Twenty Five Classes or Bust: AP Latin

During my visit with Mrs. Cunningham's AP Latin class, consisting of four elite Vergil-translating 12th grade scholars and their sage-like instructor, there was an extensive pre-exam review of literary terms, verb tenses, and translations. 

It was a joy to watch the four young men in the class--all of whom are some of Gunston's best athletes--compete with each other to identify the meanings of terms like metonymy, pleonasm, and polysyndeton.  Of course in AP Latin, the laws of Latin and the laws of Mrs. Cunningham are learned hand-in-hand.

Freedom from Chemical Dependency

A core element of Gunston's educational philosophy is a belief in the importance of developing healthy habits and maintaining a healthy body.  This includes assisting our students in making responsible choices in regard to drugs and alcohol, and we are committed to maintaining a substance-free educational environment.

To this end, last week our community was visited by Dr. James Lingo, a counselor from the organization Freedom from Chemical Dependency.  During his four days on campus, James provided our entire community with a comprehensive and dynamic educational experience.  His visit began with an opening address to the community where he shared his own struggles with alcohol, and over a four day time span, each grade level met with James for a full period each day.  There were also opportunities for students to speak with James through informal drop-in sessions, and he provided two workshops for the adults on campus: one for faculty, and one for parents.  Overall, it was an excellent program, and I wanted to provide some follow-up links and resources for our students and families:

1. Several years ago, I wrote an extended essay on the issue of substance use and abuse which I have updated with the most recent research: "Reflections on Substance Use and Abuse"
2. FCD's web resources for students: http://www.fcd.org/content/resources/students.asp
3. FCD's website for Parents/Guardians: http://www.fcd.org/content/resources/parents.asp
4. The University of Michigan completes a comprehensive annual study of adolescent substance use: www.monitoringthefuture.org

FCD's Mission is to:

• Provide educational communities with the guidance and training necessary to implement comprehensive, effective approaches to substance abuse prevention
   
• Educate students, parents, teachers and school administrators on the physiological and psychological effects of alcohol and other drugs
   
• Promote awareness of alcoholism and other drug addictions as a progressive, chronic, and often fatal disease
   
• Teach children and adults how to recognize the early warning signs of substance abuse and to intervene appropriately
   
• Empower young people to make healthy, responsible choices regarding alcohol and other drug use
   
• Encourage and support the non-use of alcohol and other illegal or illicit drugs during the growing years.

Twenty Five Classes or Bust: History of Ideas

I had the great pleasure of visiting Mrs. Everdell's 10th grade History of Ideas course on Wednesday.  The course is designed to introduce Gunston students to the key intellectual movements and concepts that inform our personal, national, and global worldviews.  I happened to be visiting on a day when the class was wrapping up their discussion on Taoism, and beginning a unit on Confucianism. 

Using Huston Smith's The World Religions text, Mrs. Everdell guided the students through an introduction to the concept of "The Deliberate Tradition": the five precepts that guide Confucian philosophy.  Throughout, the discussion was focused on the issues of morality, conduct, and virtue.  At the end of the lesson, in addition to assigning additional reading, Mrs. Everdell gave her students a unique homework assignment related to Confucian principles: she asked them to spend an entire day acting as polite as humanly possible.  She is truly a master teacher.

Twenty Five Classes or Bust: Honors English 9





I visited the 9th grade Honors English class of Mrs. Newell as they were discussing George Bernard Shaw's famous play, Pygmalion, based on the famous myth where the sculptor Galatea falls in love with his own creation.  In Shaw's very funny play--the inspiration for the musical My Fair Lady--the protagonist Henry Higgins, a phonetics professor, wagers that he can teach a Cockney girl, Eliza Doolittle, to speak like a duchess at a garden party.

The famous painting:
Pygmalion and Galatea
by Jean Leon Gerome

I sat in on a fascinating seminar discussion that revolved around the nature of idealism, the power of language, an analysis of the psychology of each character, and the oedipal nature of the relationship between Henry and his mother.  Mrs. Newell and the students were nice enough to let me read the parts of Henry Higgins and Nepommuck!

