Guest speakers are just one of the ways Charles Wright Academy exposes students to diverse perspectives and experiences.  Already this year the school has welcomed a famous author and illustrator, representatives from both of the major political parties, and a college science professor.  This Friday, Upper School students will meet Coach Bruce Brown and explore the life lessons of athletics.

Brown has more than 35 years experience as a teacher, coach and athletic administrator at the junior high, high school, junior college and collegiate level.  He has coached football, basketball, baseball and volleyball.  He is a national presenter for the NAIA’s Champions of Character Program and the director of Camano Island-based Proactive Coaching.

Brown believes that:

• Anything that can be done to improve the character of your athletes and team improves your chances for success in every way (including the scoreboard).
• The athletic experience should provide an opportunity for character growth.
• Athletics by itself does not build character. Character growth only happens when coaches intentionally model and intentionally teach character.
• It is OK for coaches to teach values.
• Coaches and teams should have standards, not rules.
• The clearer your standards are, the better chance your athletes will understand and rise to them.
• The character lessons intentionally taught and practiced will be a coach’s best legacy.
• All the character traits learned from a positive athletic experience apply directly to every team in your life – families, businesses, schools etc.

Brown will address Upper School students and faculty at their Friday morning assembly.  He will meet with teachers and coaches at lunch.  At 3:30pm, parents and CWA alums can meet Brown to learn more about his philosophy and discuss the role of athletics in students’ lives in the Lower School Commons.

Author and illustrator Gerald McDermott visited the Lower School on September 17.  McDermott was in town to speak at the Tacoma Public Library and consult on the Tacoma Children’s Museum’s new exhibit celebrating his work.  McDermott has written more than 25 books and his trickster tales based on Native American storytelling are very popular with Lower School students.  McDermott held two sessions with Lower School students at Charles Wright.

Nick Zentner, a geology professor at Central Washington University, visited CWA on September 23.  He met with eighth graders studying earth science and then addressed an Upper School assembly.  Zentner urged students to consider studying geology and other sciences in college and introduced them to the ice-age floods that shaped much of the geology of Eastern Washington.

During experiential ed week, freshmen and juniors in the Upper School met with representatives from the Democratic and Republican parties to learn more about election politics and how they can play a role in the democratic process.