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2009: Outstanding Private Middle School

Sparking Creativity
Buckley’s prepares boys with 21st century skills

The walls at The Buckley School are tiled with small wooden plaques, each one hand-carved by nearly a century’s worth of graduates. Tradition at this Upper East Side institution is clearly taken seriously. But it’s not the kind of overbearing tradition one might expect from a school where the children still wear blazers and ties. The tradition is rooted in personal integrity and respect for others; the most sought-after award at Buckley is one that celebrates character.

And while there is a certain luxury here—the school has a chef and four gymnasiums—it is more often the luxury to pursue academic studies in a way that sparks creativity and thought.

“The heart of Buckley is that every boy has to participate in all areas of activity,” said Headmaster Gregory O’Melia.

This includes acting, singing and team sports.

“To let boys at a young age just play to their strengths would, in a way, stunt their growth,” he added.

The school puts on 19 plays and two operettas per year. There is a literary magazine for the middle and upper schools (grades 4 through 6, and 7 through 9), and even one for the lower school.

Public speaking classes culminate in an assembly in which students recite favorite poems, sometimes doing so in their native languages. All 7th and 8th graders compete in the school’s annual Woodruff Speech Contest.

But even as Buckley is able to preserve some of these more classical fields of study—fields that have not always survived the increasingly test-driven environment of public education—the school is by no means collecting dust.

“Any strong school is not just resting on its laurels, but constantly thinking about 21st century skills,” O’Melia said.

Technology is well integrated, with laptops and other equipment used in a number of classes. Perhaps only at Buckley do you find Latin being taught with an electronic Smartboard. The school’s revamped website, and a monthly “pushpage” email to parents and alumni, helps foster more timely and comprehensive communication.

The newest ingredients for lunch come from a recently installed organic garden on the rooftop, where students are helping to grow tomatoes, pumpkins, basil, thyme and eggplant.

Buckley is also changing the way it connects with the rest of the city, particularly in regard to charitable giving.

“The real shift has been from fundraising to action,” said Caroline Berry, the assistant headmaster.

Rather than simply raise money for a cause, today’s students are more engaged with the people they help. Through the Youth Service Opportunities Project, upper school students travel to the Friends Seminary. They cook meals for homeless guests, sleep alongside them for the night, then clean and serve breakfast in the morning. Among the other projects is an “Operation Santa” collaboration with the group Little Sisters of the Assumption, which runs a social service agency in East Harlem. Buckley students present holiday gifts to the organization’s less fortunate families.

Buckley, particularly under the leadership of O’Melia and Berry, is a place that values exposure to the world. Berry leads students on weekly field trips to different sites and neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs.

“They come back just bubbling,” she said of students.

Regular assemblies for older students have featured conservationists, Native American storytellers, sports psychologists and Buckley alum serving in the armed forces.

Every year, on the second day of school, 8th and 9th graders participate in a scavenger hunt that lasts a full 12 hours and spans Manhattan from tip to tip.

Buckley knows how to make learning interactive. After a semester of history lessons on the barbarian invasions, the fall of Rome and the Middle Ages, students in the 5th grade, along with their parents, enjoy a medieval feast.

Every parent, says Berry, “stops what he or she is doing and comes together from the farthest corners of the globe to don a pair of tights and a tunic to serve as a serf or varlet” at the event.

“The boys have created banners, stained glass, coats of arms and illuminated writings, which help to deck the halls,” she said. “The parents provide an entertainment and the boys eat a true medieval meal, served in ritual format. It’s quite magical.”

Dawn Truesdell, president of the parents committee, has a 6th and an 8th grader enrolled at the school. A key part of the Buckley formula, she explained, is motivation. She fondly remembers the medieval feast and calls the scavenger hunt a “kind of rite of passage for the boys.”

Students look forward to each new day of classes, Truesdell said. One science teacher, she noted with a smile, is “known as a man who likes to blow things up.”

Her older son’s English teacher does not simply grade the essays, but sits down personally with each student to offer praise and constructive criticism.

The students themselves are a motivating factor. In the younger grades, the boys are compelled to write letters of congratulation to their peers—fan mail of sorts—
following a school play. Years later, they are living these lessons.

Truesdell recalled when her younger son experienced stage fright during a musical performance. His spirits were quickly lifted by a pat on the back and words of encouragement from an upper classman.

“I think I believe more strongly in all-boys than all-girls education,” said Truesdell, whose daughter attends a nearby private school for girls. “Buckley gets the boys outside of their comfort zone,” she said, adding that her older son, an avid sportsman, came home recently and knitted a sweater for the family dog.

Insecurity, it seems, is no match for the inquiring mind.

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The Buckley School
113 E. 73rd St.
New York, N.Y. 10021
212-535-8787
www.buckleyschool.org
Gregory O’Melia, Headmaster
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—Brian Levinson

ABOVE: (top left: A teacher leads students on piano during a voice class. Photo by Andrew Schwartz right: English class is taught around a table. bottom left: Gregory O’Melia, Headmaster. Photo by Andrew Schwartz)