Under new headmaster, Marvelwood reaches out

KENT — Arthur Goodearl is now more than halfway through his first year as head of school at the Marvelwood School. He replaced outgoing head Scott Pottbecker, moving onto campus and into his new job last July.Marvelwood is an independent preparatory school for students in grades nine to 12. It is now located at the top of Skiff Mountain, although the school was originally in Cornwall on the former campus of Rumsey Hall. The school was founded in 1956 and moved to Kent in 1995.Current enrollment is 162 students, with 150 boarding and 12 day. Slightly more than 50 percent are boys. About 11.5 percent of the school’s operating budget is designated for student financial aid.Slightly above one third of the student body are international students from mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, Nigeria, Russia and the U.K.The foreign students often come to Marvelwood to improve their English skills in a New England boarding school setting. Most strongly represented are the Asian nations.“At present, Asia is highly motivated to send its students to the United States,” Goodearl said. In particular, an American education is prized because it teaches creativity better than, for instance, the Korean and Chinese systems (which tend to focus heavily on math and science).There is concern in some Asian families that their children may not develop the creative instincts to complement their technical capabilities. “They are going to be required to produce the next generation of business leadership, which needs to take those economies up another level. They perceive that creativity is done best in the U.S. They are eager for their children to have an experience in an American university and the first step in doing that is to enhance language proficiency at an American boarding school.”Goodearl pointed out another cultural difference. “In Asia, the relationship between a teacher and student is a power relationship. It is fair to say it is not an especially warm relationship. That is very different here in the U.S.”Marvelwood’s strength, he said, “has always been the personal energy and commitment the faculty bring to enriching the lives of the students, on many levels. The faculty make a conspicuous effort to identify who these students are and what their needs for success are, and never give up trying to help them to succeed.“We have a faculty community that is mindful and watching but, hopefully, not hovering over students.”Many Marvelwood students are there because they benefit from a more flexible and supportive teaching style, he noted.“We are a model for 21st century education in a lot of respects. Here’s why. Roughly a third of our students are young men and women who need some tutorial help. Maybe they are mildly dyslexic, maybe they struggle with math, maybe they are on the autistic spectrum, but they are all good kids. The proactive teaching strategies those students require work well for all learners.”And, he said, the tutoring strategies that work well for Marvelwood’s native speakers translate well into English-language enhancement for the international students.A graduate of Harvard and Wesleyan, Goodearl (who is now 65) taught at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford for 31 years. He and his wife, Mary, taught, coached, were dorm parents and found time to raise their own children. Before coming to Marvelwood, Goodearl spent 11 years at The Hillside School in Massachusetts, where he was assistant headmaster.Marvelwood has a strong community service program. Every Wednesday morning, the school’s white vans take students to volunteer opportunities as diverse as the Warren Child Care Center, the Sharon Historical Society and the Housatonic Valley Association. Many students also work on the care and maintenance of the Sharon Land Trust blueberry bushes on the edge of the campus.Marvelwood also has a unique birdbanding program, run by Science Department Chair Laurie Doss. In addition to studying the many birds that flit through the school’s mountaintop campus, students travel twice a year to do research in Panama. The school’s next challenge, the head of school said, is to, “enhance our programs in the arts and to use the arts as a way to connect with the wider community. We need to upgrade and improve a building to turn it into a vibrant and exciting center for the arts. That means theater, fine arts, dance, digital and music.“When you talk about the arts you are talking about education for life. The arts unlock the mind in wondrous ways.”To learn more about Marvelwood, go online to www.marvelwood.org.

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Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

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Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

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