tokeepthingswhole.blogspot.com
On any given day he might be reviewing a movie or a book, mulling over current events or pop culture, or revealing a personal experience, but all Mark Crotty’s blog posts lead to the main topic, education. And despite the fact that Crotty is the Head of St. John’s Episcopal School near White Rock Lake, his outlook on education is not as narrow as reading, writing and arithmetic-type schooling. “It’s more about emphasizing that education is a human endeavor,” Crotty explains. “And because we are complex, we should be holistic in our approach to education.” That’s the philosophy behind the school that he has overseen for the past year, where he says the staff works hard to shape character and spirit as well as scholastics. Before St. John’s, Crotty worked at Greenhill School for 20 years. He started the blog (named “To Keep Things Whole”, a line from a poem by Mark Strand) as a way to let people get to know him and to reach more people — professionals, parents or students — who are interested in education. He recently won recognition from the National Association of Independent Schools, which named his as a “blog to watch”, but he insists he doesn’t have all the answers. “I hope people don’t think I come across as someone who thinks (he) know(s) all,” he says. “I just want to ask questions, get people to ask questions and to contribute to a larger conversation about the purpose of education.”
