2000 Edgehill, Summer 2022

From the Director: Built to Last

Many 2000 Edgehill columns later, here comes the farewell edition. For starters, color me grateful that we still publish an actual document—part current events, part stories from years long past, part message to posterity—all in an effort to reach the far-flung PDS/USN community. In this moment of transition, so laden with connective potential, let me offer a few reasons that our hardworking school has stood the test of time and stands ready for what’s next.

For starters, a deep commitment, explicitly affirmed in our lowprofile but high aspiration mission statement, to look like our city. That means celebrating in real time the constantly changing demographics, welcoming the next wave of new Nashvillians, alongside those of us who’ve been here for a while. It’s not hard to find private schools that appear dedicated to turning back the clock, to embracing a picture of life a decade, or a generation, or several generations past—an effort guaranteed to miss opportunities to learn and think and grow and be relevant in this or any historic moment. USN benefits daily from a conscious and constant effort to reach out. And happily, we know it in our bones.

Next, look to our compact, high-energy, K-12 campus, all under one roof, figuratively and actually. We’re situated here contiguous to one of the nation’s great institutions of higher education, next to its college for teachers, and we’re fully autonomous for what in 2025 will be a half-century, with an origin story unlike any other. While other schools may construct monuments to affluence at a remove from their neighborhood, we sit here in Midtown, with so much to remind us to stay engaged—not to mention the River Campus resource and its possibilities in Bordeaux. And we get to watch the progression from kindergarten to college by just walking down the hall.

Then, turn to our financial model, rooted in the austerity that probably kept us around through times of challenge we’d struggle to understand today. Tuition now sits at levels our predecessors would similarly strain to imagine, but we still watch every penny, with a priority on making it possible for the people who work

here to stay here as the leaders that our profession needs. Yes, we benchmark with the best schools we can find nationwide, but we are not afraid to keep doing what we think is best on the operational side—to do more with less—as we build the longer-term endowment resources to relieve some of the burden of being so tuition-driven.

Most importantly for this list, look to our singular faculty, experiencing its own form of generational shift. They’ve been drawn here by the chance to merge autonomy and collegiality in just the right measure, in a lasting pursuit of excellence. Watching the next generation of USN greats has been one of the treats of the last few years for me, through the crucible of the pandemic. There’s a mountain of talent to fuel our school’s next steps, some of recent vintage and others who’ve seen us through many seasons of change. May every action and statement and initiative in the years ahead reinforce the central importance of sustaining a great faculty here—including the chance, or maybe the responsibility, to play a visible role in preparing those aspirants who seek lives as teachers.

My aim from here forward is to cheer USN on from a respectful distance, to work on being a decent former Director, to express the depth of my gratitude for having been part of this beloved community for so darned long. It’s a testament to the school, actually, that it has even been possible to enjoy such a run. My predecessors, principally, so to speak, Harvey Sperling and Ed Costello, did the hard stuff that paved the way. And their predecessors, from Thomas Alexander to Knox McCharen, set the metronome that still keeps our time.

Now it’s everyone’s turn to imagine anew what USN can be at its best, and to quote our Pulitzer-winning historian Bob Massie ’46, I can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

Here’s to you,