Frustrated with the quality of political debate in this country, I have some questions: “what do fully formed, competent politicians look like? Where might we find such people? What characteristics should politicians have regardless of party affiliation? How might we identify appropriate candidates?” I say this not as a condemnation of all people currently filling […]
The Head’s Letter: Responding to a Changing World
The Head’s Letter is a monthly newsletter largely for heads of independent schools. Published by Educational Directions Incorporated, it focuses on topics of particular importance to school leaders. They were nice enough to ask me to write the piece I copied below as the cover of their December edition.The topic I discuss in The Head’s […]
St. George’s Non-Negotiables: Not Experiments
Experimentation exists at the center of great learning experiences–it is inextricable from them. Students must learn to experiment—to try various approaches in order to discover what will work best. Importantly, an experiment is something a person or group DOES, not something a person or group IS. So while at St. George’s our students do many experiments, and […]
Deep, Thoughtful, Engaged Lives NOW for our Students
As I left The Westminster Schools this summer after serving as Upper School Head, I found myself refining my wishes for high school students in this particular moment in history. In an interview about my departure for the school’s magazine, I said:“It’s not what our students are going to do ten years from now; it’s […]
Won’t You Be, Please Won’t You Be The Helper: A Cum Laude Induction Talk
Good Evening!It is a pleasure to welcome parents, family, and friends to the Cum Laude Induction Ceremony. And most importantly, it is a pleasure to welcome our honorees, accomplished members of our senior class—congratulations to each of you! The praise we offer you this evening is well-deserved. The challenges you have faced that led you […]
A Shout Out to Partnerships: Their Relevance in a Progress Culture
Partnerships. Local ones, international ones, public-private ones, online ones. Partnerships between schools, between teachers, between academic departments, between students, between teachers and students, between the school and students, between the school and parents, between the school and the community in which it exists. More and more the value of partnerships is finding its way into […]