Are you like me and you grew up thinking that by 2012 we would all surely have our own jetpacks? I think someone even wrote a book about that very question. Well, I am feeling better about our chances of having jetpacks in this lifetime after watching our robotics team prepare for the FIRST! competition in two weeks. These advanced computer programmers, engineers, and artists are designing and building an awesome 'bot which will soon be able to move around a basketball court, pick up foam basketballs, go over obstacles, shoot at different size hoops, and play defense (try finding an NBA or WNBA player who can do that!). I have enjoyed watching Mr. Cox and his students working on this project in the new robotics lab, or 'bot cave as they call it--the level of teamwork has been impressive. Good luck in Manchester!

I love math. I didn't think I would ever say that. You see, I am the son of a math teacher and I resisted the urge to like the subject or at least show any signs that I did. I plunged into the history courses in college as a way to forge my own identity although I quietly took some fascinating math and economics courses when I had finished my history requirements. I have enjoyed using the skills I learned in these courses and from my father in my role as a head of school.

Last week I was meeting with a young math teacher here and he asked me how we could do more to forefront math outside of the classroom. I loved his challenge to the school and to me as the head. I have started by posting challenges to the school and will post a logic question here from my father's book "101 Puzzle Problems." First person to email me the correct answer will receive a Dublin t-shirt. (bbates@dublinschool.org)

Well, it took four years. It had gotten so bad that supposedly I was not even picked for a Winterfest team this year, and instead achieved the ignominy of being "assigned" to one of the color teams. On top of that the proctors assigned me to my previously least favorite color, Purple! And this all resulted simply because every team I had been on previously had lost our annual Winterfest celebration and competition. What a difference a week makes! Purple just might be my new favorite color. Our Purple team, led by proctors Tu Meng and Paige, stormed from behind to take the title on the final day of events.

All kidding and gloating aside, we had a blast last week. I have never seen such a great spirit among the faculty and the students in the middle of a New England winter. All the groups created wonderful skits and choreographed hilarious lyp-sync pieces for Friday night (see our Youtube Channel: Dublin1935 if you want to see video). Our Parents' Association, led by Michelle Lange, put on an awesome day of outdoor events on Saturday despite the mini--ice storm the night before. The students are on a short break before returning to school on Wednesday. Think snow and go Purple!

Here is an update on the construction of our new building, which will have a student commons, art gallery, three academic classrooms, 2-D studio, 3-D studio, and digital media studio. The building will be open for the spring trimester this year.

As some of our students and staff members head to the polls today it is a good time to ask the community about the issues in this election that they find most important. My question of the week centered on this very question and the picture attached shows the issues that Ms. Bouton's history class felt were the most important to them. Our campus has been abuzz with political discussion ever since the students in Mr. Johnson's American Presidency class invited the candidates to speak to our community. While only Governor Roemer and Senator Santorum came to school, a number of our students and faculty attended campaign stops of the other candidates when they visited this area. The students were particularly politicized by Senator Santorum's visit and they asked him some very tough questions while he was here. Dublin School has certainly been in the media spotlight since Friday an I could not be prouder of our students' efforts to engage in the political process. They are certainly living our motto of "truth and courage."

Apparently a lack of snow has not slowed down our new Director of Snow Sports Bill Farell! Our alpine and snowboarding teams are having a blast at nearby Crotched Mountain and our nordic team is enjoying the generosity of the people at Granite Gorge Ski Area in Keene, who have allowed us to train on their base area. I love that we have a skier on campus who is possibly more obsessed with winter than I am. Check out this short video that Coach Farrell made for our athletes to reassure them over the holiday that they would be on snow when they returned. The technique is pretty impressive...

We have so much to look forward to at Dublin School in the coming year. While it is dark outside, I can see our boarding students pulling up to Lehmann House after their holiday vacations. The faculty started the year today with a full day of meetings. This morning we spent three hours with Peter Eppig who is the founder of the Critical Skills Program at Antioch University. A number of our faculty have studied with Peter and I can see why he came so highly recommended. In our effort to continuously add learning strategies to our teaching quivers, we asked Peter to speak to us about his use of problem-based learning in the classroom. Peter encouraged us to use content and course specific "challenges" to inspire and engage our students in a student-centered classroom. We even collaborated in making up challenges for our various courses. Science Department Chair Katri Jackson and I, for example, are going to challenge her Environmental Science students to develop a presentation to our Board of Trustees about environmentally sustainable and cost effective uses of energy on campus. We left these discussions inspired and eager to get back into the classroom.

English Department Chair Stacia Tolman spoke to us this afternoon about our school writing initiative. We discussed challenges and opportunities for teaching writing across the curriculum. A number of great ideas were generated through our "group think." Finally, Dean of Students Eric Nemitz met with all of the dormitory parents to discuss the upcoming winter months. It was a great day and I am fortunate to work with such a dedicated and student-centered faculty.

We had an incredible last week of school to wrap up 2011. I probably had the most fun hanging with the class of 2012 in our house the night before they left for vacation. They are a terrific class, and despite repeatedly losing games of chess, I had a great time. While I have always been a reluctant participant in our annual secret gift exchange, I was impressed with how creative the "gifting" was this year. Students wrote poems, performed interpretive dances, and sang songs for each other's gift recipients. I hope everyone had a very happy holiday!

