Open Hearts

A Message from Dr. Fran Bisselle, Head of School

I recently had the opportunity to hear presidential historian Jon Meacham speak to a group of independent school leaders. A former executive editor at Random House and former editor of Newsweek, Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of several best-sellers, including American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House and The Soul of America.

Meacham told a story about what he called the most extraordinary piece of writing in any presidential library. It was a letter that President George H.W. Bush wrote to his parents in 1958, four years after his daughter Robin’s death from leukemia. Meacham was hired to write Bush’s presidential biography and, as part of the process to get to know Bush and his life, he asked the former president to read the letter aloud.

There is about our house a need. We need some soft blonde hair to offset those crew cuts. We need a doll house to stand firm against our forts and racquets and thousand baseball cards. We need someone who’s afraid of frogs. We need a little one who can kiss without leaving egg or jam or gum. We need a girl…..We had one once — she’d fight and cry and play and make her way, just like the rest. But there was about her a certain softness. She was patient. Her hugs were a just little less wiggly…..But she is still with us. We need her and yet we have her. We can’t touch her and yet we can feel her. We hope she’ll stay in our house for a long, long time. Love, Pop.

After reading the letter, the 90-year-old Bush broke down in tears. A Bush aide jumped in and asked Meacham why he had the President read the letter. Meacham said, “If you want to know someone’s heart…” and then Bush finished Meacham’s sentence. “You have to know what breaks it.”

Hathaway Brown’s distinguished academics empower girls to apply knowledge in action. We are confident our students will create solutions to the world’s most pressing problems and we want every one of them to be ferociously successful. And yet to be truly successful, their education must touch not only their minds, but their hearts. They, like the adults who serve as their role models, must know their own humanity and honor the humanity of every person with whom they come in contact. They must have soft skills like empathy, authentic listening, and instinctual kindness, and they must care for their whole selves.

Hathaway Brown’s board of trustees is finalizing our strategic plan which will guide our school over the next five years. Central to the plan is a continued commitment to enhancing the development of the whole child by integrating character building, leadership training, mental well-being, and social-emotional learning. It also means attracting and retaining a diverse group of world-class educators, cultivating a celebrated community with a deep sense of belonging and empathy, and building the future by inspiring a culture of philanthropy to enhance our distinguished academics and support mission-centered opportunities.

History has taught us that we will be defined by how we love and how we use our hearts when we lead, and this guides our mission of learning not just for school, but for life. I am deeply proud that HB women are among today’s leaders and future HB leaders will be empowered to lead with open hearts in tomorrow’s multicultural and globalized society.