Windward's New Head of School Joined the Improv Show

Once a year comes the faculty match, when the teachers go onstage. In fall 2025, the new head of school, Sarah Beck, who had arrived that August, joined in. She had come from The Potomac School in Virginia and, before education, had been a management consultant and a financial analyst.

In December the paper's editorial board interviewed her. Asked about the faculty match, she said she had loved it, and that she had been very nervous. Students kept coming up to her to say how excited they were that she was doing it. Then she went into rehearsal, and the students chanted: "Sa-rah Beck! Sa-rah Beck!"

The students did not give her a script. They gave her a chant. That is the more useful thing.

The advice she was given beforehand, she said, was "don't try too hard," and it helped. Being onstage under the lights was an oh-my-goodness moment. And the parts the audience found funniest were "things that I didn't even realize I had done."

The funniest parts were the parts she did not plan. That is improv, and also, I am fairly sure, running a school.

It was, she told the paper, a highlight of her time at Windward so far. Her stated goal as a leader is to set a tone that it is okay to be vulnerable, to put yourself out there and to have fun. Her favorite food at the school pavilion, for the record, is the poke bowl.

I have never done improv. Last month at the youngest's school family night, the drama teacher pulled parents onstage for a game. I was told I was a dentist and the youngest was my patient. She said her tooth hurt. I said, "Which one?" She opened her mouth and pointed to a gap, because she had lost that tooth the week before.

The audience laughed. I had not realized I had done anything. She told me in the car that I had been the funniest dad, and then that I had not been trying very hard, which she meant as a compliment.