Guy Kawaski is a futurist, author, and venture capitalist best known for his work with Apple Computers the company's early stages. I had the opportunity to attend a keynote address that he gave at this year's NAIS Annual Convention (Guy is an alumnus of the Iolani School, a Hawaiian independent school).
Guy closed his address with the following pieces of advice for educators:
• Teach students to figure out anything by themselves
• Teach students how to explain anything in 30 seconds
• Teach students how to write a 1-page report (this is all that most people will read)
• Teach students the 10,20,30 rule of PowerPoint: no more than 10 Slides, delivered in 20 minutes, in 30 point font
• Teach students that the optimum length of an email is 5 sentences
• Teach students how to survive a business meeting
• Teach students how to conduct a good meeting
• Teach students how to work as a group
• Teach students how to negotiate win/win situations
• Teach students that learning is a process, not an event with fixed beginning and an end
His last piece of advice?
"Remember that we are preparing students for life, not for work."
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Author Ji-Li Jang Visits Park
Ji-Li Jang, The author of Red Scarf Girl, visited Park and spoke to Middle and Upper School students about her childhood expereiences during China's Cultural Revolution. Students in grade 7 read Red Scarf Girl as part of their world studies curriculum.
Ms. Jang shared her recollections of the turmoil that the Cultural Revolution caused for her and her family, culminating in the Communist Party's request that she denounce her own father.
Students then had an opportunity to ask Ms. Jang questions regarding her experiences as both a witness to history and a working author.
Many thanks to the University at Buffalo for making Ms. Jang available to our students!
Ms. Jang shared her recollections of the turmoil that the Cultural Revolution caused for her and her family, culminating in the Communist Party's request that she denounce her own father.Students then had an opportunity to ask Ms. Jang questions regarding her experiences as both a witness to history and a working author.
Many thanks to the University at Buffalo for making Ms. Jang available to our students!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
January Head's Letter: Notes from the Future
January 2009
Head’s Letter
As a Progressive educator, I believe curriculum is a living thing that should be continuously attuned to a changing world. One of the hats that I wear is that of Park’s chief futurist. I don’t claim any particular expertise in this area other than keeping up with current thinking regarding future trends. I do so because we have a responsibility to deliver an education that helps prepare students for the world in which they will live. This may seem innocuous, but it is actually a departure from more traditional philosophies of education that hold that learning a fixed body of knowledge and a discrete set of skills is the best foundation for life (think “great books” or “the 3 R’s”).
I am not advocating doing away with a liberal arts education, but I do believe that it needs to be augmented, particularly in light of the ways that the world is changing. A recent United States National Intelligence Council report, Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, is just one of many trends analyses that suggest the United States is facing changes that our society may not be ready for. The study projects that by the year 2025, "the accelerating pace of globalization and the emergence of new powers will produce ‘a world order’ vastly different from the system in place for most of the post-World War II era.”
In what Newsweek editor Fared Zakaria has described as “the rise of the rest,” America will be joined by fast-developing powers, notably India and China, on top of a multi-polar international system. This may lead to the U.S. dollar shrinking to "first-among-equals" status among key world currencies. There is increased probability of global conflict over scarce resources, including food and water, and a widening gap in birth rates and wealth-to-poverty ratios between developed and emerging economies. By 2025, the impact of climate change will become pronounced, with some Northern economies profiting from longer growing seasons and improved access to resource reserves. How do we help our children navigate a more green and global world? This report, like so many others, concludes that education is the key.
The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner picks up where the USNIC reports leaves off. Wagner, a Harvard professor, posits seven skills that he believes are essential to twenty-first century learners:
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence
Agility and Adaptability
Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
Effective Oral and Written Communication
Accessing and Analyzing Information
Curiosity and Imagination
I am particularly attuned to Professor Wagner’s thinking because I have worked with him in the past, conducting a study of rigor in my former school. I found his thinking to be grounded in the reality of hundreds of school visits, and I believe his critique of the way we “do school” is both provocative and accurate. He certainly pushed me to reexamine some of my fundamental practices.
While the thrust of Wagner’s book is a plea to rethink how we might reform our current system of education, I find myself much more interested in the compelling rationale he builds for the importance of these particular skills in the context of a changing world. Indeed, much of Park’s current curricula, culture, and pedagogy are aimed at helping students acquire most if not all of these skills. I was especially struck by how closely Wagner’s list correlates to the Habits of Minds and Essential Skills frameworks that we currently use to guide our curriculum development.
