Varying Perspectives: An Inter-school Exchange with Keio Academy of New York

A delegation from Keio Academy of New York recently visited Hackley. Led by Keio University’s President Dr. Kohei Itoh, the group included Keio Academy Headmaster Dr. Takayuki Tatsumi and Goro Sato, Keio’s Business Officer.

Kohei is the son of former Hackley Advisory Trustee Koichi Itoh ’59. Koichi was an outstanding student who was valedictorian and Parker Cup winner his senior year, and served as Wendt Visiting Scholar in 2004, Commencement speaker in 2010, chaperone of two Casten Trips to Japan, and as a helpful liaison with Tamagawa Academy in Japan. For decades, he has been deeply committed to strengthening Hackley’s ties with and understanding of Japan. Kohei noted, “I was so excited that I was finally able to visit the school that shaped my father's happy journey until now. The tour of the impressive campus was very informative. All the information kindly provided by Mr. Wirtz was extremely valuable to us.”
The campus tour focused on varying perspectives and Hackley’s four core values: “Enter Here to Be and Find a Friend,” “United, We Help One Another,” “Character is Higher than Intellect,” and “Go Forth and Spread Beauty and Light.”
Following the tour, the Keio delegation met with Head of School Michael Wirtz, and the group compared thoughts and ideas about the independent school education landscape, school life, and the founding missions of each of the two schools.
Headmaster Tatsumi noted, “Being a scholar of the American Renaissance, I was especially intrigued with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s tenet that ‘Character is Higher than Intellect.’ This discovery invited me to speculate upon coincidences between Keio and Hackley.” Those coincidences include shared ties to Unitarianism, Emerson, Harvard, and the Eliot family.
Headmaster Tatsumi concluded, “I’m very happy to empower the friendship between Keio Academy and Hackley, which will unlock another gate to Transpacific, Transcultural, and Transdisciplinary Studies.”
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