Twenty Five Classes or Bust: Biology

My second stop was to Mr. Everdell's 9th grade Biology class.  Mr. Everdell occupies a spectacular classroom in which to teach Biology--there are windows on two walls that provide a 180-degree view of the natural splendor of the Gunston campus, and now that the leaves have fallen, you can see the river from his classroom.  On this particular day, there was a torrential downpour outside, with forty-five mph gusts of wind.  His classroom includes an aquarium, shelves and shelves of biology books, and nets and buckets for his Corsica River experiments.

The Aquarium

In the class I observed, Mr. Everdell was conducting a review of recently studied material, and he was using his projector and the online resources from the textbook to display an interactive jeopardy-type review game.  He broke the class into two (highly competitive) teams that battled over the categories of Cells, Membranes, Energizers, Product Production, and of course, Grab Bag.  The students engaged in an intense yet collaborative exercise to reinforce their understanding of terms and concepts.  At all times, Mr. Everdell was there to clarify questions and extend student understanding about cilia, flagella, cell walls, mitochondria, etc.

Twenty Five Classes or Bust: Chemistry

My first full-class stop was to the spacious Chemistry classroom on the first floor of AB, where I saw Mr. Rose teach his tenth grade Chemistry class.  He was preparing his students for an upcoming lab on determining the density/specific heat of a metal.  At first, he demonstrated the complex workings of a vernier caliper as a tool to measure thickness and the diameters of various beakers.  However, the magic of this particular lesson was the way Mr. Rose placed the students into the role of working scientists, and asking them to solve the logistical challenges of measuring the temperature of a solid (where a thermometer cannot actually be "stuck" inside the solid to measure the temperature.)  There were a number of creative and innovative guesses, and when Mr. Rose finally revealed the secret of measuring the specific heat--by taking the solid out of boiling water, depositing it into tepid water, and then measuring the rise in temperature of the water--there was a collective AHA! moment in the classroom.

Perhaps most significantly, during the lesson Mr. Rose destroyed my long-held and erroneous belief that adding salt to water makes it boil faster.  In fact, salt makes water boil at a higher temperature, which makes food cook faster.  Alas, for the last thirty years, I've been throwing salt into the water to make it boil faster--to no avail!

Twenty Five Classes or Bust!

Let me first acknowledge my personal friend and Headmaster of the Calvert School, Dr. Andrew Martire, for inspiring the "Twenty-Five Classes or Bust!" concept.  Over the next few weeks, my goal is to visit at least one class of every Gunston teacher, and report back from the front lines about the doings of our extraordinarily talented students and faculty. 

As a warm-up, my visitations began on Wednesday with a brief, twenty-minute stop in Mr. Robinson's AP European History course, where in his map-filled and history book-lined classroom, the students were highly engaged in a discussion focused on the reasons King Louis XVI of France lost his head.

Thanksgiving Holiday

Everyone returned to school today after what I hope was a peaceful and restful Thanksgiving Holiday.  During this season of thanks and giving, I wanted to mention a few notable things happening on campus:

1. Jackie, Carly, and Katherine Gross organized a letter-writing drive to provide comfort to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital.  Over a hundred letters were sent on behalf of the Gunston community to honor their service.

2. G.I.V.E. (Gunston Initiates Volunteer Efforts) is currently conducting a canned food drive to benefit a local food pantry.  Please bring your canned food items to school.

3. One of our Gunston alums, Emily Puddester ('04) is currently working in an underprivileged school in the Bahamas.  With the help of Mike Clemens, we have collected a large amount of school supplies to provide the school with pencils, paper, calculators, etc.

4. It is worth being thankful for grandparents.  On the Tuesday before the holiday, we were blessed to be joined by nearly three dozen grandparents.  After a welcome reception, grandparents visited classes, heard some Thanksgiving remarks, and attended a vocal recital.

Again, Happy Thanksgiving!

National Honor Society

Last Tuesday saw a moving National Honor Society Induction ceremony where seven of our students were welcomed into an organization that prizes the qualities of scholarship, character, service, and leadership.  In my remarks to the students, I shared a favorite poem by Marge Piercy that speaks to the hard work and earnest effort it takes to become a member of this prestigious and selective society:

To Be of Use, by Marge Piercy

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real. 