For me, predictive works like Global Trends 2025 and The Global Achievement Gap provide further confirmation of the inherent wisdom of Progressive education, as well as a framework to help Park further refine our living curriculum.
Head’s Letter
As a Progressive educator, I believe curriculum is a living thing that should be continuously attuned to a changing world. One of the hats that I wear is that of Park’s chief futurist. I don’t claim any particular expertise in this area other than keeping up with current thinking regarding future trends. I do so because we have a responsibility to deliver an education that helps prepare students for the world in which they will live. This may seem innocuous, but it is actually a departure from more traditional philosophies of education that hold that learning a fixed body of knowledge and a discrete set of skills is the best foundation for life (think “great books” or “the 3 R’s”).
I am not advocating doing away with a liberal arts education, but I do believe that it needs to be augmented, particularly in light of the ways that the world is changing. A recent United States National Intelligence Council report, Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, is just one of many trends analyses that suggest the United States is facing changes that our society may not be ready for. The study projects that by the year 2025, "the accelerating pace of globalization and the emergence of new powers will produce ‘a world order’ vastly different from the system in place for most of the post-World War II era.”
In what Newsweek editor Fared Zakaria has described as “the rise of the rest,” America will be joined by fast-developing powers, notably India and China, on top of a multi-polar international system. This may lead to the U.S. dollar shrinking to "first-among-equals" status among key world currencies. There is increased probability of global conflict over scarce resources, including food and water, and a widening gap in birth rates and wealth-to-poverty ratios between developed and emerging economies. By 2025, the impact of climate change will become pronounced, with some Northern economies profiting from longer growing seasons and improved access to resource reserves. How do we help our children navigate a more green and global world? This report, like so many others, concludes that education is the key.
The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner picks up where the USNIC reports leaves off. Wagner, a Harvard professor, posits seven skills that he believes are essential to twenty-first century learners:
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence
Agility and Adaptability
Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
Effective Oral and Written Communication
Accessing and Analyzing Information
Curiosity and Imagination
I am particularly attuned to Professor Wagner’s thinking because I have worked with him in the past, conducting a study of rigor in my former school. I found his thinking to be grounded in the reality of hundreds of school visits, and I believe his critique of the way we “do school” is both provocative and accurate. He certainly pushed me to reexamine some of my fundamental practices.
While the thrust of Wagner’s book is a plea to rethink how we might reform our current system of education, I find myself much more interested in the compelling rationale he builds for the importance of these particular skills in the context of a changing world. Indeed, much of Park’s current curricula, culture, and pedagogy are aimed at helping students acquire most if not all of these skills. I was especially struck by how closely Wagner’s list correlates to the Habits of Minds and Essential Skills frameworks that we currently use to guide our curriculum development.
For me, predictive works like Global Trends 2025 and The Global Achievement Gap provide further confirmation of the inherent wisdom of Progressive education, as well as a framework to help Park further refine our living curriculum.
Inauguration at Park
It has been far too long since I posted, with many exciting things happening over the last month. We got a small taste of the media's focus on President Obama's inauguration, with some local reporters visiting the school to see how we were using it as a teachable moment.
All of our divisions, with the exception of Prekindergarten, spent the afternoon watching a live feed of the speech. Our local media focused on the Lower School, with two cameras set up to record students watching the speech.
This type of meta-process (being watched while watching) certainly heightened my awareness of the historic nature of the inauguration, but our students did not seem phased in the least.
Our curriculum for the day included focusing students' attention on the text of the Oath of Office (which became particularly germane given the fact that the Oath was not executed according to the strictures of the Constitution and was redone the following day), the fact that they were witnessing a peaceful transfer of power, and a general recording of the key phrases of President Obama's speech.
After the speech, reporters interviewed students and faculty. A sampling of their stories appear below:
Buffalo News article
All of our divisions, with the exception of Prekindergarten, spent the afternoon watching a live feed of the speech. Our local media focused on the Lower School, with two cameras set up to record students watching the speech.
This type of meta-process (being watched while watching) certainly heightened my awareness of the historic nature of the inauguration, but our students did not seem phased in the least.
