Why the Pursuit of Excellence Matters

I just read an interesting article by Erik Reece from Orion Magazine on the current state of affairs in American schools. He points out, rightly, that our students are generally unprepared, bored, and uninspired because they haven't been pushed to pursue those things that really matter - citizenship, innovation, and critical thought. This is because they are taught in a system that necessitates teaching 'to the test' and a teacher education model that isn't cultivating the kinds of teachers who can work toward those habits of mind due to bureaucratic regulations and a lack of resources, both financial and intellectual, necessary to create excellent educational experience. 


I'm fortunate to lead a school which is able to do things the right way. Our teachers are inspiring, they care deeply about their subjects and their students and they have the freedom to pursue ethical dilemmas because they/we want to ensure that our graduates know how to think, have the courage to act, and have faith in their own development as human beings in the world that their work makes a difference. 


A couple of excerpts from the article:


"Deborah Meier, a senior scholar at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education and a founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools, suggests that we replace the cover-the-material mode of teaching by cultivating a “habit of mind” that can be applied to all material. Such a habit nurtures the intellectual skills students need to make decisions on complex matters and is based on such things as: quality of evidence (how do we know it’s true?), consideration of various viewpoints (how would it look through someone else’s eyes?), the search for patterns and causes (what are the consequences?), and relevance (who cares?)."
...
"THE GOOD NEWS is we can begin revitalizing both education and democracy by implementing a curriculum that incubates what I will call the “citizen-self.” As teachers, I believe our purpose should be twofold: 1) to provide the opportunity for individual self-invention among students, and 2) to create a space where that individual takes on the role and the responsibility of the social citizen. The pedagogy I have in mind combines the Romantic idea of thebildung, the cultivation of one’s own intellectual and psychological nature, with the Pragmatist view that such individuality must be vigorously protected by acts of citizenship. That is to say, it encourages Deborah Meier’s “habit of mind” toward the goal of helping each student determine what she or he truly thinks and feels about an issue or an idea, and it encourages what psychologist and philosopher William James called a “habit of action,” a way of translating such thinking into citizenship. At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that the first part cultivates the inner self, while the second shapes the outer self. But these two selves cannot be separated; each depends upon and strengthens the other."

Courage

Here's a short piece on courage and its place in education (Chapel Talk October 3, 2011):

What if I told you that I heard that there was a sale on for chicken wings at the deli counter at the neighborhood WalMart and I wanted to be the first in line, so I ran right across Britton Road without checking for traffic.

What if, instead, I ran across Britton in order to save a young child who had wandered out of the parking lot and onto the street?

What if I saw the same child, but I looked around but decided that someone else would probably take care of her, and that it wasn’t really my responsibility?

All three situations involve me making a decision about crossing Britton, but the situations are very different and my ability to understand the differences shapes my decision significantly.

We all know that courage is a thing that we’re supposed to have. Indeed, this school was founded with a call toward courage and a call toward faith. Our crest, emblazoned with the words Fideliter et Fortiter implore us all to act with faith and with courage as we live our lives. The lion sought it during his journey to Oz, Dr. Martin Luther King demonstrated it on marches and in speeches at a time when his very life was at stake, and today, possibly as we leave chapel and head back to class, each and every one of us will have an opportunity to act courageously.

So why is courage so important?

Whether you’re standing up for a classmate when she’s being mistreated, telling a friend bad news, admitting to your teacher that you didn’t study for today’s test, or telling your parents that you were the one who broke the vase, each time we demonstrate courage, we make a difference in a positive direction. That is why courage is so important.

Great acts of courage are inspirational and we can all point to examples that set the bar for each of us, but it’s in the day-to-day living of our lives that we must strive to live life courageously. It is our duty to our selves, our community here at School and ultimately to our world that we embrace this way of living and work to set an example for one another in the way Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, and others have in their lives.

As members of the Casady School community, we must strive to be the kind of person who isn’t afraid to stand up and do the right thing. We must strive to be the kind of person who isn’t afraid to admit to our failings. We must strive to be the kind of person who is courageous enough to make mistakes, learn from them and to muster the courage to make even more mistakes.  

“Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

- Margaret Mead

Parenting in the Real World

Parenting is really tough, yet I am thankful that I have the opportunity to come face to face with my own deficiencies as I navigate the beginnings of my children's adolescence.

As an educator with many years experience as a Middle School teacher, I began this journey with the false belief that because I had years of experience and understanding well the adolescent brain, that I'd be more than ready when the time came for me to help shape and guide my kids toward healthy and successful lives. 

Boy, was I misguided. 

Despite my own knowledge and understanding of adolescence as a Theory, practicing effective parenting is another skill entirely. 

Perhaps two articles I've read in the last few days could help shine a light on both why explicitly teaching character development and brain physiology contribute to deeper and perhaps more effective parenting and teaching...

This article in National Geographic points out some reasons why I'm destined to keep the learning curve steep and to continue developing skills like grit, determination, patience, and knowing when to not die on that particular hill.

That is all, for now.

Praise the Work

As you may already know, we are hosting a screening of the film Race to Nowhere here at Casady on October 16th at 5:30PM in Fee Theater. If you'd like to attend, click here to buy your tickets.

I will facilitate a discussion immediately following. 

I encourage you to attend - this is an important film that deserves our attention...

Additionally, this article is a very useful resource and reminder to parents and teachers alike in outlining the reasons we should praise effort and determination rather than intelligence. As I've noted in prior posts, Carol Dweck is another strong advocate for this approach to education and child-rearing.

Keep watching this space!

Chris

I Have a Lot to Learn

Chapel Talk September 13, 2011

I have a lot to learn.

I’ve spent the past 45 years trying to make sense of things. I’m lucky to have had some incredible teachers along the way and I’m fortunate that many of my friends have had an interest in the way things work as well.

I’m reminded about just how little I know almost every day and for that I’m truly grateful. I’m a big believer in the idea that when we stop learning and when we stop being curious about the world is about the same time that we become complacent and when we stop wanting to understand other people’s points of view. That’s when bad things happen like war, injustice, racism, and prejudice. That’s when we stop working together to solve problems and begin to judge each other and make fun of each other to make ourselves feel better, bigger, and more powerful.

The overall reason for learning, it seems to me, is to find out about the world around us and all the interesting people and things the world contains. As we discover more and more about these things, we also develop a sense of ourselves and begin to understand our purpose in the world.

Here in Chapel, we hear stories about how others lived their lives, how we are supposed to make decisions, and why it’s important to try to do the right things. Here in Chapel, we dedicate ourselves to the enormous task of trying to make things better. Here in Chapel we are thankful to God for allowing us an opportunity to gather together in our shared work to improve ourselves and our world.

This is why we should have great respect for learning. Learning is, in its most basic form, the best way we have to connect to each other and to our world. We are all joined together through our shared desire to do the things in our lives that help to make a difference.

No single person on the planet has the whole story. No single person in this Chapel has all the answers, but if you listen, learn, and act with respect and a belief in yourself and in others, collectively, we answer the big questions each and every day.

The more I know, the more I understand just how little I, in fact, know. The more I have the chance to talk with people, hear their ideas and listen to their concerns, the more I understand that it takes a collective effort on the part of each and every one of us to figure out the hard problems and to learn to live together in peace. 

This is What Your Brain Looks Like on the Internet

Reading a great book called Now You See It by Cathy Davidson.

She was behind the iPods-for-all-freshmen experiment at Duke University a few years back and has written extensively on how the digital age is transforming not only commerce and communications, but the way people learn and how our brains process information in the Age of the Internet.

Well-researched and compelling, her argument stems from the notion that our schools have to embrace the opportunities and challenges this digital revolution has laid at our feet. I've written before that schools in general tend to prepare our students for our past, but not their future. Knowing what to do and how to do that in the classroom is difficult. And controversial.

That being said, her arguments are sound, her reasoning is clear, and her practical advice is compelling and, I believe, very useful for teachers in the classroom today.

I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the revolution in learning we're currently experiencing.