November Community Letter

Dear Gunston Community:

To read the November Community Letter (and don't neglect to scroll down to see the photos from Centennial), please click on this link: November Letter

Regards,

John

Some recent articles on education in the news

Every once in awhile, I will seek to share relevant articles about education, learning, student health, college preparation, etc..  Here are a few items recently in the news:

1. An interesting article on the relationship between exercise and intelligence:  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/phys-ed-can-exercise-make-kids-smarter/?scp=9&sq=Gretchen%20Reynolds&st=cse 
2. Every quarter, the New York Times publishes a special section called "Education Life."  In the most recent section, the Times has teamed up with the Chronicle of Higher Education to explore issues related to the transition between high school and college.  This article discusses the current landscape of college admissions: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/education/edlife/07HOOVER-t.html?ref=education
3. Speaking of college admissions, perhaps the most well-known blog about college admissions is the Jacques Steinberg-inspired blog called "The Choice."  Steinberg is the NY Times correspondent who wrote the book “The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College."
4. Although this is not an article, a few months ago I came across one of the most extraordinary mathematics websites I've ever seen: http://www.wolframalpha.com/.  Enjoy!

Fall Sports Awards Dinner

A view from the recently repainted boathouse

It was a packed and energetic Field House at the Fall Sports Awards Dinner on Thursday night, and the evening was a powerful testament to the skill, effort, and sacrifice of our student-athletes this season.  Before each team hosted its own awards celebration in various locations around our campus, each coach came to the podium to summarize the highlights of their team's season.  While there were mentions of all-conference, all-star, and ESIAC sportsmanship awards, I was most impressed with the way that our coaches, almost without exception, focused the majority of their remarks on the positive and enduring values of athletics: teamwork, self-sacrifice, focus, and effort.  This ability to "live" to the school's values is what makes our coaching staff so exceptional. 

The exciting fall season concludes this weekend, with our sailing team heading to Toms River, New Jersey for the Mid-Atlantic Scholastic Sailing Association's Atlantic Coast Championships, where they qualified to race against the top twenty sailing teams in our region.  At the same time, our crew team heads to Virginia for the Head of the Occoquan regatta.

In Celebration of Books: 2010

This was my first ICB, and it truly was a unique and extraordinary event.  From the opening keynote speech by David Haward Bain, to the multiple workshops led by our renowned invited authors (twelve of them, including the director of the Breadloaf Writers Conference, as well as the former Poet Laureate of Maryland!), to the engrossing poetry reading at the end of the day, ICB celebrated the magic of reading and writing, and it is a reflection of Gunston's commitment to ensuring that all of our students develop both sophisticated writing skills and their own personal writing "voice."  Here is a copy of my opening remarks at the morning assembly: In Celebration of Books 2010.

Nancy Taylor Robson tells the story of how she secured an interview with Russell Banks.

David Haward Bain speaks about the use of "artifacts" as an impetus for powerful writing.

"What are you going to do," asks Michael Glaser, "with your one wild and only life!?"

Mark Plotkin: A Hero for our Planet

Today was the annual Association of Independent Maryland Schools (AIMS) Conference in Baltimore, and many of our faculty attended this dynamic professional development event while others chaperoned our student body on a school-wide trip to Washington, DC.

This year's keynote speaker was a Time magazine "Hero for the Planet", Dr. Mark Plotkin, the Harvard ethnobotanist who has spent his career working in the Amazon rainforest studying the relationship between indigenious people and medicinal plants.  His work has led to numerous important medical discoveries, and he couples his scholarly interests with an activist's passion for conserving both the indigenous culture and biodiversity of the Amazon region.  He is the founder of the Amazon Conservation Team, whose mission is "to work in partnership with indigenous people to conserve biodiversity, improve human health, and fortify traditional culture in greater Amazonia."  His most famous book, Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice, was turned into an award-winning documentary.

Plotkin challenged all AIMS educators to consider the various human benefits of conservation and biodiversity, and he implored us to teach our students about the powerful relationship between our natural environment and human healing.  At Gunston, this year we are pursuing Green School certification from the state of Maryland, and this will serve as the beginning of an expanded school-wide committment to creating an academic program and a physical campus focused on environmental sustainability.  