Our curriculum for the day included focusing students' attention on the text of the Oath of Office (which became particularly germane given the fact that the Oath was not executed according to the strictures of the Constitution and was redone the following day), the fact that they were witnessing a peaceful transfer of power, and a general recording of the key phrases of President Obama's speech.
After the speech, reporters interviewed students and faculty. A sampling of their stories appear below:
Buffalo News article
Friday, December 26, 2008
New York Times article- Middle School Stakes
The New York Times ran an article today highlighting parent's concerns in Manhattan regarding picking the "right" middle school. I began chuckling when I read about one parent's "bathroom test" for schools, in which she stakes out a stall, closes the door, and then monitors all that she hears as students come and go.
Although this provides a humorous visual, I imagine that she is desperately trying to get a sense of the second family that will be holding her child for the next few years. I was also interested with the strikingly different school attributes that concerned students (lockers) and parents (academics).
Underlying all of this is the fear of the unknown and no basis for trusting that the schools have students' best interests at heart, coupled with the knowledge that middle school is a foundational experience that can have a dramatic affect on student's life.
I am hopeful that Park families don't have to know this level of anxiety.
Although this provides a humorous visual, I imagine that she is desperately trying to get a sense of the second family that will be holding her child for the next few years. I was also interested with the strikingly different school attributes that concerned students (lockers) and parents (academics).
Underlying all of this is the fear of the unknown and no basis for trusting that the schools have students' best interests at heart, coupled with the knowledge that middle school is a foundational experience that can have a dramatic affect on student's life.
I am hopeful that Park families don't have to know this level of anxiety.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
December Head's Letter
Invictus
William Ernest Henley
1849–1903
William Ernest Henley
1849–1903
| OUT of the night that covers me, | |
| Black as the Pit from pole to pole, | |
| I thank whatever gods may be | |
| For my unconquerable soul. | |
| | |
| In the fell clutch of circumstance | 5 |
| I have not winced nor cried aloud. | |
| Under the bludgeonings of chance | |
| My head is bloody, but unbowed. | |
| | |
| Beyond this place of wrath and tears | |
| Looms but the Horror of the shade, | 10 |
| And yet the menace of the years | |
| Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. | |
| | |
| It matters not how strait the gate, | |
| How charged with punishments the scroll, | |
| I am the master of my fate: | 15 |
| I am the captain of my soul. |
In October I wrote about The Park School’s fundamentals in light of the gathering financial downturn and posited a value proposition that has served Park families for nearly one hundred years: our ability to deliver a high quality, individualized, and experientially based education that transforms students into the person that they are meant to be. Since then, the economy has continued to decline and the country’s collective attention is now focused daily on financial matters as they lead the news. In this climate, it is natural to wonder about the institutions upon which we rely, and I feel it is important to address some of the specific concerns that I imagine you might have.
Is the school financially viable? Yes. Like all independent schools, the downturn has affected our endowment and raises concerns regarding enrollment and charitable giving. With this in mind, we are making very conservative assumptions when developing next year’s budget. However, we are committed to living within our means and are blessed with strong financial stewardship at the board level. Park has a history of delivering a high-quality education within relatively lean fiscal constraints. While we are working hard to lift some of these constraints in the future, they have also provided us with a sense of financial discipline that will prove valuable as we negotiate this downturn.
Will the school’s fundamental mission or program change? No. As we build next year’s budget, we have made preserving the strength of our educational program a priority. We are committed to maintaining the high quality education that we provide your children and will make all possible efforts to avoid budget cuts that affect our fundamentals.
Will aid continue to be available for those in need? Yes. We remain committed to providing well-qualified students access to the school, and 2009-2010 will most likely yield a slight increase in our financial aid budget in anticipation of increased need. While specific financial aid amounts are determined on a case-by-case basis, the odds are good that if a family’s financial situation has stayed at a steady state or declined, Park will be able to match or marginally increase its current level of support. As always, we will be following principles of best practice for financial aid as defined by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) to ensure that we are scrupulously fair when making decisions regarding aid.
Will tuition increase? Yes. We have historically factored a tuition increase into our budget models, and this year a modest tuition increase will most likely be necessary to develop a balanced budget. Further, tuition alone does not capture the entire value of a Park School education, which is annually supplemented by charitable giving, endowment income, and other sources of revenue. Unfortunately, these revenue sources are particularly unpredictable in the current economy, and we hope to offset their volatility with a predictable increase in tuition revenue.
