 | About Hackley From the Headmaster For more than a century, Hackley School has welcomed all with the words carved over our entry: “Enter here to be and find a friend.” What brings us together on this hilltop is not just oustanding academics, but also friendship, and the belief that “character is higher than intellect.”
The warmth of our community enables both challenge and nurture, giving students the means to set high personal goals and attain them. Supporting student achievement in rigorous academics, arts, athletics, and community service, Hackley honors student commitment and strength of character. A Hackley education prepares students to think and act with care and effectiveness both at school and in their broader communities.
When I first visited Hackley with my young children in 1995, I hoped they would grow to be as kind, accomplished, and confident as the students I met. As I was then, I believe you, too, will be inspired by the educational opportunities of the Hackley School community—a place where it’s easy to be good.
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Walter C. Johnson was appointed Headmaster of Hackley School in 1995, after serving as Upper School Director at the American School in London and Collegiate School in Manhattan. Prior to Collegiate, he was an English teacher, Admissions officer, and Form Master at Trinity School in Manhattan. Walter grew up in Westchester and attended Amherst College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude in English (1974). He was then a University Fellow and Teaching Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received an M.A. in English (1976), and a Klingenstein Fellow at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he received an M.A. in Educational Administration (1990).
He serves as a Regent of The Cum Laude Society, as a Trustee of New Canaan Country School, and as an ex officio member of the Board of The Parents League of New York. He has been elected to membership in the Headmasters Association and the Country Day School Headmasters’ Association.
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Hackley: the Home You Choose
6/28/2010
This issue of Connections is dedicated to celebration. In the first weeks of June, we applauded our 4th graders as they completed Lower School, and our 8th graders as they look forward to Upper School. We celebrated the accomplishments of students, athletes, artists, and those who simply epitomize the core values of Hackley School -- friendship, character, effort, integrity. Most significant, we celebrate our seniors as they prepare to leave this Hilltop. Each year, the seniors, their parents, and their teachers gather on Akin Common a few days before Commencement at the Senior Dinner. It’s a time of appreciation, of looking back, yet also of looking forward. This year, Walter offered the following remarks to the community gathered at the Senior Dinner on June 9. While tendered to the Class of 2010, they resonate for all of us.
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Headmaster’s Letter
4/19/2010
Connections: Spring 2010 -- On March 11th and 12th, Hackley held mandatory Upper School parent and student meetings on adolescent risks, especially those involving illegal use of drugs and alcohol. Stephen Wallace, head of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), was our speaker. For students and parents, the most important message of those meetings, I believe, is our responsibility for each other -- not just parents for their own children, but students for students and parents for other people’s children. There is nothing more important to Hackley’s mission as a school and identity as a community than the safety and well-being of our students. Our collective goal is captured by our motto, “United we help one another.” Our disciplinary process for issues of substance abuse serves that educational goal -- to help the positive development of all our students -- cognitive, emotional, moral, and physical.
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Learning Constructive Dependence
1/7/2010
Connections: Winter 2010 -- At the December meeting of the Board of Trustees, Middle School Director Alona Scott and her colleagues Kevin Roth, Assistant Director; Oshon Temple, Math teacher; Roger Garrison, English teacher; Erica Jablon, History teacher and 5th grade Dean; and Betsy Block, Spanish teacher and Middle School faculty representative, discussed Hackley’s curricular programs in 5th and 6th grades. In her preface, Alona offered a succinct summary of the developmental differences between Middle School grades, and how our program guides our students towards increasing scholarly independence. Middle School years are the most challenging for our students (and for their parents!) because everything is changing -- their bodies, their minds, their relationships. They want and need more autonomy, even as they want and need more support than ever in facing the changes in themselves and their understanding of the world. By the time each member of the team had given his or her presentation, the impressive support our Middle School students receive from so many talented teachers and administrators was palpable. Our Middle School team is working to help our students gain the skills and confidence to be more autonomous, just as you are at home when you supervise study and set times for bed. Ultimately, when they’re in college, they’ll need to make those choices on their own, but the structure and support we provide now are essential. We want them to learn that such appropriate dependence on others -- teachers, classmates, and parents -- can be a significant strength.
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Journal News: Conversation Corner
10/21/2009
Here is a PDF of the article that ran in the Journal News supplement A Guide to the Area's Finest Private Schools on September 4th, 2009.
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The Value of a Good Community
10/9/2009
Connections: Fall 2009 -- I’ve recently sent home messages to parents about Hackley’s measures to reduce our exposure to novel H1N1 and seasonal flu. I explained what Hackley is doing, both to help contain environmental exposure (cleaning), to encourage staff and students to take appropriate measures themselves (hand-washing), to help protect staff and students through vaccinations (offered at school), and to coordinate with health authorities (County, State, and Federal). All of these steps are important to help assure the physical well-being of our students and staff. Sometimes, though, I write with a kind of shorthand, an implicit assumption about what “Hackley” means, and “what Hackley’s doing” that both gives too little credit to our community and displaces responsibility for the well-being we’re trying to assure.
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