Bill Ivey's Page

There is a rapidly growing group on Facebook which is compiling letters by teachers on our country's education policies to be sent to President Obama. I believe that we as independent school teachers can be a major contributing voice to this project. I know my Humanities 7 class erupted in cheering and applause this year when they learned they didn't have to take the MCAS, and I know many public school teachers who tell me they appreciate that I do what I do because it would be difficult if not… Continue

This summer, I spent most of time in southside Virginia, where my wife works at Chatham Hall School. Chatham is a beautiful town, with kind, friendly people, and while I will probably always remain a New Englander at heart, I have definitely fallen for the rural south. As I wrote some friends earlier this summer, “Being a whole family again for two glorious months was the best part of the summer by far, of course. But when (my son) and I go out running every night to the song of cicadas and coun… Continue

While in college, the great football player Alex Karras was once given the summer job of repainting the stadium's seats. George Plimpton describes him as walking into the 70,000+ seat stadium, looking around, and wondering, "Where do I start?" I felt much the same when I was first asked to put together a list of Purposes and Objectives for the Middle School, then still a dream. There was so much we wanted to do, so much we could do well, that figuring out how best to organize and prioritize thes… Continue

Those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. (…) What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility.
- Barack Obama

This past week, our school community came together nearly every day to think about our common humanity and our diversity of experience, what we have to share wi… Continue

“Oh, I am so going to work to change that!” said one of the 7th graders as she turned away and headed off with a strong and purposeful stride. I had just told her that, according to the most recent statistics I could find, American women now earn 77.8% of what American men earn, and as recently as in 2003, the gap actually widened.

This statistic had first surfaced in the ESL Humanities class. While the Humanities 7 class was studying Aesthetics, the ESL Humanities class was studying “What does… Continue