An Empathic Civilization

If you have a few minutes, please take the time to listen to this, and think a bit about what we are all striving for with the children - community, global empathy, the future. It's a lot of fun to listen to and watch, as well as being thought-provoking. Find it here.

The Land of Oz

Welcome to our new and returning families!

Here's an opportunity to kick off the year, and a little background on it.

This October Renata's class will be partnering with students from the U of M's Residential College to work in the woods of County Farm Park on defining and creating spaces for inspiration and imaginary play. This will be done under the aegis of Elizabeth Goodenough, author of 'Secret Spaces of Childhood' and the documentary 'Where do the Children Play?' (Of course, I am hugely excited by this - it's another great project that our kids get to be part of through our relationships at the U of M, and another chance to connect them with learners and thinkers in the wider community.)

Another project loosely linked to this is a series the RC is doing based around the novel 'The Wizard of Oz', which Renata is also reading with her class right now (no coincidence). A series of panel discussions will be held at the RC on various Oz-related topics. I'll send an email with a flyer listing them, but the one I'd particularly like to draw your attention to is the one on October 14th:

Fearless Girls, Other Worlds: OZ in the Land of Children's Literature

"More than a century after its first publication, THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ continues to inspire contemporary children's fiction writers to create distinctly American heroes on travels of self-discovery in fantastical, but very real, lands. Come join our discussion as we examine OZ's ongoing influence on the landscape of children's fiction with Jack Zipes, Professor of German at the University of Minnesota Emeritus, an acclaimed translator and scholar of children's literature and culture; Jennifer Allison, author of the GILDA JOYCE: PSYCHIC INVESTIGATOR series for young adults; and Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Maryland, a journalist and international lecturer on children's literature and culture."

This is a great way to look deeper into this book and some of the ideas it presents, and through that to support your child's reading and help take it further. This is obviously of particular benefit right now to parents of students in Renata's class, but all and any of you may read, or may have read the Wizard of Oz with your child, and may be interested in this program.

I hope to see you there!

Graduation

Our two wonderful 5th graders graduated today. They are both moving on to Greenhills School. They will be much missed. I find it hard to imagine Summers-Knoll without them.

The performance that was presented by students in honor of Graduation was sweet, funny, erudite and adorable. From Shakespeare to Calvin and Hobbes to Winnie the Pooh, the students put their hearts and considerable talents into their performance. Thanks to all who took part! And thanks to Renata and Elaine for guiding and supporting them.

In keeping with tradition, I wrote a poem for each of our graduates. Here they are:

Maria’s Poem

I want to tell you something
Of a place that I have seen;
It’s a warm and shining country
Where Maria is the queen.

The sea is gold and sapphire,
The shore is jewel-bright,
The forests full of creatures,
The hills are full of light.

And on a mountain summit
Sits Maria, crowned with flowers,
And she gives her minions orders
For hours and hours and hours.

Her temper is volcanic
But her joy is like the sun;
When she’s sad there’s a tornado,
When she laughs the stars have fun.

Maria is Maria,
And she is all our own.
Even though she is a queen
Upon a mighty throne.



Michael’s Poem

Michael steers his ship
Carefully through complex waters.
He navigates the syllables
Of fiendishly elaborate
Words and phraseology.
His ship slides easily
Through mathematical rapids
And negotiates with whirlpools of work
And academic waterspouts.
Mike’s ship conquers all
Because he designed it himself
And built it
With the lumber of his brain and the fabric of his heart.
His own hands formed it:
A ship like no other
That will cruise uncharted waters
With unshaken calm and skill.
Take your ship far, Mike,
But stop by our port again.
We will be watching for your sail.

Human flourishing in education

Sir Ken Robinson has done it again. A while back I linked to a talk he did for TED: here is another. At one point he talks about 'human flourishing' and I couldn't help but think about Eudaimonia, and why we chose that word for our event name. I encourage you all to click here and listen to what he has to say. (He is a great speaker - entertaining as well as thought-provoking!) Enjoy!

The Human Development Index

For when you have a few moments to reflect… What is HDI and why should we be pondering it?

I just read a New York Times article that questioned whether GDP, Gross Domestic Product, is an accurate way to capture the health and progress of a country. We hear GDP a lot; it’s simply a sum of all economic activity. But it ignores some of the important factors which contribute to quality of life, such as education and health. How could a more encompassing quality of life, health of a nation, be measured?

Well, check out HDI – the Human Development Index, a model being used by the United Nations. Reading the article caused me to reflect on what’s important and how it can be measured. Of course, I thought about schools too. What would a Human Development Index for a school look like? What should be measured and how should it be measured?

What do you think?

New web site!

Our new web site is live! This is hugely exciting to me, for a number of reasons.

We now have a web site that reflects the spirit of our school. The old one was functional and informative; this one takes it to a new level in the way it communicates the philosophy, community spirit and pedagogical approach we embrace.

The process of creating the site has been inspiring. I am enormously grateful to Linette Lao (Clementine's mother) and Anjanette Bunce for their tireless work designing and building the site. Their understanding of the things that make our little school important and special radiates from their work. Leisa Thompson, the photographer, also made a special connection with our school, and you can see the results of it in the luminous images she has captured.

I think both Fran and I have benefited also from the reflective process of writing the copy. I know I have. It is re-invigorating to spend so much time sitting with the ideas and ideals that underlie our work, and weighing the language that communicates them.

Maybe the most exciting thing to me was the input of our community - the parents who talk to us constantly, especially those of you who shared your thoughts at the community meeting, the faculty who are the living flame of our pedagogy, the board members who are so supportive and passionate about our mission, alumni who have offered help and who remember us so warmly, the friends who have become linked to the school through all kinds of different projects and have lit up in appreciation of the work they have seen - all of you have had a significant impact on the way this site has evolved. I am grateful to all of you.

Go take a look! And while you're at it, follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook page. Let's celebrate SK!

Standards and Accountability - what are they really for?

I'm catching up on my reading, and came across an article in the Washington Post that makes some interesting points about the direction education, or at least publicly funded education, is taking. The quote below particularly resonated with me.

"When did we abandon our belief that educating wasn’t about filling industry job slots but about exploring the dimensions and potential of humanness?"

I'd be interested to hear what you make of it. To read it, click here.