Something amazing happened in the Brookstone Learning Center this week.  We’ll let Brookstone Upper School English teacher extraordinaire Dr. Jim East share the news:

Brookstone School Learning Center Staff Inducted into the National English Honor Society

It pleases the English Department to report that the staff of the Learning Center after two extraordinary covid seasons of coaching students through written tests, literary essays, rhetorical analyses and countless assessments and exams, has been inducted into the Carson McCullers’ Chapter of the National English Society.

Chapters of the society are permitted to confer the dignity of membership on members of their community who they deem remarkable in the service to letters.

Director Bonnie Smith, Renae Davidson, Sarah Polattie, Julie Jordan, Karen Gilliam, Sarah Wilson, Kathy Jones, Katie Franklin and Tori Kennedy were inducted during the ceremony.

One member of the English department remarked (during their international luncheon celebrating the occasion) that the members of the Learning Center were like “silent ministers of patience and success in this school.”

Only a fraction of comments gleaned from private notes from students gives all the testimony necessary for this induction:

• “Thank you so much! I couldn’t be where I am without you!”
• “Thank you for putting up with me and my shenanigans.”
• “Thank you for always spreading kindness.”
• “Thank you for all you do for me!”
• “Thanks for always being so helpful and kind!”
• “You have made my life so much easier!”
• “Thank you for always giving us a safe space to go to!”

Front row: Tori Kennedy, Bonnie Smith (Director), Katie Franklin, Renae Davidson
Rear: Julie Jordan, Sarah Polattie, Karen Gilliam, Sarah Wilson, Kathy Jones

#BeTheOneWhoMakesADifference
#WhyBrookstone