Blinking Lights - A Reminder to Pay Attention to the Right Things

We were connected, yet disconnected. Jana was next to me, texting, the kids were in the back: Sophie streaming an episode of The Office on her iPhone while Sam played Monopoly on the iPad. I was talking with my mother, who, at that moment, was driving through the deserts of New Mexico.

Auto-pilot fully engaged.

As soon as my phone call ended, I  looked over at Jana and joked:

“We’re out of gas.”

I've said this many times over the years and while I always think it's funny, I'm usually the only one laughing.

Yes, I know about 'The Boy who Cried Wolf'.

Much to my surprise and dismay, this time I was right. No more than three seconds had passed when a glaring red triangle appeared on the dash, accompanied by a loud and menacing beep. I pumped the gas to no avail. So, I carefully steered the car toward the shoulder, rolled to a stop and told everyone to turn off all electronics. I wanted to make sure they held enough charge so we would be able to get help, in case of an emergency.

Trucks flew by and our surprisingly roomy Prius shook. I sat, dumb, slow, and unable to think. We were out of water, there were no exits within sight, and the last three ice cubes in the cup next to my seat had been devoured by my son moments before.

And, it was hot. Really hot.

This wasn't supposed to happen. The Prius should have been immune to situations like this. Yet, here we were, a living, breathing definition of irony. 

But then, I had an epiphany. We were on the side of the road without water and over 100 degree heat without a reserve tank or a plug-in to recharge while surrounded by the most sophisticated technology imaginable. However, none of those devices would be walking down the road, buying a gallon of gas and returning to us to fill our tank.

These devices had served as purposeful distractions from the monotony of a 12 hour car ride, and now they needed to be re-purposed as survival tools.

While I certainly regret ignoring the blinking indicator on the fuel guage, and driving past two off-ramps crowned by Shell, Conoco, and Texaco stations, I don't regret the opportunity this presented for myself and my family. So, slowly, I remembered that GPS, cell service and so on could connect us to someone who could assist us. Using the map app on the phone, we located the nearest gas station, and, to make a long story short, we purchased gas, walked back, refueled and started up again.

We need real distractions to engage our thinking in ways that connect us to the real world. Virtual life is engaging, being connected through technology to others and vast streams of information is real and can be very useful, but there are times when we need to realize that using our own two feet and remembering what we really need to live is the only way we get to move forward.

As we travel both on the sun-beaten tarmac highway and the virtual information highway,  let's try to remember to take time to connect in the real world, our eyes on the road ahead, and our minds attuned and ready to respond to real-world warnings.

2011 Graduation Address

Welcome parents, grandparents, friends, students, faculty, staff, and the Board of Trustees. I am honored to address you all and to celebrate the class of 2011, the 61st graduating class from Casady School in the 64th year of its existence.

According to Malcom Gladwell, author of a great book called Outliers, it takes about 10,000 hours of study and practice before ‘mastery’ is achieved, no matter what the field of study – piano, mathematics, chess, etc. That’s a lot of time. And, although you’ve spent the last two million minutes of your lives as High School Students - roughly 33,333 hours (including sleeping), and, assuming you studied and practiced various topics/instruments/skills one or two hours per day for five days per week, that amounts to around ten hours per week per activity, which equals (excluding summer, Christmas, spring break and other vacations) about 340 hours per year (given 170 or so school days). Since many of you continue your studies during the summer, it’s probably fair to add another 200 or so hours on top of that, netting around 1400 solid hours of work in each of your pursuits in the past four years. You’ve done a lot, but you haven’t quite yet reached the 10,000-hour threshold. So much to learn, so little time…

Despite that, you’ve already achieved amazing things: You are rowers, divers, mathematicians, national merit scholars, long-snappers, poets, dancers, violinists, actors, singers, service providers, health promoters, scientists, journalists, photographers, politicians, historians and linguists. Fortunately, few of you have narrowed your focus and have chosen to follow a single pursuit, in fact, most of you have a multitude of interests and passions. Because you chose Casady School for your high school experience, you’ve logged more hours, and have been challenged to perform at a higher standard in pursuit of your goals than you would have elsewhere. We’ve expected you to show up and embrace challenges, on the court, the stage, and in your classes and you’ve exceeded our expectations. The status quo has never been good enough for you and nor has it been for our School.