Here is a brief video I found that features Plotkin talking about the work of the Amazon Conservation Team: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxBb2FOj9x4

Homecoming

By all measures, it was a great Homecoming Weekend.  On Friday, both the Boys Soccer and Girls Field Hockey teams dominated their opponents; we had a successful tailgate party; and the bonfire burned brightly before the students went into the gym to watch a film.  At Saturday night's dance, the students looked great in their homecoming outfits (lots of matching corsages and boutonnieres), and they arrived early and stayed late.  And of course, we crowned our annual Homecoming King and Queen.  This year's royalty were Andy Doucet and Charlotte Lippincott, shown here in their royal headwear!

An Important Announcement: Tony and Sarah Everdell

This letter was read to the students in today's morning meeting, is being sent by e-mail and hard copy to parents, and will be sent to all of our constituent groups today:

Dear Gunston Community:

I need to share with you some important and significant news that touches the entire Gunston community.  Tony and Sarah Everdell have informed me of their intention to retire at the conclusion of the academic year.  No combination of words can express the depth of gratitude the Gunston community owes to this special couple, and their retirement will not only be the end of their career at Gunston, but also the end of an era for our school. 

Regarding their decision, they write:

We love Gunston, and will miss teaching wonderful students and working with a first-rate faculty.  Maine beckons however.  We depart knowing that the school is strong, and is moving into an exciting future.  We will cheer from the sidelines. (Every corner is a goal!)

Tony and Sarah’s retirement is a moment of significant transition for them as a couple, and it is an equally significant transition for Gunston as a school.  While both of them have signaled to me that they don’t want any “fuss” or “hoopla” associated with their departure, I was sorry to inform them that we will indeed be making an appropriate amount of fuss and hoopla as we celebrate their lifetime of service to generations of Gunston students.

I have long believed that it takes only one teacher to change the course of a person’s life.  The voice of a great teacher becomes part of our own voice, and as Henry Adams once said: “A teacher effects eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops.”  For generations of Gunston students, Tony and Sarah have been that great teacher, and both before and during our Centennial Weekend, I encountered student after student who shared with me the profound impact that Tony and Sarah’s loving guidance has had on their lives.

As the year progresses, I will keep you updated about the ways the Gunston community will be celebrating and commemorating Tony and Sarah’s combined seven decades of teaching at Gunston.  In the meantime, let us send our blessings to them as they begin the process of transitioning into what promises to be a dynamic and joyful retirement.

Sincerely,

John A. Lewis, IV

Headmaster

jlewis@gunstondayschool.org

Spirit Week: Harvest Day

Mr. Mark Wiening, Dean of Students (Is this the man in charge of the dress code?)

Spirit Week and Homecoming: A Good Start

It was great to keep my tie on the rack and wear my Gunston sweatshirt on Friday as the entire school was outfitted in Gunston apparel to kick off Spirit Week--the buildup to next Friday's Homecoming Festivities.  Kudos go to Victoria Prince for suggesting the "Gunston Spirit Day". 

In the afternoon, we sent a caravan of Gunston teams down to Worcester Prep, and our Field Hockey team defeated Worcester Prep in a battle of top ESIAC teams, with Eleanora Keene putting in the winning goal on strokes after a protracted double-overtime battle.

Each day during the upcoming week is a dress-up day, and Friday includes multiple games, a tailgate party, bonfire, and a movie.  Saturday night, of course, is the Homecoming Dance.  It should be a great week!

The Social Network, "Socialnomics", and the technological revolution

I have not yet seen the film "The Social Network", which traces the development of Facebook, but both my current and former students have noted how much the film "speaks" to them.  In the same vein, several years ago I had the privilege of hearing Sir Ken Robinson, a media theorist, address the issue of emerging technologies in our culture.  His conclusion: if you are under the age of 38, you are a "digital native" and if you are over the age of 38, you are a "digital immigrant."

