A Message from the Head of School

“What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.”
                                    Joseph Addison (1672–1719), British essayist

Dr. Joan Mele-McCarthy

Words from the Head of School

The Lion in the Marble

There is an old tale of a master sculptor who worked tirelessly for many weeks, sunrise to sunset, with hammer and chisel on a large block of marble. One day a child watched him and saw that although the sculptor worked with intensity for many hours, there was nothing more than dust and large and small bits of stone falling from the block of marble. He could not imagine what was happening, but when he returned to the sculptor several weeks later, to his amazement there
stood a great lion in exquisite detail, causing the child to ask the artist how he knew there was a lion in the marble? The sculptor’s reply was, “I knew there was a lion in the marble because, I saw him in my own heart. And the secret is that the lion in my heart recognized the lion in the marble.”

When our parents come to Summit, they know in their hearts that their children can succeed but their question is, “Will anyone else see my child’s potential? Their students have not found academic success in school and they ask themselves, “Who can help find “the lion in the marble?” And so, the tale of the sculptor and child is a wonderfully apt analogy for what we do at Summit, for what is true in the art of sculpting is also true in the art of education, each requires a vision to detect the as yet unrevealed, to see the potential, and to possess the discipline to work with confidence and endurance day-after-day to chip away in order to release the masterpiece lying within.

As Head of School, I cheer and marvel as the artistry unfolds with the success of our students year after year because Summit is a school with a very specific and passionate mission – to educate students with learning differences. We succeed because we combine the art and science of education with supportive teachers who recognize “the lion in the marble”, they are committed, multi-talented and highly trained in strategies that are scientifically proven to work with children. At the very heart of our teaching and our work is the regard for the integrity of our children, while always keeping the vision of the masterpiece, the successful learner that lies within each student.

Dr. Joan A. Mele-McCarthy
Head of School