For decades, Casady Alumni tell us that they are more prepared and better able to handle the pressures of university and the workplace because of what they experienced at this School. I have no doubt that when you come back to visit in the coming years, we’ll hear the same refrain. Knowing that we’ve had just this one chance to educate you, your teachers have gone above and beyond the call, arriving early and staying late to help you reach and surpass your goals and their expectations for you. They’ve answered late night phone calls, attended your concerts and cheered you on at your games. They’ve been by your side, believing in you and encouraging you to raise the bar and not settle for just good enough. Your relationship with them has already shaped who you are and who you’ll become for the rest of your life; try to find the time to thank them.

In each of the past 64 years, teachers at this School have wrestled with the same question we wrestle with today: How can we educate our students so that they are in the best position to make a difference in the world? The importance of this question cannot be overstated: our future literally depends on getting it right. The actors have changed but the mission has remained the same. And, knowing your many talents, abilities, and who you are as people, I am confident that you are not only prepared to, but that you have already made our world a better place to be.

Much of the work you’ve done and will do in your lives will not be recognized in a public forum like this one, but at events like this it is important for us to make time to recognize individuals who exemplify qualities that we believe are important for a life lived well. Each year we wring our hands and argue with one another as we select the winners of our major awards. Tears flow when your teachers advocate for you – they know you, they care about you, they are deeply aware of the impact you have had in their classes and on their teams and they know that selecting the right individual to receive public recognition matters to you, to our School, and to the greater community.

In addition to our major awards, this year, a scholarship fund has been established in honor of Mr. Gayle Davis, longtime mathematics instructor and beloved educator. Because Mr. Davis held the bar high for each of his students and was always here to help them get over that bar, his students not only learned mathematics, they also learned how to live. His example, along with Margaret Tuck, Geneva Hood, Ian Rennert and others, serves as an important model for us as we strive to reach our own goals and aspirations.

The relationships you build and the bonds you create are the things that really matter, whether or not you win public acclaim or acquire monetary wealth. After tonight, as you think back on your time at Casady and try to make sense of how it is, exactly, that you ended up here today, some memories will persist in their clarity forever, some will change over time, and some will disappear. You’ll work on the narrative of your life for the rest of your life and you’ll strive to make sense of things within the boundaries of your own peculiar and unique story. This is central to who we are as human beings – we create stories to make sense of our lives, to make predictions and plan for our future. Be comforted that we are part of something larger than ourselves, and that there is indeed a purpose to all of this. We just don’t know how the story ends - we don’t even know what the next chapter will bring.

Life may not be linear and our stories haven’t exactly followed a predictable and rational arc. Don’t worry about that - embrace it. Our motto - Fideliter et Fortiter – with faith and with courage – reminds us to act boldly knowing that our faith will guide us in the right direction in order to do what is necessary. Our mission has been to prepare you, in mind, body and spirit to make a difference in your lives and in your world. We’ve done our part, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed the ride, and you’re well on your way.

Congratulations.
 

Fourth Grade - Radios and Freedom

Fourth Grade Closing Exercises

May 27, 2011

I enjoy the news. On my drive to work, I like getting caught up with the latest local, national and global events and being generally aware of what’s happening in politics, the weather, and so on. I specifically like listening to NPR. It’s generally been the only station I’ve tuned into on my short commutes to school for the past decade or so. But something changed this year and my radio horizons have been broadened, despite my best efforts to resist such broadening.

Over the course of this year, as I’ve taken turns driving my 4^th grader to school, guitar lessons, baseball practice, and various other places around the city, he has slowly gained control over the tuner, and, as a result, I’ve, once again, 35 years later, become fluent in top-40 radio - specifically “KJ103-ese”.

In my life, I have had many goals, one of the most important is that I will be a life-long learner, be curious about the world and try to make a difference. What is absent from my long list of goals, however, is to learn, by heart, most of the Bruno Mars, Keisha, and Black-Eyed Peas songs, including instrumental breaks. Also absent is the desire to have those songs constantly in my head, all day long.

