Our Faculty Are Experts!

Board of Trustee members visit Mrs. Edwards' classroom.

Every day, I am reminded just how exceptional our faculty members are — but especially so last Tuesday, October 23, which was Trustee Visitation Day. This occasion gave many of our Board members the opportunity to spend time in classrooms throughout the school and experience our faculty in action. They spread out in groups across the School and visited over 30 different classes on subjects ranging from Lower School Language Arts to Middle School Spanish to Upper School Algebra.

Not only do I appreciate the serious and in-depth approach of our Trustees and the fact that these are very busy people who took time out of their schedules, but I also would like to take this opportunity to tell you how positive their responses were to all that they discovered on their classroom tours.

In general, our Trustees comments focused on how impressed they were by the high level of education throughout the School. They were equally impressed by the way in which our students presented themselves – articulate and well versed. Some of the Trustees were amazed by the degree to which educational methods have changed in even the few years since their children were students here.  They appreciated how well our students collaborate and stay on task and noted how technology enriches the students’ educational experiences. Overall, they remarked on the engaging classroom experience as faculty members guide student learning.

Trustees view a student project in Mrs. Barth's English class.

I am also taking the opportunity to let you know about the launch of USM’s Faculty Experts Series blog, which highlights the special knowledge and expertise of our faculty. I hope you will find these two timely pieces useful: the first regarding how to talk with your child regarding his or her report card and the second how to get the most out of parent-teacher conferences.  Click here to view the new blog. 

Fun - Friends - Fabulous

Almost from the start last year, everyone told me I had a treat in store when the time for Holiday Shops arrived.  I was not, however, at all prepared for what I experienced. Even the Holiday Shops tagline of fun, friends, fabulous is an understatement for all that this amazing Parents’ Association event brings to the School community.

My first Preview Party more than epitomized all three of the tagline elements and offered the perfect occasion for me to meet parents, parents of alumni, and so many other members of the School community who make it a point each year to return to campus for this splendid and not-to-be-missed occasion.

I’m looking forward to attending again this year, as well as getting a great start on my gift shopping (Click here to visit the Holiday Shops website) for the holidays. I hope to see you there.

I would be remiss, however, not to take this opportunity to thank the Parents’ Association, especially the 2012 chairs and committee and all the Holiday Shops’ volunteers, for the months of hard work that go into making this event so successful and in turn helping to raise important funding for the School.  Your efforts are much appreciated.

A Great Start to the Day

Breakfast is often called the most important meal of the day. We are told that eating breakfast benefits both adults and children in many ways. As one expert puts it rather succinctly: families who eat breakfast have improved concentration and performance — whether in the classroom or the boardroom.

In fact, studies show that adults who eat a healthy breakfast are more efficient during their workday than those who do not. Without a nutritious breakfast, children are more likely to get sleepy at school, have a harder time paying attention, and tend to eat more junk food later in the day. Students who do eat breakfast get higher test scores and perform better in sports.

Now I’d like to add an additional benefit. USM’s new (starting this week) Continental Breakfast Club provides the perfect opportunity for school families to share important time together and also enjoy the occasion to interact with other school families and faculty. I hope this may even spark a new USM tradition where mothers and/or fathers bring their children to breakfast before heading out for the day.  For more details on the program, click here.

What Does It Mean To Be Independent?

As I mentioned in my last blog post, children and parents often have different ideas about rules and, no doubt, we have varying thoughts about what degree of independence is appropriate at which age.

Today, however, my topic is not the parent-student relationship, but rather my focus is what independence means at USM and other independent schools. There are approximately 2,000 independent schools across the United States. Parents who have spent time on one of the Coasts or other areas where independent schools are more prevalent, and thus better known, are probably already familiar with the answers to the question: what does it mean for a school to be independent?

In fact, independent schools provide more than 700,000 students from pre-kindergarten through high school with a unique and high quality education. Schools such as ours attract passionate teachers to create educational experiences that meet the individual needs and interests of students. We all have the freedom to serve our distinct individual mission and are nonprofit entities — independent in governance and finance.

In future blogs, I will write more about the other aspects of independent school life, but this week I would like on focus on finances and the chart below.

