Author: Mr. Ian Nugent

Against Indignation 

Mr. Ian Nugent
School administrator hands character awards to students.

“Who do you all think you are?” I leveled this accusation posed as a question to the first class of 8th graders I ever taught during the first semester of the first year of my teaching career. The recollection of this moment still makes my stomach twist and starts me muttering “what was I thinking?” and “you truly were an idiot, Ian…” What was the sin committed by this hapless group of barely-teenagers to elicit such a withering opening line, delivered with a look of utter contempt, and followed by an equally vitriolic monologue?…

Shared Language for Shared Ideas

Mr. Ian Nugent
A young boy in a blue school uniform raises his hand.

The feeling of sounding like a broken record is one teachers are all-too-familiar with. Mathematicians may struggle with finding a number that accurately represents the times a middle school teacher has hushed chatty students or had to remind a young man to tuck in his shirt. In some ways, this constant reminding and training the habits of our students’ hearts and minds is unavoidable- in some ways it is the very core of our work as educators, so we should not expect to eradicate this experience from our professional lives.  …

Educating Citizens

Mr. Ian Nugent
Students prepare to raise the American flag in the morning with the warm sun shining through the flag.

The education of citizens is an education in love. This assertion may strike some as strange, unless what is meant by the word “citizen” is properly understood. To be a citizen of a particular place is to say that place is your own and that you belong to that place. And if we agree with Aristotle’s understanding of human beings as “political animals”, then there cannot be a nation with a citizenry of one.…

An Apology for Uniforms

Mr. Ian Nugent
Five elementary students in uniforms on a playground smile at the camera.

While chaperoning a Junior and Senior trip to Washington DC in the Fall semester last year, I was fortunate enough to witness two moments which moved and left a lasting impression on me. The first was the daily lunch formation at the US Naval Academy. Forty-five hundred young men and women moved in perfect synchronization, filling the courtyard in front of their mess hall, executing perfectly orchestrated turns and rotations until they marched, in perfect order, inside to eat their midday meal.…

Art and Our Homelessness

Mr. Ian Nugent
An impressionist painting of a group of friends gathered on a balcony sharing lunch and socializing.

Art is not something I generally have much time to think about, but recently I had the pleasure of listening to, and participating in a faculty discussion on the fine arts and their purpose. The occasion for the discussion was a wonderful presentation by our assistant principal on the BCSI curricular essay written on the fine arts and their place in a liberal education.…

History and Humility

Mr. Ian Nugent
A book, "Land of Hope," sitting on a dark wood desk with a coffee cup and students in the background.

At the start of each school year, I pose the question to my students: why do we study history? Each year their answers become more thoughtful and nuanced. They begin with the standard “so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past” and different variations of “because it is interesting and good” to know history for its own sake. Both are fine answers and open the door to productive and edifying discussions.…

The Consolation of Teaching

Mr. Ian Nugent
A teacher listening to a young boy explain something to her at his desk.

Teachers often find themselves the subject of romanticization and lionization by parents of students, social commentators, and distant family relations who cannot help but express their pride in the work and sacrifice required of educators. These encouragements and expressions of admiration or gratitude are kind and well-intentioned, but never quite move me to the extent one might imagine. Maybe that says more about myself, my propensity for self-deprecation, and tendency to be afflicted with imposter syndrome than anything else.…

Why Our Students Write in their Books

Mr. Ian Nugent

Petrarch, the fourteenth century Italian monk, sometimes referred to as the “father of humanism”, famously wrote a series of letters to classical writers such as Cicero, Seneca, Homer, and Socrates. These writers having been dead for more than a thousand years at the time, Petrarch didn’t expect a response. But he wrote nevertheless because he thought of himself as engaging in a conversation–with thinkers who had come long before, but about ideas as current as ever.…