Office of the Head of School

Dear NPS Community,

One of my favorite poems is Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses.” Written in 1842, it presents the aged hero Ulysses (known as Odysseus to the Greeks) in his homeland of Ithaca, reflecting back on his life. The Ulysses that Tennyson envisions is not one who is satisfied with having finally reached his home after decades of trials at sea, but rather one who is restless, one whose life has been defined by constant pursuit of knowledge and who even now “cannot rest from travel.” In this portrayal, Tennyson presents us with the archetype of what we would call today a “life long learner,” whose approach is captured in the lines,

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life!

These lines have always inspired me, for they urge us always to push forward, never to become complacent or self-satisfied, and to appreciate all that has and will come our way.

I suggest that these three lines also get at the real purpose of educational institutions as places that ought to instill in children not only facts and rules but also a love of learning and a desire to pursue such learning throughout their lives. High goals indeed, but what purpose has a school if not to challenge its students and teach them to strive, like Ulysses himself, to “follow knowledge like a sinking star/Beyond the utmost bound of human thought”?

National Presbyterian School is a place for which these inspiring lines of Tennyson have meaning, a place that not only seeks to make learning a way of life for its students and faculty members, but also endeavors as an institution to be fresh and relevant while staying true to its heritage. I am grateful to be a part of such a place and indebted to the many who have made NPS the school that it is today: namely, one that, in a nurturing and Christian environment, helps its students develop intellectual, spiritual, and personal foundations that will serve them throughout their lives. I remain committed to ensuring that NPS remains a place that puts children first and in so doing, teaches and encourages them, to use the famous final words of Tennyson’s poem, “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”