Another Historical Note

Thirty-six year ago today (gulp) Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency. This was the theater that dominated my own high school years, and what we thought was the culmination of years of partisan bickering may have only been the precursor to today's gridlock in Washington. That notwithstanding, Richard Nixon has been a fascinating case in leadership for my generation. Even having achieved his lifelong goal of becoming president was not enough to fill the needs in his psyche, which raises the question, how do our own goals fulfill the needs in our own psyches? Whether material possessions, wealth, grade point averages, college acceptances, advanced degrees, titles, our childrens' success, do we recognize when our own strivings have become fulfilled, or destructive, as Richard Nixon's did? A fascinating character!

Hiroshima Anniversary

“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.” -Pema Chodron

Sixty-five years ago today 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima, Japan, a fact little noticed in today's news. Given the state of the world today, one must ask what we've learned as a species. We don't even have the attention span to acknowledge the anniversary of one of the central events of the 20th century.

Not everyone

I'm reminded after shopping for a new cell phone (now much more than a phone) that not everyone was reading books instead of Nooks... my wife was checking her email and surfing the web at the beach. I was just surfing the waves, which was much more relaxing!


Rock Harbor, Cape Cod, at sunset, July 18, 2010.

Keeping up

Just back from vacation on Cape Cod, visiting dad, kind of sad, but not so bad...
with a couple of rounds of golf (9-holes: 42, 51), and a few trips to the beach...
while walking the beach, noticed many folks reading... perhaps not a dying skill...
also noticed zero Kindles, zero Nooks, zero iPads...
it might have been 1965.

Here's Seagull Beach, South Yarmouth, last Friday, in a 1965 sort of way.

Later start times for high school improve conduct, grades and even save lives.

No news to us here at Nora, but a recent study published in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reports that giving adolescents an extra 30 minutes in the morning leads to more alertness, better moods, lower levels of tardiness and healthier eating (at least at breakfast). As part of the study, seven high schools in Minneapolis began classes at 8:40 am (like Nora) instead of at 7:15 am (like MCPS). The University of Minnesota study found that students at these seven schools got more sleep and missed fewer classes among other benefits. They even turned out to be safer drivers! For more on adolescents and sleep, visit the National Sleep Foundation summary.

100 Degrees the next two days... a cool reminder

Five short months ago!

Congratulations Class of 2010!

You worked hard to get to this day. You are survivors, having not only survived middle and high schools that were big, impersonal, and bureaucratic, but also having survived Nora, which is no easy task. There is often a misconception that being in a small school like Nora is easy, because the teachers know you, and work with you, and give you lots of chances, and all of that is true. But equally true is that going to a small school is hard, because the teachers know you, and work with you, and give you lots of chances. There’s nowhere to hide if you haven’t done the reading, your math homework always gets checked, and when it’s your turn to make a presentation there’s no one to hand it off to. Your parents hear if you missed the trip to the Corcoran and they know when you’re not doing your Pre-Calculus homework. Lorraine notices when you show up late to Physics and Patrick notices when you didn’t turn in your Chemistry lab. It’s tough to stand up to that amount of scrutiny, but you have. You survived not only the classrooms, but also the whitewater rafting of your sophomore year, the high ropes and goal setting of your junior retreat, and writing recommendations and sharing your life stories on the senior retreat. You finished your senior community service (late though it may have been for some of you) and you learned to balance two of the most precious gifts of adulthood: freedom and responsibility. The freedom part is easy, every teenager gets that. The responsibility part is a lot harder. Many adults have yet to figure it out, as witnessed by the various crises on Wall Street and in the Gulf of Mexico. Learning when to have fun and when to work, when to sleep in and when to get up, finding where the boundaries are, and which ones it was safe to cross, these are things that your parents and teachers have to juggle every day. You managed, if imperfectly, the four lessons with which we start every school year.
These same lessons will stand you in good stead as you move forward into your adult lives: Show Up On Time. Do Your Work. Care For Your Health. Treat People Respectfully. These fourteen words are perhaps the most important lesson you take from Nora, because you have to keep living them the rest of your life if you wish to be successful.
Business writer Seth Godin posits that “small is the new big,” and as graduates of one of the smallest schools in the country, you should understand that it’s a big accomplishment to graduate from a small school. While it’s a small accomplishment to find a clique of people you get along with in a big school, it’s a big accomplishment to get along, intimately, with people who annoy you and get on your nerves in a small school. It’s a small accomplishment to hide in the back of a big classroom and avoid the teacher’s radar and do the minimum necessary to get by, but it’s a big accomplishment to push through your resistance and actually do the work. You know that in Chris’s small classroom you’d better have done the reading so you can participate in the discussion. Taking this a bit further, keep in mind that while we all have our daily frustrations, by doing the small kindnesses to others we can, collectively, make a big difference in the world.
Good luck Class of 2010! Your small school made a big difference for you, and in any number of small ways you have made a big difference in your peers and teachers. Now take this out to the world!

Looking Back

With semester exams ending Friday, we've almost arrived at the end of the school year. Our students have done a fine job this year, and I am very proud of their accomplishments. On Tuesday the members of the Class of 2010 will receive their diplomas and head off to a variety of colleges and Americorps as they begin their adult lives. We wish them the best.

As I look back on the year, I am, as always, amazed at the breadth of activity that goes on here at Nora. Beyond the four quarters of academic classes, the eight days of community service, the soccer, basketball, volleyball, and softball games (the faculty remained undefeated), we had three poetry readings, four parent lectures, college night, the photography festival, the arts festival, the alumni Thanksgiving feast, assemblies on drugs, sexuality, and a host of other topics, the guacamole challenge, and the prom. We've gone rock climbing, camping, hiking, whitewater rafting, ice skating at the Archives, and bowling. We've climbed high ropes, walked the Billy Goat trail and braved the haunted forest. We've had trips to the Newseum, the visionary art museum, the Round House theater, the Portrait Gallery and National Gallery of Art, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, and the Vietnam memorials. In addition to our breaks in December and April, we also survived Snowmageddon!