In particular, I would like to draw your attention to the percentages shown, as you will see that total tuition provides only 72% of the cost of tuition. When we buy consumer products, we realize we are paying more, sometimes much more, than the item cost to produce, market, and sell, whether it's a bookmark or a new car. You may ask why USM does not charge 100% of the actual cost. Our overarching reason is that we do, of course, want to ensure that USM remains affordable to as wide a range of families as possible.

As your eyes move down the list, you’ll see the next highest number is the income from our Endowment. Together with our Annual Giving Program, dollars from this source help make up the difference – allowing us to keep tuition below cost and provide financial assistance to families who qualify.

We are extremely grateful to all the generations of donors who have and continue to support the Endowment and share our desire to provide an independent school education to as many children as we can. Particularly gratifying are the gifts from alumni who benefited from financial aid and have gone on to successful careers. Unanimously they tell us they want others to benefit from USM in the same way they did.

What Does It Mean To Be Fair?

A few weeks ago, we celebrated this year’s Common Trust tenet of fairness at the Opening Ceremony. I love that we talk about the Common Trust — the fact that we all pledge to interact with each other with respect, trust, honesty, fairness, and kindness.

I also shared some thoughts on fairness at a Middle School Assembly last month and am passing on some of my comments and questions in the hope they may spark some interesting conversation around the dinner table.

I told our middle-schoolers that fairness might just be the most difficult tenet of all. At some point most people, including me, have said these words, “This is not fair!”

I believe we have a natural tendency to judge fairness as a “one-off.” We judge every situation we face by itself. We tend to look at each event or interaction that happens and make a judgment call on whether or not we think it was “fair.” Did we get our fair share? Were we treated fairly? We become worked up if we think our slice of the pie is smaller than someone else’s or we receive a consequence that is too hard or a grade that is less than we think we deserve. We tell anyone who will listen, “It just isn’t fair!”

The next time a student thinks the grade he or she received is unfairly low, I suggested the student should consider how many times did it go the other way? How many times was a teacher generous when grading work?

I also asked students to think about this concept of fairness from a different angle. I suggested they think about whether or not they are treating others fairly. “Have you given others their share of the pie?” I asked. Have you passed the ball to them as much as you expect it to be passed to you? Have you listened carefully in class and worked as hard as you can to be fair to your teachers? Have you ever been less than attentive in class and, as you walked out the door, thought, “Now, it wasn’t very fair to my teacher that I wasn’t paying close enough attention. I really should have listened more carefully.” Do we ever think much about how fair we are to others? Perhaps we do on the larger things but what about the day-to-day stuff? I have to admit this is certainly something I need to remind myself almost every day.

I also posed the following questions: “Have you thought about the fact that your parents feel very responsible for your safety and that is why they give you rules to follow? Have you been fair in your response to these rules?”

As parents, I told the students, we fear for your safety, your success, your future, your happiness, you name it! … Think about that the next time you argue with your parents about a curfew or some other rule. Have a little empathy for them – they are, in their own way, just trying to keep you safe whether you agree with their rules or not. At this point, it is our job as parents to make those rules and keep you as safe as we can.

Then I moved on to rules at School. We build a set of rules from the Common Trust. We compile rules to guide students toward treating each other, teachers, and the School with respect, trust, honesty, fairness, and kindness. Obviously, I know there is a tension here. Our students do not always agree with our rules. They would probably develop a very different set. Sometimes, however, we all need to realize we are not in a position to set all rules that impact our lives. This is life, it may not seem fair but, in fact, it keeps us safe in the long run if it allows us to live in a civilized and respectful way. Over the years, I have learned to accept this.

“Certainly,” I continued, “there may be times, as you go through life, when you experience a rule that is entirely unfair and actually makes a person or a group of people unsafe.” I urged them to think back to the not-so-distant past in our own country to rules that actually made people unsafe — back to discrimination and the Jim Crow laws in the South. My message to the students was, “In your lifetime, if you are confronted with a rule or rules that make a group of people unsafe, it is my greatest hope you will fight with all the energy and skill you have to stop this from happening.” I urged them to save their energy for these times — these are the rules to break.  I asked them to consider, “Is this rule really worth breaking or should I save my energy for something more worthwhile. Are you being fair – are you really?”