To headmaster, author 'still one of our own'

By KELLEY BENHAM
Published January 29, 2006

---

Keswick headmaster Steven Sinclair had to laugh when he read Christine Rosen's book about his school.

"It's like deja vu for me as I'm reading the thing," said Sinclair, who was a teacher at Keswick Christian School in the early 1970s, right before Rosen started kindergarten. He recognized the school from those days. "The grit, the grime, the air conditioner dripping, the nonpaved entry ways. The teachers. She changes the names, but we know who she's talking about. It's entertaining. It's really pretty accurate."

Sinclair has received e-mails from people who are not all thrilled with Rosen's descriptions, some of which, taken singularly, don't appear to flatter the school. But as a whole, Rosen says her experience was nurturing. That part is in the last chapter.

"There is no animosity," Sinclair said. Rosen is no longer a fundamentalist, so she and the school will disagree on some things, but they can look back and chuckle at the same memories.

"I could add some stories to the ones she had in there."

Chasing armadillos around the campus. The rusty Buck Rogers rocket on the playground . . .

He notes that the school now has a spiffy new playground, two kinds of accreditation and all kinds of technology. And the Buck Rogers rocket is no more.

Sinclair has pulled Rosen's old file, which was kind of cockroach-eaten, and found that she was an enthusiastic, well-liked student. "We helped her that way," he said. "We still call her one of our own."

He plans to attend her book signing with his wife.

And in case you were wondering, no, he says, Keswick doesn't paddle students anymore.