September 2010!
As I welcomed employees to the 2010-2011 academic year at our opening meeting last week, I noted the continuity and the continuum of the educational calendar. I so look forward to the start of the new academic year for the opportunity for each of us and for our students to begin anew. Yet, I also treasure the summertime for the chance to reflect, read and rejuvenate myself for the work ahead. I had a wonderful summer celebrating ten years of owning my own home in Newport, Vermont where I welcomed family and friends in August who helped me take care of my new chocolate lab puppy Penny who is now almost 5 months old and coming to School with Parker! Shopping for school supplies with my granddaughters is one of my favorite signals that school will soon open. In a book that they presented to me this summer about grandchildren by Ruth Goode, I read a passage that made me think fondly of the students at RPCS. I took some liberty with the text, but ended the opening employee meeting last week with the following quote because it affirms my lifelong career choice in education.
Students link us to our own childhood years, to our parents and grandparents and the stories we remember of times even earlier than those. And they link us to the future as well. They give us a vested interest in the world in which they will live. Our students make us aware of the world in which we are living today and helping to create for them tomorrow.
As part of my “reflection time” and in pursuit of my own lifelong learning, I attended the 91st Annual Conference of The Country Day School Headmaster’s Association of the United States at Davidson College in North Carolina. This year the conference focused on Life After the Great Recession and provided thought provoking speakers who encouraged us to teach our students to care, to trust and to commit to that about which they are passionate. I was especially impressed by Sally McMillen, Babcock Professor and Chair of the History Department at Davidson College, who discussed The Seneca Falls Convention of July 1848 which she described as “the Greatest, Grandest Reform of All Time: Women’s Struggle for Equality. At this first women’s rights convention in US history, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and a few others met “to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights” of women. They drafted a brief Declaration of Sentiments which appeared in The Seneca County Courier. Based on the Declaration of Independence their document read, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” Their document demanded women’s suffrage. It took just over 70 years before women in the United States were granted the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to our Constitution was ratified in 1920. Although Roland Park Country School wasn’t in existence in 1848, it is interesting to reflect that since 1894 we have been a leader in the education of girls and young women, and that we have always encouraged our students to find their voices and their passions and to become “responsible, contributing members and leaders of their communities.”
The safety of our students has always been one of my top priorities, and I have become increasingly concerned about how easily young people can misuse social networking – indeed all technology – to jeopardize their own safety and that of others. It takes diligence and education to help them use the powerful tools of technology in productive ways. For this reason, I have chosen the word self-discipline as my key word for RPCS for the upcoming academic year. It comes directly from the School philosophy and will be added to the wooden plaques outside my office. The words and phrases on these plaques represent fundamental, enduring qualities of an RPCS education, characteristics that transcend the years and the trends of the teaching and learning we provide. In the cyberage in which we live, it takes self-discipline on all our parts to help our students navigate a complex world with character and personal integrity. Broadcast journalist John Merrow has also recently written about bullying in which he notes that “the safety, particularly the emotional and intellectual safety” of students should be at the top of any school’s list of priorities. The following is a link to his entire commentary: http://bit.ly/4E4wCr
As part of the School’s self-discipline, we have developed an anti-bullying policy and revised our cell phone policy for students this year. Both of these policies are in the Red Book in the all-School informational section and in all three divisional handbooks. I ask you please to read these carefully.
This fall we will be presenting two special events that will enhance our emphasis on self-discipline and will focus on issues that girls and young women face as they grow up in an increasingly fast paced and toxic culture where social networking and the media have removed all down time and safe harbors and have made popular what used to be considered inappropriate behaviors, such as putting others down, just for the pleasure of doing so.
We will host our second annual Robinson Health Colloquium on October 18th and 19th. This year the Colloquium will focus entirely on cyberbullying. In addition to divisional assemblies and small group meetings for students in grades 3 – 12, there will be two parent presentations – one at 7:30 pm on Monday, October 18th and the other on Tuesday morning, October 19th at 8:00 am.
JoAnn Deak will be returning to RPCS this fall as our Crane Lecturer. Her updated edition of How Girls Thrive which is one of our employee summer reading books is particularly compelling and relevant as it discusses social networks and cyber bullying. You are all invited to the Crane Lecture Monday night, October 25th at 7:30 pm. Dr. Deak will also hold a parent coffee on Tuesday morning, October 26th from 8:00 – 9:00 am. These will be two different presentations; I urge you to attend the evening presentation and return for the morning coffee where there will be opportunities for more personal and informal interaction. She will also be speaking to students from grades 3 – 12 during the course of the day on the 26th.
The Red Book was again supported by a gift from the Parents’ Association and I am deeply grateful for all the ways that the Parents’ Association supports teaching and learning at RPCS. The Parents’ Association generously donated to Annual Giving last year for the following iniatives:
· Underwrite School’s Attuned professional development workshop for faculty and administrators
· Underwrite the LS EveryDay Math on-site workshop specifically tailored for our LS faculty
· Underwrite sending faculty to the NMSA (National Middle School Association) Conference in Baltimore
· Underwrite sending faculty in all three divisions to NCTM (National Council for Teachers of Math) and NSTA (National Science Teacher Association) conferences which are being held in Baltimore this academic year
· Underwrite the Grade 4 and 5 workshop to Biz Town
· Help provide white boards for some Upper School classrooms
· Help underwrite FCD (Freedom from Chemical Dependency) for the Middle and Upper Schools
I am looking forward to fall at RPCS – a time to celebrate and reap summer’s bountiful harvest. In addition to our annual Thanksgiving Convocation in November, I am very pleased that we will be building and hosting a Sukkot, sometimes called the Festival of Booths. Sukkot is a week-long harvest holiday during which Jewish people recall their time in the desert after liberation from slavery in Egypt. It is also reminiscent of the biblical fall harvest, and the tradition of living out in the fields to ease the burden of traveling to and from the fields each day of the harvest. To celebrate the holiday, Jews traditionally build sukkot (singular: sukkah) temporary huts. During the festival, it is customary to eat and even to sleep in the sukkah. The Sukkah is customarily decorated with autumn fruit and vegetables, and the roof is made of branches, providing more shade than sun, but still allowing the stars to be seen at night. Please contact Kaliq Simms, Director of Diversity and Equity Education, at simmsk@rpcs.org or 410-323-5500, ext. 3035 if you would be interested in helping us set up our Sukkah on Sunday, September 19 from 2:00 – 4:00 pm.
I welcome you to the continuity and rhythm of our 2010-2011 academic year.
~J.W.B.