2023-24 Matt Burgy, Head of School

Sept. 2, 2022

Dear Oakridge Family,

We are wrapping up our first full week of school, and what a week it has been! We ended our first days of school with so many great successes - capped off with a thrilling, come-from-behind, last-minute victory by our Varsity football team on Friday night. 

The beginning of the school year is one with great excitement, and an exponential degree of learning happening. From ECC children stepping their toes into school for the first time to our seniors having their initial meetings with our college counseling team, we have much to learn in our opening weeks. But, above all else, our children (and I still include Upper School students in that category) are learning behaviors that will extend well beyond the white picket fence. 

If you were to give me one word that you think of when someone says the word “behavior,” you would probably think about discipline. Most people would say when a child is not “behaving,” they are referring to how they act in a social context. Some might even say, “if these kids would just behave, we can get down to the real business of education.” But that’s a flawed view of behavior. Everything a child does is a behavior. Everything a child does takes place in the same brain, which is moment to moment, linking up all of its parts. And it is a long process, one that is never done if it is done well. So, as you talk with your child on this long weekend, ask them what behaviors they have learned in the first week of school. You’ll be surprised at the many things they have already done!

I hope you all can enjoy a wonderful Labor Day weekend! See you Tuesday!

Go Owls!

Matt Burgy

Head of School