I'm continually amazed by what happens at this small school, where the external activities are matched only by the internal growth that our students experience during their time with us.

I offer a big "Thank You" to the dedicated Nora teachers for the caring, nurturing, and support you offer our students in their journey through adolescence. Have a great summer!

Fun and Danger

It's ironic that the sophomore class went whitewater rafting without incident (well, a bit of swimming) while after yesterday's softball game two students needed to see a doctor following an outfield collision! The teenage brain seeks excitement, which leads to many risky behaviors. We try to structure some of that thrill-seeking into activities like sports, but far too many kids have no outlets other than drugs, sex, and other, unsupervised, dangerous activities. Whitewater rafting and softball are no cures, but they are alternatives. I wish every kid in high school had the opportunities that our kids have to challenge themselves in ways that are healthy and (relatively) safe.

Budget cuts and tuition.

Prince George's County in Maryland is cutting hundreds of jobs, increasing class size, reducing transportation, and requiring unpaid furloughs. Times are tough, but for all the politicians' lip service to improving education, when it comes to raising taxes to pay for things, the will just isn't there.

I'm sympathetic, as, on a much smaller scale, our Board has to make similar decisions each year. The only way to improve "productivity" (getting more done with the same resources) is to increase class size, as education is a people intensive business. So do we increase class size, cut programs, or increase tuition to what it costs to operate our program? In an independent school, our reason for existing is our program, so while increasing tuition is never ideal, it sure beats cutting our program. Of course, our families have the choice to return to public school if they don't feel that what we're doing is of value. I imagine that the parents in Prince George's County will be looking for safe havens, which is good news for Queen Anne School, Bishop McNamara High School, and other private schools. Not so great for folks who can't afford them.

Graphic Representation of our Economy

Enough said!

Social media research

Just stumbled across an interesting lady, danah boyd (spelling is correct, you'll have to see her blog to understand). As we wrestle with kids and social media/web 2.0 it's nice to see some real research going into it's effects. Assignment books being so 20th century, if we put assignments on Google Calendar will kids check their text messages from us? Looking at her research and career also reminds me of why I had no desire to spend my life in academia (at least at that level). Hands on applications are better for many adults as well as adolescents (or perhaps adults who are still a bit adolescent?)!

Good news for photographers

Apropos of nothing, the National [U.S.] Park Service has announced that all 392 national parks will have free admission during National Park Week, April 17 to 25. A good week to head off to Great Falls or White Oak Canyon (in Shenandoah) to shoot waterfalls!

What teachers make

A thought about teaching as we begin spring break.

Thank goodness, it's finally passed!

For anyone who thinks that having health insurance isn't necessary, take a look at my healthy 18-year-old son's bill for an appendectomy. Even less pretty than his scars!

Perspective

We live around the little red dot labeled "Sol." This chart was created by Harvard academic Samuel Arbesman. But we should still do our homework, so that someday we can be as smart as Dr. Arbesman! Want more? Read his blog here.

A new useful tool for school!

Getting caught up on my online reading last weekend, I came across this David Pogue New York Times blog entry on Microsoft's Skydrive service. This is a free 25 GB server share somewhere in the "cloud" where one can store files. This is the perfect solution for Digital Art and Photography classes where large files are created. Rather than save work on a flash drive to bring home, students can save their work on their Skydrive. A related program, SDexplorer, allows one to treat the Skydrive just like a flash drive or a floppy disk, dragging and dropping files from the school or home computer to the Skydrive. A nifty, free, solution to a longtime problem. How nice!

What the...

In yesterday's Washington Post we learn that Virginia's Attorney General wants state universities to allow discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. "It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including 'sexual orientation,' 'gender identity,' 'gender expression,' or like classification as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy absent specific authorization from the General Assembly" says Ken Cuccinelli. Perhaps voters in Virginia deserve the same "information," and Cuccinelli and members of the State Assembly can outline their sexual practices prior to the next election so that everyone is fully informed!

Film

My photography class has been shooting Tri-X the past couple of weeks, getting their hands wet in the darkroom and learning to slowwww down the process of creating photographs. Though several years have gone by since I spent significant (any?) time in the darkroom, I still love the quiet, the smells, the anticipation, the pace, and the unique vision that is part of the experience. So as I wind down from what has been a tough week, I stumble across this, perhaps the best costume ever for a photographic subject. No, it's not Photoshopped. Just don't shoot it on Tri-X!

Because life is a multiple choice test.

There's an interesting article in last week's Washington Post about the Commonwealth of Virginia curtailing the use of portfolio assessments in lieu of the multiple choice Standards of Learning test. But what is the real issue? One quote gives a clue: "Portfolios can be valuable assessment tools within classrooms, but they are problematic for a large-scale accountability program, in which cost-effectiveness, consistency and validity are paramount, Wright said. Teachers spend many hours compiling portfolios, and local school systems are responsible for scoring the tests." The emphases are mine. Scoring the SOL multiple choice test takes seconds, and requires a machine rather than a teacher. So the implication is that the multiple choice test is more valid, because so much of life is like a multiple choice test (sarcasm mine). Cost effectiveness rates only a passing mention. Perhaps the Virginia legislature should have their effectiveness measured by a multiple choice assessment rather than by an evaluation of the body of their work. It might raise their scores.