We are Hackley Lifers
When my second child entered his senior year at Hackley, I began my 15th year as a Hackley parent. My boys and I were lucky to grow up on the Hilltop. The group of children who attend Hackley’s Lower School benefit from shaping influences – from their teachers and peers, as well as by way of community values – that set these students up to thrive.
My sons’ Lower School teachers, many of whom still teach at Hackley, didn’t presume limits to a child’s curiosity. I recall sitting with my six-year-old on a beach, watching pelicans swallow fish as he eagerly explained the process of peristalsis. He told me, “The throat is a muscle.” A Lower School teacher explained peristalsis to my son, and it stuck.
For my children and their friends, it was cool to try hard. After school, my son and a visiting friend would have a snack, take out homework, and diligently complete it before setting out to play – work habits that, I am happy to report, persisted through Upper School and college.
My boys made new friends across their Hackley years and through college, yet they still group text and play Fantasy Football with friends made in Lower School. Kindergarten friends were among those joining my 24 year old for his recent birthday celebration. And they still look forward to visiting Hackley Lower School. The warm reception rejuvenates them, and they return to their grown-up lives reminded of the Hackley ideal of “unreserved effort.”
It’s a Hackley thing -- and they learned it first in Lower School.
Hackley Parent ’12, ’14
Hackley School
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