Historical Trivia--What did Samuel Morse telegraph in the first transatlantic cable?

It is about 7:00 p.m. here in Jordan, and the faculty and staff are going out to a restaurant in half an hour, so I will recount the happenings of this day, the first real day of faculty orientation.

First I will start with last night’s reception and dinner. We ate al fresco sitting under the stars in one of the courtyards at King’s Academy. This was the formal welcome to the school, and thankfully, I packed a suit in my suitcase the other day (most of my clothes are en route in boxes that I shipped last week) since everyone was dressed up. It was impressive to see this interesting faculty gather together for the first real time. I sat next to a woman named Dragona (who knows if the spelling is correct—it sounded like ‘dragon’ with an ‘a’ at the end of it) who is Croatian and here teaching math. She and her husband provided lively conversation about life in Amman. We had a feast for the meal—although in my first five meals here, every meal is a feast—and hummus for everyone! I sat with people I had not met during the day—interesting in that each speaks Arabic, so much of the conversation was in Arabic. In those moments when I must have looked forlorn, someone would turn and say in English something like, “So John, do you like the cool air?” We will all figure what language we need, but as cheesy as it sounds, the language wasn’t really necessary, there was an interesting feeling of being compatriots brought together to learn and share as teachers.

After the meal each faculty member stood up to introduce themselves. I don’t know if anyone likes these moments of such vulnerability, but we each said a few things about ourselves. I mentioned that just a week ago I was in Disney World with my family wondering what this first night in Jordan would be like, and how we all got to relish this historic moment. Oh my, small talk is probably the bane of my existence, but you soldier on as you talk each other up enough to start real conversations!

I slept a little more last night—right through to about 4:00!

Today was full of meetings and information overload (dry cleaning options, tax hierarchies in Jordan, policy this and policy that) but while this is never anyone’s moment of transcendence, the opening speeches by headmaster Eric Widmer and then his wife Meera Viswanathan, just bowled me over.

Eric began with a historical anecdote about the well-known story of the first message sent by inventor Samuel F.B. Morse on that cutting edge invention, the telegraph. Many people know the contents of that message (“what hath God wrought??) but Eric reminded us that few of us know the reply to that dramatic, dignified question. It was simply, “Yes.” Huh? Exactly!! It doesn’t really make sense, but a nice optimistic reply. Eric suggested that as we open this new school, we might often pose such elegant and profound queries as “what hath God wrought??” but the answer might turn out to be a non-sequitur like “Yes.” Maybe we should just say yes to every question!

Eric recounted how King Abdullah came to him with the idea of founding King’s Academy; then he explained how he wrote the Mission Statement for this new school adopted by the Board of Trustees last year. He read us the Mission Statement:

In a setting that is rich in history and tradition, King’s Academy is committed to providing a comprehensive college-preparatory education through a challenging curriculum in the arts and sciences, an integrated co-curricular program of athletics, activities, and community service, and a nurturing residential environment. Our students will learn to be independent, creative and responsible thinkers within an ethical community that encourages young men and women of diverse backgrounds and beliefs to excel, to cherish one another and to prepare for leadership.

Many of those phrases sound like many a mission statement in many a school. But, when I first encountered that statement last January, there was one phrase that stood out to me as such an amazing phrase…read the statement again…which phrase might it be? Any guesses? Lots of nice, meaningful phrases, to be sure, but I have never seen a school institutionally encourage that we cherish one another. I remember being struck by that phrase last January as I pondered this move.

This morning Eric focused on the importance of that very phrase—if we do not cherish each other, does any academic, athletic, artistic, or college-choice achievement mean as much? I have been teaching for nearly 20 years, and I have been waiting 20 years to be inspired by an administrator at the beginning of a school year. Of course, I have never not been inspired as a teacher—from my students, and many of my colleagues, by the material I teach—but this particular, top-down zeal was something I have been waiting for these 20 years…

It’s nice.

Eric’s wife Meera then explained her Five Guiding Principles as an educator—toward the end she apologized that these common-sense goals might be boring…….boring???? Again, I have been waiting 20 years for administrators to focus on the elements of our job that matter most.

I think I better change for dinner—but two things certainly stand out from the meetings and everything in the last 24 hours: eating under the stars here in Jordan, and the exhortation that we cherish one another.