Peg Board

FROM THE
BOARD
Scarlet Letter or Red Badge of Courage?
Recently, during one of my weekly
conversations with Darrow’s Head
of School Simon Holzapfel, my ears
perked up as he described to me a
theme that had emerged from a series
of individual student interviews. Several
students, he noted, had reported
feeling that their Darrow classroom
experience was diminished because of
“second chance” students. In late 2016,
one of our trustees (who has professional
experience in the field) conducted
several focus groups with faculty
and students, and again this concept of
second chance students was raised.
Simon and I immediately began
discussing questions about this development,
the most pertinent being:
Was this a new situation or possibly a
reinterpretation of a long-time reality?
We realized that, since its inception
in 1932, our School has always provided
bright students a second chance.
Some came to the Mountainside with
a particular learning challenge, either
a congenital disability or an inability
to thrive in traditional school environments,
for whatever reason. Many
came to Darrow from other cultures
and other nations, where their educational
opportunities may have failed
them, or were simply inadequate for
them at the time. And they discovered
here that simple Shaker value which
we hold so dear, that by “turning, turning,
we come round right.”
One of Darrow’s most famous
examples of the second chance is
Charles “Pete” Conrad ’49, Apollo 12
Commander and the third man to walk
on the moon. A frustrated Conrad, who
suffered from the then-unknown condition
of dyslexia, came here having been
expelled from Haverford School with
grades described as “abysmal” in his
biography, Rocket Man (New American
Library, 2005). The book further notes:
Board of Trustees Chair Bob Kee ’71 (left)
and Head of School Simon Holzapfel at the
Board of Trustees meeting in June
“[Darrow’s Headmaster Lamb]
Heyniger had a weakness for the most
‘challenging’ of the cases. There was
no such thing as a dull kid, just a bored
one, as far as he was concerned...
Darrow’s approach was twofold: Put
hands to work (literally) and open
doors to the student’s natural abilities
and passions... Heyniger didn’t have
any magic bullets. All he could do was
hold the bar high, keep encouraging,
and remind the boy that there was a
destination, a reason for this difficult
but necessary process. Peter would get
through this. He would excel. ”
Pete not only made Darrow’s honor
roll and attended Princeton on a full
Navy scholarship, he went on to serve
as a naval officer, aviator, aeronautical
engineer, test pilot, and astronaut
Upon receiving Darrow’s Distinguished
Alumnus Award at his 50 th reunion, he
said if he hadn’t gone to Darrow he
never would have walked on the moon.
In the profiles of the alumni featured
in this issue of Peg Board, as well as
Rather than a place where
students are stigmatized for
having encountered obstacles
on their educational path,
Darrow has always been
that ‘place just right,’ where
students can feel safe and
supported while still being
challenged and encouraged.
the hundreds the magazine has shared
over the years, a familiar theme runs
through many of their stories: Darrow
provided a place where they could
overcome the challenges and setbacks
they encountered elsewhere, where
they found the freedom to pursue their
true passions, to explore new venues,
and to take a chance—perhaps
a second or even a third chance—on
themselves. Rather than a place where
students are stigmatized for having
encountered obstacles on their educational
path, Darrow has always been
that “place just right,” where students
can feel safe and supported while still
being challenged and encouraged.
I guess if you spend a moment to
reflect on the term, a second chance
is really a fresh opportunity. Everyone
enjoys being presented with an opportunity.
America itself was founded on
that premise. At Darrow, we embrace
the fact that we give students of all
backgrounds a new opportunity to become
better students, and thus better
citizens of the world.
Bob Kee ’71, Chair
Board of Trustees
DARROW SCHOOL 17