It is a privilege to honor Madelyn Lockard as a simply amazing student this month. Our school has been enriched with her as a student because she not only takes her learning seriously but is also one to push herself and others to go beyond traditional expectations and glean new learnings from every opportunity.

Madelyn has developed a wonderful knack for asking questions when she doesn’t understand a new learning concept. Instead of hoping she’ll get it by osmosis, she asserts herself to pursue learning until she is sure she understands it. Then she goes beyond her initial understanding to dig deeper and try to see multiple viewpoints. For example, we recently conducted a Socratic seminar to take a position on a topic near and dear to us. We were reading the book, Far Side of the Mountain, where our main character’s peregrine falcon is confiscated by the conservation officer, and he is accused of harboring an endangered species. The goal of the seminar was to gather evidence and take a position to answer the question:

Should Sam go after Frightful and get him back?

Madelyn initially took a position, but thereafter continued to see both sides of the argument and decided to change her position. Animals are very dear to Madelyn and initially, I think she wanted to just have Sam go in and get Frightful, however after thinking more about it, she concluded that following the law and working with the law would have a better future outcome for not only Sam, but Frightful as well.

Now you can see why she is such an amazing student and why she was an easy selection for this award.