It has been quite awhile since my last post. Things get a little busy around here between the holidays and it has been a wonderful time at Dublin School. The music and performances for the Celebration of Light were stunning and inspiring. The students and faculty worked so hard to make the concert such a success. The athletic teams are off to a great start and the cast of the musical sounds like they are ahead of schedule. Everyone has earned a nice break as we gear up for an exciting 2012!

One thing I am particularly excited about is our plan to send out two different educational and service trips around the world this March. One group will be traveling to India and the other to Costa Rica. Jayant Hardikar, who is the founder of the Educational Himalayan Foundation (http://www.himalayaneducation.org), will be traveling with Dean of Students Eric Nemitz and eight students to northern India for seventeen days in March. He has been sending out wonderful emails to his group to help prepare them for what they are going to see. Here is his latest:

"India's history is made up of stuff fit for epic novels and a series of blockbusters that could that would easily outsell the Star Wars Trilogy in the theaters! First there were the early ages of India (the Vedic period) that are the source of much of the Indian mysticism and philosophy. Following that are detailed accounts of various dynasties between around 10 Century BC up to 12 Century AD with increasing encounters with other worlds such as the battle with Alexander the Great from Greece, trade with Africa and the Far East and the increasing traffic from the North West and North East of India.

It is these passages from the North that first attracted waves of invaders, travelers, scholars, artisans, common people and thugs alike for centuries who came from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, China and Mongolia in search of that something that India offered. That something ranged from its precious stones, silks and spices to ancient philosophies of Buddhism and Hinduism. This was the start of the Medieval Ages in India. From 1500s to mid 1800s AD, generations of rulers from these Northern invading states formed what is known as the Moughal Empire. The Moughals (or Mughals) brought with them a different culture, different art and architecture, different music and different language than what was originally prevalent in India. Urdu, for example, is a language spoken by the Muslim community in India and Pakistan that is a blend of Persian and Hindi. Northern India saw more of the affect of the Mughal invaders than the South, India being such a large land mass.

The Mughal period was extremely colorful not only in terms of changing the flavor of India's art, architecture and culture, but was also was the period that is full of stories of deceit, wars, alliances and treaties between various Mughal rulers as well as the local Hindu rulers. There were marriages that took place to join kingdoms, armies of hundreds of thousands on horses, camels and elephants plundered and conquered huge lands... and then there was the sword-wielding.  Robinhood-like prince near Mumbai in the 1600s named Shivaji who vowed to take back their lands from the Mughal rulers and with small guerrilla armies on horseback took control of many spectacular forts that sit precariously on 4000-6000 foot mountains in West-Central India. Indeed a lot of blood was shed in these times.

There was Emperor Shahjahan who grew the empire handed to him by his father and grandfather even more to extend it to almost all of Northern half of India. When his wife died, he had the most spectacular tomb built for her in the city of Agra - the Taj Mahal - that took 22 years to build. Material for the Taj Mahal was brought over by elephants from places as far away as Tibet, Afghanistan, Arabia and Sri Lanka. As Shahjahan grew older, what a terrible fate he faced when his younger son - Aurangezeb - conspired with his sister and murdered the older brother who otherwise was the heir to the throne. And to top it all, this evil dude Aurangzeb even imprisoned his own father Shahjahan in a room for years - until his death - in a fort directly across the river from the Taj Mahal. The room had a small window that looks out to the Taj.  This was psychological torture at its worst. Can you imagine an Emperor - Shahjahan - who proudly built one of the finest man-made wonders of the world out of love for his wife, being imprisoned in a room in the turret of the fort and the only thing he could see out the small window was the spectacular tomb where his wife lay dead! At least he himself got buried next to his wife in the Taj after his death in the prison. Such were the tumultuous times of Medieval India. The stories are never ending as you can imagine.

And here's the best part - these are stories not just in books, but can be experienced in the relics, remnants and historic sites all across India even today! When we go to see the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort, you will be transported instantly to these ancient times. Seeing the Taj from Shahjahan's prison window always makes me realize just how entwined beauty, sadness, cruelty and compassion are in this one little scene.

When in India, you will see tombs, temples and ruins strewn across the landscape anywhere you go. Many of them are things nobody even knows any more what they are. Ancient history will practically be in every picture that you take in India. However, in the cities, the modern advertisements for Samsung TVs, the chaos of the traffic and crowds, the signs for Dominos Pizza and the dust and dirt will make it difficult for you to get a glimpse of perhaps that 5th Century dome that serves as the backdrop for the market.  But if you try harder, keep your mind and eyes open, you will see an India behind the superficial India that you will see otherwise! Yes you will indeed see dusty streets or glitzy shopping malls trying to outdo the ones in the West. But then blink and look deeper. You are bound to see something that will not be captured in the photograph you take!  Chances are you will not be able to describe that 2nd take to anyone in words, but if you see it right, you will never forget it - because the impression that it will leave will not be in your brain, but your heart!"

--- Jay

There is a great deal of excitement on campus as we begin the new trimester. I spent the afternoon walking around to the various sports and activities and it was fun to see the nervous excitement of both the students and the faculty. Kids were being sized for ski equipment, the theater group read through their scripts for the first time, the basketball teams broke out their new balls for their first practice, and people seemed to be running everywhere around campus. Following the good advice from a recent David Brooks New York Times column, I urged our students to become actors, participants, and leaders rather than settling for being spectators. I also challenged them to get outside every day of the winter and try a new and healthy outdoor activity. I told them I would try snowboarding (I think the earth shook a little when I said this) and asked them what they were going to try. Skating, skiing, snowshoeing, falconry, cross country skiing, walking, sledding? Now we just need snow!