Kingsley’s Head of School, Steve Farley, reflects on his summer and the new school year ahead.

What were you up to this summer? 

Summers are meant for two outcomes—spending time with family and reading! Fortunately, my wife Sarah and I were able to do both. 

Our son Sam made the trip home from New Brunswick, Canada several times, and our daughter Elise stepped away from her senior thesis research about migratory birds in Amherst to visit Boston. Sarah and I also had the chance to sample Maine Island life, decamping to Swan’s Island for a week. And, we were fortunate to celebrate two family milestones as my eighty-seven year old father published his memoirs and Sarah’s mother celebrated her ninetieth birthday.

What have you read lately?

I took a deep dive into the competitive election of 1860, reading Erik Larson’s new book The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War and Doris Kearn Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. The parallels with our current election as well as the examples of selfless leadership provided helpful framing for this fall’s election. 

I am also reading Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents―and What They Mean for America's Future by Dr. Jean M. Twenge and dipping into selections from West Wind, Mary Oliver’s 1989 collection of poems and prose poems. (Click here to read the Mary Oliver selection I shared with faculty during our opening meetings).

Finally, for pure escapism, I read the first two books of Tana French’s Cal Hooper series, The Searcher and The Hunter, as well as Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, a selection I discovered while exploring the NY Times top 100 books of the 21st century.

What are you most excited about for this school year?

This school year, I look forward to seeing the astonishing results of all that seems daunting or even impossible on day one—from the first hesitant morning arrivals, to joining a new classroom for a three-year cycle, to heading off for a first overnight sleepaway on the AMC trip, to developing solutions to seemingly intractable world problems in our Sixth Grade Model United Nations Program. I am continually inspired by our students’ thoughtful, joyful, and purposeful approaches to the work before them.  

I look forward to the many opportunities and events that allow our families, faculty, and staff to come together to celebrate our partnership and our belief in Kingsley’s mission. Most notable among these this fall will be our Block Party on September 28—our final celebration of the 85th anniversary of Kingsley’s founding. Almost a century later, we remain a school centered on students and committed to innovation, excellence, empowerment, leadership, and kindness. 

As we enter the second year of Kingsley’s Strategic Plan, I am excited to embark on the third year of our partnership with Lesley’s Center for Mathematics Achievement, to expand our intentional use of the city as a classroom with more opportunities for city-based guests to join our classes, to review faculty and staff compensation to ensure that the heart of our school will thrive for the long term, and to undertake a campus master planning process to identify highest and best use of spaces in our two buildings. 

Check back soon for another installment of "Qs with the HoS!"