That probably wasn’t the case when I was in 4^th grade in 1976. Back then, I did want to know all the words to “Afternoon Delight” by the Starland Vocal Band, “Don’t Go Breakin’ my Heart” by Elton John and Kiki Dee, and “Play that Funky Music” by Wild Cherry. I’m fairly sure my parents fought the impulse to hum those tunes during quiet times in their days back then, but I’m also certain that they were just as powerless over them as I am today. As a ten-year-old, it was one of the first times I realized that I had my own music, separate from my parents - it was empowering to know that those songs were mine. Independence was just over the horizon…

Fourth Graders: Whether you know it or not, you are educating your parents not only in the language of top-40 music, Ryan Seacrest and the cultural realities of pre-adolescence in the year 2011, you’re also teaching them (and your teachers) about patience, compassion, and humility.

We adults sometimes think we have all the answers, but we don’t. Lucky for us, you’ve been teaching us for a long time. And while we may not always enjoy the lessons, believe me, we’re learning them because of the amazing and wonderful things you do and are interested in. Because of who you are, how you live your lives, and what you want to become, you remind us every day how important it is to be curious, to work hard, to be kind to one another, and to try our best.

In school, while we have a set curriculum and a well-planned sequence of what gets taught when, we also know that there are countless other problems that need solutions that are outside the walls of the school. We hope that your musical tastes evolve appropriately, but it’s inevitable that you’ll like what you like despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise. You need to become your own person with your own peculiarities – those are the things that make you who you are and will become. We need to understand that and guide you with an open and flexible heart and the belief that you will, in the end, do something to make your world a better place.

This beginning has ended. Next year you’ll take on more responsibilities and you’ll have more freedom. You’ve shown us that you’re ready for those changes and we know you’ll rise to the challenge. As your taste in music evolves I hope you’ll never waver from your work to become the best person you can become and to make a difference. We know you can do it… 

Congratulations!

My Garden

I am an enthusiastic gardener. I have high hopes for my flowers and vegetables each and every year, and yet I know that with each success I must endure disappointment. Some of my plants will flourish and others won’t. But, despite gardening’s inevitable pitfalls, it reminds me that taking time and energy to do the difficult work in the cold of winter and early spring leads to at least some success in the Spring and Summer.

In gardening, as with all things, we need to be humble. I have a chance to tend to my garden only temporarily and to try my best to guide it toward healthy development and hopefully to provide some beauty along the way. Sometimes ice storms and hail rain down and divert the plan and sometimes drought and wind make the work that much more difficult. But, despite the obstacles and diversions, life has a way of continuing on and if I’ve planned well and prepared well, enough of my labors will bring the results that make things a bit better.

Thinking about this in terms of the Episcopal tradition, it’s much like the season of Lent in preparation for Easter. We send time preparing ourselves for the coming hopefulness that is characterized with the Easter season. And now, with the passing of Easter and the appearance of the first blooms of Spring, we look with optimism toward the conclusion of the current year and the opportunity to put things in place for the coming year. We’ve reflected comprehensively throughout our ISAS accreditation process and having been evaluated, we’ve now begun to put in place those things that our reflective work has identified as important and necessary.

Putting a plan in place involves making choices – we choose to do some things and we choose to ignore others. We make thousands of choices each and every day, some minor, some major. Thankfully, we tend to try to make choices that improve things. This year, once again, the School has made choices that are designed to make our school better. This has been the case at Casady for nearly 65 years and it will be the case as long as our School continues to exist. To be specific: we’ve chosen to improve our schedule for next year, we’ve begun to transition to a new way of approaching our lunch program, while keeping the family style dining firmly in place and offering additional healthy options, and we’ve analyzed and evaluated the way we assess student work and the kind of work we ask our students to produce.  

The kind of analysis and implementation necessary to make those kinds of initiatives work doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it involves many minds and being disposed to listen to many, and sometimes, competing perspectives. Understanding that each person who has helped to prepare the foundations for next year and the years to come has done so knowing that the benefits of the many hours in committee meetings and in finding compromises won’t be immediately apparent. We prepare the ground, cultivate seedlings, and make sure each plant has the opportunity to benefit to the fullest of its potential, but we have to be patient, thoughtful and diligent to ensure we’ve done all we can to ensure success.