To understand this distinction as it relates to digital technology, one that I believe will bring about the kinds of social, economic, and political change equivalent to the invention of the printing press, the industrial revolution, and the advent of telecommuncations, I wanted to share a provocative article by author Mark Prensky and a recent YouTube video entitled "Socialnomics" (it's focused on businesses, but some of the statistics and images strike me as extremely relevant to schools, especially independent schools):

Prensky's article: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Socialnomics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng

As the years progress, various schools will respond to these phenomena in a variety of ways.  In the short term, Gunston will be communicating with our families in the next few weeks about how we will be addressing the issue of social networking as it relates to the values of our community.  Stay tuned.

Off the Bookshelf: "Lives We Carry With Us" by Robert Coles

I have always admired Dr. Robert Coles.  His work first became well-known in the 1960's when he profiled a young woman named Ruby Bridges, a young African-American girl who was part of the first wave of school desegregation, and whose psychological strength in the face of hatred and terror became a classic case study in childhood resilience.  As a longtime professor of Psychiatry at Harvard, the central focus of Coles' work is moral reasoning, especially in children.  Indeed, I read his Moral Life of Children and The Moral Intelligence of Children when I was in graduate school, and this led me to pick up his most recent work, Lives We Carry With Us: Profiles of Moral Courage (New Press, 2010, 210 pp.)

In Lives, Coles profiles a series of individuals whose "moral voices" he has internalized, either through his personal contact with them, his experience with their writing, and/or his admiration of their lives' work.  Each "life" is a separate chapter, and he illustrates a cast of characters as diverse as Anna Freud, Erik Erikson, and Dorothy Day, to artists like James Agee, Bruce Springsteen, and Flannery O'Connor, to moral giants like Dietrich Bonhoffer and Simone Weil.  His final chapter highlights his most enduring character: the six-year-old Ruby Bridges.  About this little girl who endured "murderously heckling mobs," he writes:
 
A well-developed conscience does not translate, necessarily into a morally courageous life.  Nor do  well-developed powers of philosophical thinking and moral analysis necessarily translate into an everyday willingness to face down the various evils of this world.  I was once helped in this effort at clarification by a  black woman (Ruby Bridges' mother) whom I suppose I'd have to call illiterate.  She pointed out that "there's a lot of people who talk about doing good, and a lot of people who argue about what's good and what's not good."  Then she added that "there are a lot of people who always worry about whether they're doing right or wrong."  Finally, there are some other folks: "They just put their lives on the line for what's right, and they may not be the ones who talk a lot or argue a lot or worry a lot; they just do a lot."

Twenty Memorable Moments from Centennial

Our extraordinary Centennial Weekend has drawn to a close.  Here are twenty personal reflections/observations from this once-in-a-century weekend:

1. Following the weather report beginning ten days before Centennial Weekend, and then tracking the slow pace of Tropical Storm Nicole as she dumped 7 inches of rain on the region, forcing us to postpone our golf tournament. 
2. Seeing the Skipjack Elsworth pull into the Gunston waterfront on Friday afternoon after a majestic sail down the Chester River from Echo Hill.
3. Watching the Gunston girls thump Worcester Prep, 3-0, in field hockey.
4. Standing in the long food line of the Friday afternoon tailgate party, and chatting with parents, students, faculty, and alumni as they enjoyed the feast organized by the Keene's and the McCown's.
5. Welcoming nearly 100 alumni into our home, and seeing the hugs and tears as alums from multiple decades and generations rediscovered old friends, teachers, and acquaintances.
6. Digesting some of the desserts cooked up by my wife Laurie at this same alumni reception. 
7. Chatting with 70's alumna Debra Kaden, who travelled back to Gunston all the way from San Diego, and hearing about how her life has gone from success-to-success.
8. Waking up to a spectacular autumn Saturday, and thanking Aunt Mary for providing us a perfect day to celebrate.
9. Finishing the 5K, though well behind both Laurie and Mrs. Grabis!
10. Admiring the intensity with which our current students and alums engaged in the Green and White games, and seeing the occasional "bending" of the rules to ensure victory!
11. Purchasing a brick for Heron Walkway, in honor of my parents' contribution to my education.
12. Perusing the stories and photos in the Gunston Archive, located in our library, and learning interesting facts about the hundred-year history of our school.
13. Touring the campus with former Headmaster Peter "Stick" Sturtevant, and welcoming former Headmaster Paul Long and his wife Dickie to the alumni dinner.
14. Hearing current 12th grader Taylor Maykranz say in the Headmaster's Panel discussion, "When I arrived at Gunston, teachers cared about me so much that I learned to care about myself."
15. In the same panel, listening to Joan Ellingston Marshall's reflections on the Victorian tone of Gunston life in the 1940's.
16. Also in the panel discussion, hearing our Gunston School for Girls alumnae speak emotionally about how the school "saved their lives" and how Gunston became "home" and their "family."
17. Going from room-to-room during the alumni receptions in the Academic Building, and when asking the lively group of alumnae from the 1980's how the school might better connect with our former students, receiving the suggestion, "Have a sleepover!"
18. Reading Ishtar Abell's letter about Mary Middleton to the audience at the Alumni Dinner.
19. Presenting the Middleton Cup to Sarah and Tony Everdell.
20. Eating pancakes and omelets (per tradition, brown on the outside with American cheese on the inside) on Sunday morning with our soon-to-depart alums.