Are students applying? Yes. Enrollment is one of the keys to our financial health, and inquiries, shadows, and applications continue to come into our admissions office at a rate comparable to years past. Our new admissions team has a realistic goal of holding enrollment steady for next year and is continually adjusting their efforts to match market conditions in order to hopefully meet or exceed this goal. It is also important to note that we will not allow the financial crisis to compromise our admissions standards. In those instances where Park is not a fit for a student or family that seek us out, we will maintain our integrity regarding our beliefs about whom we can and cannot serve.
Are people giving? Yes. Charitable giving to Park remains strong this year and on par with our historic norms. We are tremendously grateful for the financial loyalty and support that we have received from current and past parents, alumni, trustees and other friends. Since the Annual Fund provides important support to the school's annual budget, including our financial aid program which supports our richly diverse student body, we urge all Park community members to show once again the outstanding participation rates that you did last year and make your gift.
What can I do to support the school in these difficult times? We know that our families understand that a Park education is an investment in their child’s future, and hope that you will continue to prioritize the school as you develop your own family budgets. I also encourage you to be as transparent and proactive as possible regarding any concerns or needs that your family may have. Finally, a fully enrolled school is the best inoculation that we have from the immediate effects of this financial downturn, as well as the most direct path to strengthening the long-term health of the school. Word-of-mouth is a powerful thing, and now more than ever we need our families to recommend Park to others.
What will the school do to support me in these difficult times? Above all, we will continue to deliver on our mission while providing a sense of normalcy for the students in our care, insulating them from any heightened sense of chaos that this crisis might bring to the world outside our campus. We will do these things not as a reaction to current financial concerns, but because our calm competence is part of the fundamentals that you have come to rely on. As always, we will remain a committed ally that is, and will always remain, dedicated to the transformative education of your children.
We are the masters of our fate. Together we shall prevail.
Master Class with Roman Mekinulov
Roman Mekinlov, the principal cellist of the BPO, visited us this week to hold a master class with the upper school string ensemble in preparation for the winter concert, where he and his wife Sebnem will be featured soloists.
ROMAN MEKINULOV WORKING WITH THE ENSEMBLE...
It was eye opening for me to watch Roman as he worked with our young musicians. As you might expect, his musicianship is impeccable and inspirational. But more interesting to me was the demonstrable improvement in the ensemble's performance that resulted from the polite yet firm way that he led the class.
...AND DEMONSTRATING MASTER MUSICIANSHIP
Music provides very clear and immediate feedback and professional musicians are used to maximizing their rehearsal time, so Mr. Mekinlov's expectations were very clear ("You are flat, please be sure that you are playing the right note...") and very immediate ("Stop!...now play it pianisimo, as written, from measure 20, Ready? Go...). The orchestra responded by raising their level of performance to meet the standard that he articulated and then reinforced through his own playing.
I must confess that I sometimes soften or delay the feedback that I give to others out of concern that it might somehow be hurtful to their self-esteem or damaging to our relationship, particularly when I am working with students. Roman's "polite but firm" approach reminded me that this might not always be the smart path to helping others improve.
ROMAN MEKINULOV WORKING WITH THE ENSEMBLE...It was eye opening for me to watch Roman as he worked with our young musicians. As you might expect, his musicianship is impeccable and inspirational. But more interesting to me was the demonstrable improvement in the ensemble's performance that resulted from the polite yet firm way that he led the class.
...AND DEMONSTRATING MASTER MUSICIANSHIPMusic provides very clear and immediate feedback and professional musicians are used to maximizing their rehearsal time, so Mr. Mekinlov's expectations were very clear ("You are flat, please be sure that you are playing the right note...") and very immediate ("Stop!...now play it pianisimo, as written, from measure 20, Ready? Go...). The orchestra responded by raising their level of performance to meet the standard that he articulated and then reinforced through his own playing.
I must confess that I sometimes soften or delay the feedback that I give to others out of concern that it might somehow be hurtful to their self-esteem or damaging to our relationship, particularly when I am working with students. Roman's "polite but firm" approach reminded me that this might not always be the smart path to helping others improve.
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