In January, Eric S. Greene, renowned baritone, actor and lifelong friend of Kaliq Simms, our RPCS Director of Diversity and Equity Education, performed a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at our all 
school convocation honoring Dr. King. Since hearing it, I have thought often of this visionary quote, spoken in 1957 but still amazingly relevant for 21st Century education:
I would say that the first real challenge is to rise above the narrow confines of our individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. You see, this new age is an age of geographical togetherness. No nation can live alone now; no individual can live alone. And we must all learn to live together or we’ll all die together.
~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Facing the Challenge of a New Age – January, 1957
Roland Park educates girls and young women of character who are concerned for all of humanity in a culture of academic excellence strengthened by programming innovations. As you complete the online re-enrollment process for the next school year, please know that I am always thinking about your daughter and the ways that Roland Park Country School can provide the finest 21st Century education possible for her to succeed in our global economy.
I keep myself educated by reading constantly – sometimes for personal pleasure, more often for RPCS! I spent the last two weekends reading the admissions application files for all prospective Roland Park students! We have a tremendous number of outstanding applicants for all divisions. Recommendations for them note their love of learning and intellectual strengths. Over and over there are comments that these girls are role models in their current classrooms. I hope that many of them will join your daughters here next fall!
Sometimes I read for professional development. Recently I read excerpts from Time Management by Susan Ward. I was struck by five aspects of that she noted that are relevant to us all – educators, parents and especially our students here at RPCS as we help them develop good study skills and personal, livelong habits:
· Realize that time management is a myth. No matter how organized we are, there are always only 24 hours in a day. Time doesn’t change. All we can actually manage is ourselves and what we do with the time we have.
· Find out where you’re wasting time. Many of us are prey to time-wasters that steal time we could be using much more productively. What are your time-bandits? Do you spend too much time Net surfing, reading email, or making personal calls?
· Create time management goals. Remember, the focus of time management is actually changing your behaviors, not changing time. A good place to start is by eliminating your personal time-wasters.
· Implement a time management plan. The objective is to change your behaviors over time to achieve whatever general goal you’ve set for yourself, such as increasing your productivity or decreasing your stress.
· Get in the habit of setting time limits for tasks. For instance, reading and answering email can consume your whole day if you let it. Instead, set a limit of one hour a day for this task and stick to it.
Time-bandits consume each of us from time to time. I have been reflecting on how to manage my own! To counterbalance these, there are two activities that research shows increase performance in the classroom and beyond – exercise and sleep. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend 30-60 minutes of vigorous activity five days a week. Regular, consistent exercise seems to enhance attention skills as well as manage and diminish anxiety or stress.
In addition, seven to eight hours of sleep per night are recommended for upper school students and adults. If we manage our “time bandits” more effectively, then it really is possible to find more time for sleep! I hope you you will share this information with your daughter and help her balance school, homework, outside commitments, physical activity and sleep. Planning is key – it’s not too late to make some more 2012 New Year’s resolutions!
As you know, I love to read just for pleasure and as a way to relax. Over winter break I read Home for the Holidays (the fifth and most recent book in The Mother-Daughter Book Club Series) by Heather Vogel Frederick. This series interweaves a book the girls are reading in the book club with the events in their own lives. The authors and their characters in Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Pride and Prejudice, and Daddy Longlegs – books I loved as a child and that remain relevant today – are interwoven with the events in these contemporary girls’ lives. Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy, Tacy, Tib series is the focal point of the current book. The novel ends with a quote from Betsy in Spite of Herself. Teenage Betsy – who has fallen prey to some “time bandits” comes to realize what is important to her. “Each one of us has to be true to the deepest thing that is in her,” she says. The deepest thing inside of me is most certainly upholding the mission of RPCS for our students -- your daughters – each and every day.
While I am so glad that we have made it through all of January without having a snow day or any significant inclement weather, one can never predict what Mother Nature will do. Please know that student and employee safety is always at the forefront of my mind, and snowfall – beautiful though it is – can also be hazardous. While it is my responsibility to uphold our educational program and maintain the day-to-day continuity of our teaching and learning as much as possible, winter weather often necessitates late openings and/or school closings. Please check our phone answering machine and our website for weather related announcements. We also post these announcements on WJZ, WMAR, WBAL, FOX-45 TV, WBAL Radio 1090 and baltimoresun.com. RPCS families come from diverse geographic areas. Each of you must assess the weather and road conditions where you live and make your individual decision about sending your daughters to school or picking them up early when we have bad weather, and the School remains open. Let’s hope this February stays warm and clear!
~JWB