Sauce, Considered
by Vince Durnan
Watching Myles Maillie restore and refresh the iconic HS stairwell mural got me thinking about the oft-mentioned but elusive “secret sauce” question for USN. Here’s more:
Watching Myles Maillie restore and refresh the iconic HS stairwell mural got me thinking about the oft-mentioned but elusive “secret sauce” question for USN. Here’s more:
With all the work we’ve done on the 1925 Demonstration School building and all the space we’ve added to accommodate life and learning here, a set of elongated, whimsical, boldly colored faces still holds a special, beloved place. Found on the last couple flights of stairs on the 19th Avenue side of the building—it was painted on the original, plastered walls. More than 30 years ago (no one seems to know exactly when), one of the city’s biggest artistic personalities joined art teacher Jose Rodriguez and students here to leave a mark—a bright, upbeat, defining, could have been on a t-shirt kind of mark.
Now the kids who helped Myles paint those walls are in their 40’s. Myles, by contrast, happily defies aging altogether. And another generation of students is splashing paint within lines drawn by their predecessors. And we sure are grateful. That stairwell is USN, as we heard from alumni last weekend when they walked the halls for reunion. Some things you just don’t change.
You probably see where this is going. That spontaneously generated artistic feature of this campus came to mean a lot. Busy though we have been moving walls and adding windows, we’ve been intentional about not tearing down what was given to us by those who came before. To that point, count the number of places at USN where what was once an exterior wall (red brick, of course) is now an interior wall. We’ve wrapped the current space around our past, like the University School circle on our official seal wraps around the Peabody Dem circle.
Which brings us to the forks in the road we’ll encounter when considering the right educational and financial models for our next generation. Whatever we do, we must not break the school. It’s a Hippocratic Oath kind of thing. First, do no harm. The softer version of this mandate is that we not mess with the Secret Sauce.
So what, then, is the Sauce, and how will we know when we’ve found it? We don’t reduce easily to slogans or mottos. The safest bet, given the centrality of the student/student connections and the student/teacher dynamic at USN, is that it must be relational, rooted in the community we form, in the families we draw. How could that not be at the essence of the good that happens here? But it could be more—maybe the courses we teach, or the way we teach, or the place we teach. Or maybe the blend of ages for the young people we teach, from kindergarten to 12th grade, as the big bronze panel on the corner of 21st Avenue proclaims.
If it’s all of those facets combined, then our options when it comes to change are pretty constricted. And we’ll need to come face to face with the fact that we seem to prefer an increasingly expensive educational recipe. If everything in our model merits preservation, if the whole thing is like the stairway mural, then we will mostly be left to age in place. And maybe then we’ll discover that some types of change were actually part of the Sauce all along.
No wonder, then, that we’re asking big questions via the Survey for the Future. By all means please participate. Ours is the moment to humbly ponder the question of what new paths to follow, ever thoughtful about what calls out to be preserved. Thank goodness our campus aesthetic carries so many lessons, new and not so new, if only we make time to look.
Loving the opportunity,
Vince
More USN News
List of 3 news stories.
-
USN graduates 98 plus 1 during Commencement
Seniors turned their tassels and graduated from University School of Nashville on Sunday, May 17, on the Back Lawn. Visit usn.org/classof2026 for more highlights from their last year on Edgehill and to learn what they will do next.Read More -
Spring sports season ends with podium finishes, trophies
The girls lacrosse team ended its season in overtime to become state runner-up. Tennis players Carter Kojetin '29 finished as a state quarterfinalist, Sophie Oliver '26 and Mary Kate Adler '28 finished as state semifinalists, and Veer Kodali '29 and Max Parker '29 finished as state champions. Meanwhile, eight runners competed at the state track and field meet in Knoxville, where Griffin Davidson '27, Caleb Freifeld '28, Drew Zwerner '28, and Jack Fruin '27, sprinted to first in the 4x800m relay and Jack also placed first in the 800m dash.Read More -
USN creates the Juliet Douglas Endowed Fund for Student Success
For the entire USN community: an invitation to give in gratitude, in celebration, and in honor of the woman who has given so much to our school. Make a gift at usn.org/giving to support students with needs beyond tuition and honor Interim Director Juliet Douglas.Read More
Contact
Edgehill Campus
2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615-321-8000
Fax: 615-321-0889
Email: info@usn.org
River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218
2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615-321-8000
Fax: 615-321-0889
Email: info@usn.org
River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218
USN Mission:
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.