Benefits

Salary isn't the reason a person works at an independent school.

It is everything else. It is the benefits, the ones that are not listed on the employment contract.

Of course it is about snow days (not that we have had any this year), about winter and spring break, about summer hours, and about beginning-and-end-of-year parties.

But it is also about so much more.

It is the Quaker values: the emphasis on simplicity, justice, equality; about opposition to war; about looking to find "that of God in every person."

It is being around the future.

It is about life's wonderful transitions.

It is about energy, initiative, and creativity on the part of both teachers and students.

And it is about celebrations, whether it is a basketball tournament won, an unanticipated college acceptance, and over-the-top observances of all manner of holidays.

Today the lobby is filled with flowers -- red, pink, white; carnations and roses -- in honor of Valentine's Day. As a fund-raiser for some project or another, the Upper School kids have taken orders and will deliver flowers with one's greeting attached, to anyone on campus. It is fun to watch the hustle and the bustle, it is great to see the delighted smiles, and it was particularly splendid to receive a single long-stemmed pink rose from one of the associates in the admission department!