Head of School's Blog

I have just returned from my last trip down the intense whitewater rapids of the Penobscot River with our junior class. I believe this was my eleventh or twelfth trip to the New England Outdoor Center (NEOC) with the junior class during my eighteen years at Dublin. We designed this trip to help prepare the juniors to lead the school during their senior year. The stunningly beautiful NEOC operation in Millinocket, Maine, is owned and operated by Dublin alum Matt Polstein '79. It has been exciting to see the many changes Matt has brought to NEOC--I feel like he is a kindred spirit in the Dublin mode! 

We break the long six-hour drive to and from Maine with stops in Freeport and Portland. The NEOC campus has comfortable cabins right on the shore of Millinocket Lake with stunning views of Mount Katahdin in the background. I have required each class to play an enormous game of 20-on-20 volleyball the minute we arrive on campus. From there, the students swam in the cold lake, played hackeysack (yes, it's really back), settled into their cabins, and grilled dinner. We were even able to see the northern lights through the lenses of our cameras.

On the second day, we awoke early to join five rafting guides for a tour of the Upper Penobscot River. I believe young people need to take calculated risks from time to time. Our parent book group read Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation with me this year, and we learned about Haidt's criticism of my generation's fixation on "safetyism," or the irrational urge to protect our children. Haidt believes that, "if you want your children to grow up to be responsible, self-reliant, and capable people, you need to let them take risks, play freely, and get into situations that make parents gasp." Rafting through class four and five rapids involves some risk. We work with highly trained guides to mitigate that risk, but I will tell you that everyone who went rafting that day entered the river with some trepidation.

The water was running high after a good winter of snow and a week of rain. The water temperature was in the 30s, and the air temperatures were in the 60s. We split into five boats and learned the many commands we needed to maneuver our boats safely. Each boat seemed to take on a different personality over the course of the six-hour adventure. Some were quiet and locked in on the commands of the guide; others were boisterous and seemingly piratical! The guides read the group's vibes and tailor the experience to the group's personalities. Some guides got through the rapids and then drove their crews upriver to literally surf the rapids again. This led to some spectacular flips and unintentional swimming! We also had one boat eject some of its crew while going over a particularly large rapid. The students made it back to safety and were baptized into the elite "Penobscot Swim Team."

After lunch, some warm showers, and a few naps, we gathered for a nice dinner in the main lodge. We use this dinner to help prepare the juniors for their senior year. To show them that there are many different leadership styles, I have borrowed the National Outdoor Leadership School's No Doze Leadership Styles exercise to complete with the class. I tell the students that they do not have to agree with what the exercise says about their leadership style, but that I hope that it forces them to think about themselves as leaders. I ask them to talk about older students who had an impact on them, so they can see the power to do good they will soon have. 

Finally, I ask them to discuss the kind of culture they want to establish on campus next year. This is something we have done with great success since COVID, which challenged our community culture. The students had almost too many ideas for the culture they wanted to create. We gave each student an index card and asked them to rank their top three choices. I handed these cards to the school president-elect, Finn, so he can compile them and hand the top three choices to the new head of school, Sam Bicknell, this summer.

After dinner and more volleyball, we moved to the fire pit, where we were regaled with tales of horror and heroism from experiences on the river that day. It was a great trip, and I left feeling so much hope about this class and young people in general. They met a challenge with courage, supported one another, and spoke of establishing a powerful culture for all students next year. Dublin School will be in good hands.