By Lissa Petter '03

For the past two years, the spirituality committee, which consists of students, parents, and faculty, has met every other week to discuss issues of spirituality and ethics at Deerfield. Next year, their progress will become apparent when Elizabeth Clement of Atlanta will join Deerfield to be the Dean of Spiritual and Ethical Life.

A minister and director of the program Faith and the City, Mrs. Clement has strong ties to Deerfield. She and her husband, former vice president of the board of trustees Arthur Clement '66 were instrumental in organizing the community service summer internship in Atlanta for the past two years. Their son Arthur '00 is currently a student at Davidson College.

Mrs. Clement will succeed philosophy teacher Reverend McKelvey in his teaching of Religions of the World, and hopes to live in a dorm. "I want to be an excellent and experienced teacher, and I can't think of a better way to do that than to be at Deerfield. Teachers always learn as much as they think they're teaching," Mrs. Clement said.

Mrs. Clement sees the establishment of her position as an institutionalization of the spirituality that has always been at Deerfield. In no way does she see her post as trying to fix anything. She said, "Nothing's wrong; it has always been my thought that there are people all over Deerfield who work with the human spirit. It's not that this hasn't ever happened, but this looks like a time to articulate it and give it a home."

"All teaching is inherently spiritual; to teach is a deeply theological move. All a teacher can do is to present or invite; it invariably puts you in the context of things you cannot know, of setting children on a path you cannot possibly know. Teaching as an enterprise has nothing to do with anything but the human spirit. You teach people, hoping they'll develop an interest in chemistry, or history. You're giving them the power to be able to make the choice about whether or not they might continue that endeavor."

Mrs. Clement plans to come for two years, after which time she will reeveluate the impact of her position. Given that Deerfield has not had institutionalized religion, she plans to explore what is appropriate. "The integrity of a school that's 2004 years old is not to be messed with, she said.

As published in the April 17, 2002 issue of the Deerfield Scroll, the monthly newspaper of Deerfield Academy.