April 12, 2013 - The Geneva School

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Alumni Profile: Amanda McPhail (TGS Class of 2006)I attended The Geneva School for threeyears in high school after attending a publichigh school my freshman year. It wasa sacrifice for my family to attend Genevasince I lived an hour away, but it wasworth every bit of the sacrifice. Lookingback, I was most influenced by the relationshipsI had with my teachers, the excellentteaching, and being challenged tothink critically.Specific highlights of my time would haveto be singing in the choir with the Millers,math and science classes with Mr.Jain, English class with Mr. King, and thesports I participated in after school.Mrs. Miller challenged us to be nothingless than excellent and compared goodsinging to decadent desserts. I can’t rememberexactly why, but once the wholechoir class crammed into the men’s bathroomto sing a song. It had to do, she said,with the acoustics.Mr. Jain began the first day of class readingProverbs 1:7a “The fear of the Lordis the beginning of wisdom…” and hechanged the way I look at the world. Hemade us think critically and problemsolve as we analyzed work, circuits, oscillations,vectors, and much more.Mr. King yelled when reading his linesfrom King Lear and scared us all halfto death. I can still remember his storyabout Ella-May. He would start the storywith the phrase, “Ella-May, lovely girl”and end it with a satisfied “HA!”I appreciated the competitive aspect ofGeneva athletics, but I also look back andam thankful for my coaches pushing meto be a leader and challenging and encouragingthe team to be their best. Besidesbeing the softball catcher and team captain,one of my more memorable experienceswould be helping to start the girlssoccer team in 2005. I enjoyed playingfor Coach McAvoy and with a fun-lovinggroup of girls willing to be pioneers forGeneva’s female athletes.After graduating from Geneva, I attendedSamford University in Birmingham, Alabama,majoring in mathematics and mathematicseducation. The highlights of mycollege career were working in residencelife, being on the club ultimate frisbeeteam, my church community at Faith PresbyterianChurch, and attending ReformedUniversity Fellowship (RUF). During mysophomore and junior years, I worked as aresident assistant (RA) in a freshman dorm.In my senior year I worked on the leadershipteam as a senior RA and became a resourcefor freshman RAs. Looking back, itwas one of my most rewarding experiencesat Samford. I loved getting to know thefreshmen and being a resource to help themas they adjusted to college life. I also createda safe space where we all came togetherto share about our week and pray for oneanother. I know that I was a help to myresidents and my RAs, but they also taughtme so much about myself. I find that whenworking with people God reveals my weaknessesand shows his strength through myinadequacies. I think this job prepared mefor life after college.After graduating from Samford in 2010, Itook a teaching position in Miami-DadeCounty Public Schools through an organizationcalled Teach For America (TFA).Joining TFA has been the hardest thing Ihave done, but it has also been very rewarding.As a new teacher in inner-city Miami Ihad a huge learning curve, but I have beenchallenged and stretched in ways that haveonly made me rely on Christ all the more.At first, I wasn’t sure I could make teachinga life-time career, but after connecting withmy students in my second year and experiencingsuccess with them, I have come tolove it. I love my students’ personalitiesand find deep meaning in making a differencein their lives. When I think aboutmy classroom culture and the way I teach, Itry to model it after classical teaching basedupon the experiences I had at Geneva. Iespecially aim to encourage my studentsto think critically and defend their ideas.I also try to model Christian principles inmy classroom as a way of bringing aboutthe kingdom here on earth, and I share asmuch of my faith as possible with thosewho have not been as fortunate as I have.Amanda graduated Geneva co-salutatorianin 2006 and went to Samford University ona Presidential Scholarship awarded for academicand leadership achievements. Amandais currently the mathematics department chairat Miami Northwestern Senior High Schoolwhile pursuing a Masters in Education andSocial Change at the University of Miami.Softball 2006Page 8Amanda with oneof her students
What is a Good Life? The Western Narrative ProjectBy Dr. Edward ChandlerBeware the barrenness of a busy life.This epigraph above is attributed to Socrates(d. 399 BC), to whom is also attributed theaphorism “The unexamined life is not worthliving.” These two quotations quite nicelycontextualize the aims of the annual WesternNarrative Project: a day-long symposiumduring which the senior class and a group offaculty and administrators discuss profoundtexts from the major periods of Western history;texts chosen because they, in their ownhistorical contexts, get at the question “Whatis a good life?”Near the end of each school year, this groupsequesters itself from the barrenness of thebusy life—paradoxically enough, in a placeof business—in order to engage in just thatprescription that Socrates propounded: to examinelife. Part of examining life consists ofexamining culture, that ocean of context inwhich we, like fish, live and move and haveour being. But in order to understand our culture,we must come to some understandingof where we’ve come from—our history, ourfaith, our customs, even our language. For itwas another, much later philosopher namedGeorge Santayana (1863–1952) who said“[W]hen experience is not retained, as amongsavages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannotremember the past are condemned to repeatit.” There are people and things in ourcollective past who are eminently worthyof imitation. There is also much in ourpast that is best avoided. But whether weimitate or avoid, “retention”—our culturalmemory—is essential.Reading ListThe Book of Tobit; The Story of Ahiqar; selectionsfrom Aristotle’s Politics; Gregoryof Nyssa’s “On Perfection;” selections fromAugustine’s Confessions; selections fromDante’s de Monarchia; selections from Erasmus’Praise of Folly; Alexander Pope’s Essayon Man; selections from Friedrich Nietzsche’swritings; a portion of Dostoevsky’sThe Brothers Karamazov; and C. S. Lewis’essay “The Weight of Glory.”It is in this spirit of memory that the nineteenseniors and eight faculty and administratorsgathered on Friday, April 5, at the CNL daVinci Center in downtown Orlando. Butthe Project, though it culminates in onelong day of symposium, is the product ofweeks of preparation on the part of all theparticipants. This year, in preparation for theProject, participants were given roughly 120pages of material to read from a number ofclassic texts throughout Western history. Asthe group discussed each work, Mr. MattClark illustrated the discussion with remarkablefigures; his work is currently on displayin the upper school hallway.We never expect, as a result of one day’s discussion,to solve any problems of Western culture,much less to produce some standard prescriptionfor what characterizes a good life, for ifanything, we learn that a good life manifestsitself in many ways, ways that are particularto the person, and often at odds with contemporarysensibilities. It is a broader goal that weare after; a goal that will feed students’ abilitiesto discern what form a good life will takefor them. That broader goal of the Project isto form in our students—and in ourselves—areflective wisdom that takes seriously the lives,words, and deeds of our ancestors, not for itsown sake, but for the sake of cultivating real,tangible virtue in this next generation. For thattask is of profound importance.EdwardChandler, Jr.TimMichaudPage 9
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April 12, 2013 - The Geneva School

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