Preparing the ground is tough and the rewards are usually not apparent until much later, but it’s the day-to-day attention to the plan, and everything that’s necessary to provide the proper conditions for future growth that makes the difference. This important work isn’t nearly as rewarding as watering a newly effulgent flowerbed and picking the first ripe tomato, but without it, our plants wither and struggle to survive.

Excellent gardens have a thoughtful mix of perennials and annuals; anchors and pillars that frame and provide stability, and those that are temporary and provide needed color and texture that change depending on current conditions or necessities. We rely on the perennials to keep our framework strong and our ability to plant annuals is linked directly to our understanding about whether they are appropriately placed and actually fit appropriately within the structure established over many years of cultivation.

Perennials in our school are things like our commitment to daily chapel and the importance of a strong academic program. Our Episcopal identity is anchored in the promotion of faith and reason. Here, in this chapel, we pause to reflect and think about those things that bind us together; in here, we are inspired to do things that make our world better and make our community stronger; in class, we strive to understand complexity, learn to become responsible for our own work, and we think creatively in order to understand our world and to make a difference. Annuals, on the other hand, are the kinds of courses we offer and our daily schedules. We make changes to these, year in and year out to meet the needs of our ever-changing society. We adjust our program and the way we divide our day to make sure the skills and knowledge we promote are those that colleges, universities, and our communities demand from our graduates.

Our perennial mission is to educate, each of our students, in mind, body, and spirit so that they are prepared to and have the desire to make a difference in their world. As we tend to our mission, we’ll evaluate what kinds of annuals will highlight and promote that mission to the best of our ability. Not all of the annuals we’ll plant will survive – we’ll remember not to choose those again as we make plans for the next year. But some will, and we’ll remember those as well. Obviously, the choices we’ll make won’t please everyone, but we’ll make these choices with the very best intentions: to ensure that our mission remains strong and dedicated to the most important work there is.

The Pursuit of Excellence

Change. It’s a concept the Casady community has become all too familiar with over the past decade or so. But as I near the end of my third year as Head of School, I feel that we are finally beginning to enter a new era of stability and growth. Many aspects of our institution needed thoughtful analysis and as I’ve begun to look strategically at our School with valuable input from many of our stakeholders, we have indeed made many changes. Changes that put our School on a stronger financial footing; changes that provide a better classroom experience for our students; and changes that ensure we have the very best cadre of faculty to guide and shape young minds.

Questions about identity and values inevitably arise during transitional times with any institution, but schools are unique in that much of what creates our core identity are the thousands of interrelationships among teachers and their students over time.

Casady has had its fair share of transitions over its 65-year history, and while we’ve continued to challenge our students and to prepare them for success, we’ve also worked to ensure that the ways we prepare them are the most effective and long-lasting, given conditions in our local, national and global communities. Research shows clearly that our students are experiencing their worlds in very different ways than their parents and grandparents, and the School has been able to respond and grow accordingly, while maintaining its commitment to the pursuit of excellence.

One key area we’ve spent a lot of time and energy reviewing is our grading structure. Any time schools begin to look at how students are assessed and evaluated, there is a fear that those changes will damage the central value of the school. Having looked back over the years and having carefully analyzed our current system, I have found that we are not unique in our desire to provide and communicate an appropriate context for the challenging curriculum at Casady School.

Back in the 1970’s, legendary Headmaster Dr. Robert Woolsey determined with the faculty that the grading scale used at the time wasn’t accurately reflecting the work students were producing. Their solution was to move the scale for an “A” from a 90-100 to an 85-100. Fast-forward 40 years, and we have found ourselves in a remarkably similar situation and have now taken additional steps to ensure that our students are properly rewarded for the work they do as they prepare for life in college and beyond.

We believe that taking on challenging work should not be an impediment for our students. Here’s a description of the plan we will implement next fall, including a full Upper Division course list for the 2011-12 school year.

