Frank Wilczek speaking with fourth-graders about his love of science.

If you ask your 10-year-old what she did in school, and she says “chat with a Nobel Laureate,” you might want to put a check on her imagination. Unless of course, she goes to Lamplighter, where that statement is totally legit.

Frank Wilczek, the Herman Feshbach professor of physics at MIT was in Dallas to present at the Lightner-Sams Lecture at SMU in late April and made a pit stop at Lamplighter to answer student’s questions, chat about the universe, and admire the school’s “formidable” roosters. For the press release on the momentous occasion, go to the jump. Read More…

Lamplighter alumnae and staff with students at Warren Easton Charter School in New Orleans.

Lamplighter alumnae Coco Freling, Katie Kerrigan, Chandler Tucker and Lauren Chilton donated 170 dresses to students at Warren Easter Charter School in New Orleans earlier this month. This is the second year Lamplighter grads have partnered with the school, which was severely damaged during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“The most rewarding feeling was the look on the girls’ faces after they slipped the dresses on for the first time,” alumna Chandler Tucker said. “They lit up, and ran over and hugged us with much gratitude. This experience has taught me to not take things for granted, and I’m blessed I was a part of it.” Read More…

Third graders Cameron Peters and Emery Stobaugh

As a kid, I remember expressing my appreciation for our servicemen and women the old fashioned way — with pen and paper. But today’s technology allows classrooms to chat in real time with troops serving overseas through Skype.

Pretty cool stuff.

Last week, third graders at the Lamplighter School video chatted with soldiers stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan. The students asked the soldiers about their favorite foods, ability to play video games, and where they slept before serenading the troops with “Deep in The Heart of Texas” and the Lamplighter school song.

“The children participated in an event that has increased their awareness, curiosity, gratitude and empathy,” said teacher Jody Stout.

Second-grader Lindsey Nokolai took a sled ride on the playground at Lamplighter as part of a school fundraiser.

If this photo could describe your weekend, you were one of two places: Somewhere north of the Mason-Dixon Line, or on the campus of Lamplighter. The grounds were covered in 20,000 pounds of snow to raise money for the school’s upcoming Forever in Blue Jeans Auction. Go to the jump for more pictures of the winter wonderland. Read More…

Lamplighter School is hosting a private screening of “Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture” tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Studio Movie Grill. After the documentary, local film critic Gary Cogil will facilitate a discussion with the filmmaker, Vicki Abeles. There are 19 seats remaining. Click here to reserve yours.

If you can’t make it tomorrow, there will be a public screening of the film on Wednesday, same time, same place. Following the show, three child psychologists will hold a Q&A.

Although Halloween festivities had died down by Monday, Day of the Dead activities were just getting started. Lamplighter celebrated the Mexican holiday on Nov. 1 and 2 by making a special altar of remembrance with photos and memorabilia from loved ones who have passed away. The holiday is quite a joyous occasion, despite a seemingly morbid theme. From the looks of it, Lamplighter students were in the right spirits.

As of yesterday, Lamplighter is no longer a Hockaday tenant. The outlandish $1-per-year lease that ran through 2027 was cut short when the school decided to purchase the land out-right.

Communications director Melisa Dorrill said acquiring the land from Hockaday has been a 10-year process, with the main negotiations occurring during the past year. The details have been kept hush-hush by both parties as per terms of the agreement.

Now that the cat’s out of the bag, Lamplighter celebrated with a dirt cupcake party for all of the school’s pre-kindergarten through fourth grade classes. Trustee David Miller was on hand for the festivities and expressed his support.

“Now we’ll have this land forever,” Miller said.

With nearly 40 years of experience in independent schools, Judy Gass will begin her role as Interim Head of Lamplighter School today. Gass is no stranger to Dallas private schools as she has previously worked at The Episcopal School of Dallas, Hockaday School, and St. John’s Episcopal School, where she also served as interim head. Gass has been involved with the Jubilee Center, David’s Place, ArtReach, and The Dallas Children’s Theater. Additionally, she has served as a trustee for Educational First Steps and The Lamplighter School.

In what I think will be generally be considered a positive move (unless your name rhymes with Farnold Fohen), erstwhile Lamplighter teacher Sheila McCartor, whose much-discussed dismissal prompted the split between Headmaster Arnold Cohen and the board of trustees, was named executive director of alumni relations earlier this week. The woman has taught every fourth grader who has walked through the doors of Lamplighter for the past 43 years and, which means she knows personally the vast majority of graduates of the 58-year-old institution. Seems like a fit. I would say ‘They all lived happily ever after,’ but, well, at this point, that seems a bit premature.

From left: Simon Dalley (ILCAC  treasurer); Usha Kulshreshtha (2010 Awardee); Tobia Frederico (ILCAC Secretary); Cedric Lorce (2010 Awardee); James Vary (ILCAC board member); Asmita Mukherjee (2009 awardee); Ben Bakker (former chair); Chueng Ji (ILCAC Chair); Wayne Polyzou (ILCAC vice-chair).

Unless you were a fourth grader at Lamplighter in the past 43 years, you probably know Sheila McCartor best as the eye about which the Lamplighter storm is turning. As scores of commenters on the Facebook page dedicated to her reinstatement can attest, she is much more. (I should say that it has been a relative pleasure to have my requests for comment rejected by Ms. McCartor. Each time, she has been unfailingly gracious and polite.)

She’s still keeping mum on McCartorgate 2010, but she did send along an announcement along two days ago announcing the most recent recipients of the Gary McCartor Award. Gary, Sheila’s late husband, was a professor of theoretical physics at SMU. In 2008, two years after his death, Sheila established the annual award, which covers travel expenses for two young scientists to attend the annual meeting of the International Light-Cone Advisory Committee, an organization dedicated to advancing research in quantum field theory of which Gary was a founding member.

At a banquet on June 16 at this year’s conference in Valencia, Spain, 2010 award winners Cedric Lorce and Usha Kulshreshtha and 2009 winner Asmita Mukherjee accepted the $2,000 grants.  Sheila was unable to attend this year’s conference because of the Lamplighter mess, but she sent along a press release from the 2008 event.

“To conclude, Mrs. McCartor presented Hannafious and Honkanen with the simple gift of pencils, ‘In my
observations, it seems that a very good theoretician needs to have a very good pencil,’ said McCartor.
Providing extra erasers, she added, ‘This is not to suggest that you will ever make mistakes in your
calculations, but should you, a fresh eraser always makes it easy to begin anew.’”