who we are and what we do, please be reassured by what you will see and hear in the weeks and months ahead.  

Come and visit. Talk to your child. Learn about the exciting experiences our students are having on- and off-campus. While there will be differences in how we present and talk about the school we love, I think you’ll see the essence of Whitfield is unchanged: we are holding on to the best of who we are and what we do—and in some ways, returning to our roots!—even as we look to the future. 

Warmly,

Chris Cunningham, Ph.D.
Head of School