We, in no way, have tried to make the work easier. In fact, we’ve created additional levels in mathematics and other courses to make certain that each student is appropriately challenged to be their best. We believe that upholding high standards helps our students learn to be self-reliant, confident, organized, ethical and competent young men and women.

We celebrate our teachers who challenge students to think, to defend and to provide reasons for their arguments while learning how to write critically with a strong voice. Additionally, given what we know about learning styles and learning differences, we also strive to find teachers who understand those realities and work to teach to the top of each child. We attract and retain teachers who promote these values because it is they who create the experiences that become part of our graduates’ identity and the identity of the School.

Finally, as we work to build on the solid foundations laid over many years, we look critically and thoughtfully at each decision we make and how we make it. As with every era in our history, difficult choices have to be made, but we have a strategic and thorough process in place to guide us to the right answers. We endeavor to make those choices in the way we ask our students to make them: with respect, with understanding and with an eye to what serves the greater good.

Going forward, we’ve planned conservatively for sound financial and programmatic development, we’re hiring the finest and most dedicated teachers we can find and we’re making great progress on our capital projects – all of which will ensure an environment for our students to pursue excellence in academics, the arts and athletics. Our Episcopal identity and history provides essential spiritual guidance for each of us in all of these areas as we continue to grow and learn together. 

Revolutions and the Impending Snowpocalypse

It’s the end of January and there’s a definite chill in the air.

The news the past few days has been filled with revolution and upheaval. Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen are in the throws of major democratic shifts, shouts of protest and calls for change. It’s hard to imagine the feelings and emotions that those who are standing up are experiencing, but it’s a process that has happened again and again over the centuries and millennia. It happened here more than 240 years ago.

Sudden, dramatic change tends to be the exception to the rule. Normally, change occurs slowly, incrementally over time, often occurring outside of our view. I, like many of you, like to pretend that, basically, things stay the same – we create schedules and divide our time into chunks to mark out the passage of days, weeks, and months, knowing that Mondays are nothing like Fridays and that afternoons aren’t anything like mornings, and so on.

And then:

Every once in awhile the sky opens up and sends us a reprieve from the normal day-to-day routine.

As a kid, I rarely had snow days here in OKC, but when they came, there wasn’t a better feeling in the world.

Forecasts and predictions aren’t always right, as we know, but with a reasonable eye toward logic and fact, we prepare for what is likely to happen. Based on our prior experience, we know that an upcoming weather event will share some of the characteristics of prior events and if we’re thoughtful, we’ll be reasonably ready to cope. In the case of the upcoming snow-pocalypse the impending and certainly incessant Doppler 9000 alerts will interrupt coverage of events happening in the Middle East and northern Africa, whether we actually get snow or not.

In my role as Head of School, I get to do some interesting things and I have certain powers that come with a great deal of responsibility. My favorite of these powers is the power to close school. For instance, I could, right now, go ahead and cancel school for tomorrow and take all the excitement of waking up bleary-eyed to a news ticker scrolling across the top of the screen, intensely and alphabetically focused on the arrival of the first of the “C”-named schools to declare that elusive and tantalizing “Snow Day”.

I could, but I won’t. Despite the incredible power of the Doppler systems and the wisdom of Gary England, too often the weather guys get it wrong, I call off school, and my favorite superpower becomes my biggest headache.

Despite all assurances that the snow will indeed come and we will be sleeping in just a bit longer, I don’t want to deprive you of the anticipation and excitement of the possibility. Life has far too few pleasant surprises as it is to deny you of that simple gift.

At my house, I’m ready. I’ve prepared a large vat of chilli, I’ve bought a bag of Fritos, made sure we have ample supplies of sour cream and grated cheddar cheese. We all have our favorites, but in my opinion, there is nothing better than Frito Chilli Pie when it’s too cold and snowy to go outside.

If we don’t have school, and because tomorrow our local channels will likely be filled with news about the snow, or lack thereof, I urge you to take some of your day and devote it to finding out what’s happening elsewhere in the world – why is it that the people of Tunisia, Egypt, and potentially Yemen have decided to take their future in a new direction? What could it mean for their ability to pursue their lives the way they want to pursue them?  What might it mean for you?