We wish all of our alumni a safe journey home!

Comptroller Peter Franchot

Gunston was visited today by our state Comptroller, Mr. Peter Franchot, who spoke with our students about the duties of the comptroller's office, the importance of financial literacy, and his own background and entry into politics.  He also provided us a proclamation that honored our 100-years of existence.  Here are some excerpts from my introduction of him:

"Sixteen billion dollars.  This is how much Maryland collects each year in state and local tax revenue, and it is the amount of money that our speaker today oversees: sixteen billion dollars. The role of Comptroller is one of the four statewide elected offices in Maryland, the other three being Governor/Lt. Governor, U.S. Senator, and Attorney General, so it is one of the most important positions in our state.  

In addition to overseeing the collection of taxes, auditing taxpayers for compliance, handling delinquent tax collection, and enforcing license and unclaimed property laws, the Comptroller also oversees the information technology services that are critical to the daily operation of most state agencies. Acting as Maryland's chief accountant, the Comptroller pays the state's bills, maintains its books, prepares financial reports, and pays state employees.  It is a an enormous job of extraordinary complexity and responsibility.

Our Speaker today, Mr. Peter Franchot, was elected Maryland's 33rd Comptroller in 2006.  Throughout his career, he has been a strong advocate for education, health care, transportation and environmental protection initiatives.  As a member of the powerful Board of Public Works and Vice-Chair of the State Retirement and Pension System of Maryland, Franchot has worked tirelessly to keep Maryland competitive in the knowledge-based economy, create a climate of economic equality and opportunity, and protect Maryland's parks, waterways and open spaces.

As a generation, you are living through the worst financial crisis in nearly eighty years, and there is little indication that the crisis will be resolved quickly.  A few days ago, in honor of 40 years of its Op-Ed page, the New York Times published some of the most important editorials written over the past four decades.  In an editorial from last year written by the famous financial journalist Michael Lewis, he wrote:

Americans enter the New Year in a strange new role: financial lunatics. We’ve been viewed by the wider world with mistrust and suspicion on other matters, but on the subject of money even our harshest critics have been inclined to believe that we knew what we were doing. 

In the editorial, Lewis goes on to explain the full extent of the Bernard Madoff scandal, which many of you know was the Ponzi scheme that robbed thousands of people of their life savings, and which has served as the symbol of the financial recklessness which precipitated this scandal.  About that scandal, Lewis writes:

The Madoff scandal echoes a deeper absence inside our financial system, which has been undermined not merely by bad behavior but by the lack of checks and balances to discourage it. “Greed” doesn’t cut it as a satisfying explanation for the current financial crisis. Greed was necessary but insufficient; in any case, we are as likely to eliminate greed from our national character as we are lust and envy.

Many of you in this audience today will someday enter the noble calling of public service, where you will be responsible for maintaining these checks and balances.  Now more than ever, we need public servants who will be responsible and ethical stewards of the public welfare, especially our financial welfare.  Today we have the honor of welcoming one such public servant: Mr. Peter Franchot."

September Community Letter

Dear Gunston Community:

To read the September Community Letter, please click on this link: community letter.

Regards,

John

Off the bookshelf: "NurtureShock" by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

Don't ever tell your kids that they're smart.  Certain types of praise can be damaging.  Modern young people sleep almost an hour less than their peers did thirty years ago, and their IQ's are suffering for it.  96% of high school students lie to their parents, regularly.  Trying to make your child "colorblind" can actually make them less racially tolerant.  Watching Sesame Street can make a child more aggressive than if they watched Power Rangers.

Above are some of the conclusions in "NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children", an engaging work of non-fiction that seeks to summarize some of the counter-intuitive research on child-rearing that has emerged from the fields of psychology, sociology, and anthropology.  I was particularly struck by the chapter on praise and labelling students with the tag of "smart".  In the book, they show compelling examples of how this label can create a psychologically crippling response when the child is faced with challenges that seem initially to be beyond their capacities.  The authors' conclusion is that parents should focus their praise much more on effort and determination, and that this praise should be specific to processes rather than general.  Thus, instead of saying "You played a great game," a child is more likely to have positive efforts reinforced by a comment like: "I like the way you shared the ball, and played aggressively on defense."

Overall, it was a fascinating and interesting read, and I recommend it.

An update on our rowing program

This year we have nearly thirty students on our rowing team, and this week we secured the services of two additional crew coaches.  The simple result is that, instead of an intermittent rotation, every student can now spend time on the water every day, and I have attached the letter explaining the changes:  

The Gunston Faculty: Episode I

Early Saturday morning on my way to the gym, I stopped in the front of the Academic Building to check on the progress of the new water well that is being drilled on our campus.  Who did I find there?  Mr. Everdell.  As the drill progressed into ever-deeper layers of earth, Mr. Everdell was gleefully collecting samples to share with his science classes on Monday.

Also, congratulations to the Gunston girls soccer team for their big 1-0 win against Salisbury School on Friday.  With less than five minutes to play, Senior Laura Wood juked the defender and bent a twelve yarder to the high left corner of the net.

Gunston and Technology: A New Frontier

During the final two days of faculty meetings, the entire Gunston faculty worked with an educational technology consultant who began the process of training us to use our new Macintosh computers.  In this most recent technological upgrade, Macs have been installed in each teacher's classroom, as well as in our student computer lab.  We have completed a major upgrade of our technology infrastructure, and the next few months will see the deployment of a laptop cart for classroom use, additional SmartBoards, and the expansion of the school's wireless capacity.

It's important to note that as Gunston begins to significantly enhance its technological capacity, we will not be pursuing technology simply for its own sake, but rather as a tool to powerfully enhance the learning process.  Several weeks ago, I heard an interview on NPR's program Fresh Air with Matt Richtel, who covers technology and telecommunications for the New York Times, and he used a powerful metaphor to describe the role of technology in our lives:

"Just as food nourishes us and we need it for life, so too — in the 21st century and the modern age — we need technology. You cannot survive without the communication tools; the productivity tools are essential," he says. "And yet, food has pros and cons to it. We know that some food is Twinkies and some food is Brussels sprouts. And we know that if we overeat, it causes problems. Similarly, after 20 years of glorifying technology as if all computers were good and all use of it was good, science is beginning to embrace the idea that some technology is Twinkies and some technology is Brussels sprouts."

I won't be using the "sprouts" image too often with our students, but we will be moving ahead in a steady and thoughtful manner as we seek to incorporate some of the extraordinary tools, programs, and solutions that significantly enhance the learning experience, making it much more interactive and multi-modal.  One of my favorite programs is called "Inspiration", a mind-mapping and outlining program that allows the user to develop ideas in a non-linear fashion, and to convert them into clear and concise arguments.

The school year is upon us!

Although school has not officially started, Tuesday afternoon felt like the first "real" day of the school year.  The campus was buzzing with students and parents in the afternoon as our boys' soccer team and girls field hockey teams took on Holly Grove in the opening game of the year.  The athletic fields looked great, but the day was hot and steamy--to the point where the referees made the teams take mandatory water breaks--and both teams fought hard against tough opponents.

What made the afternoon truly special, however, was the "tailgate" party after the games held on the lawn next to the Middleton building, organized by our families.  Our ravenous student-athletes made quick work of the subs, drinks, and desserts, and it was wonderful to see both students and parents began the process of getting reconnected after this particularly hot summer.