Notes from
Academia
A Quarterly Newsletter from the Office of the Assistant Head of School for Academics
Winter 2015
Earlier this year, Jonathan Frakes appeared with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra to promote a concert featuring music from science fiction films. Frakes played Commander Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, the No. 2 to Sir Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard. While Picard was wise and visionary, Riker was brave and impassioned. The two balanced each other out perfectly, and their leadership as a team led the crew (not counting the expendable extras in the red shirts) through 176 episodes and three movies. There is something noble about the second in command, the hard-working leader to whom everyone turns to get things done. They may not get the glory or the accolades of the boss, but there is no Butch Cassidy without the Sundance Kid, no Barney Ross without Lee Christmas, no Charlie Brown without Snoopy. George Washington may be considered the father of our nation, but where would our nation be without the financial system established by the man who had been his chief aide during the Revolutionary War, Alexander Hamilton? If you ask our three division heads about to whom they turn for help, who keeps the trains running on time, upon whom do they count the most, three names will come up: Trey Blair, Brad Jones, and Peggy Wakeland. It was an honor to sit down and speak with each of them about their roles for this edition of Notes from Academia. Best,
Bradley S. Philipson, PhD Assistant Head of School for Academics
Lower School In the years before most of our Fort Worth Country Day parents were born, the late film director Mike Nichols and the screenwriter Elaine May were a comedy team. Their onstage banter, as evidenced by their award-winning stage show recordings, reflected both an astute intellegence (they met as students at the University of Chicago) and a rapport that grew from familiarity and professional respect. I am not accusing Head of Lower School Shari Lincoln and Assistant Head of Lower School Trey Blair of studying those albums before their September Parents’ Night performance, but certain parallels were readily apparent. In the process of communicating clear and important information from the stage of the Scott Theater, Shari and Trey teased and cajoled, their mentormentee working relationship on display for the parents to gain some insight into how much fun they have running the Lower School. Trey entered education shortly after graduating from Kenyon College in Ohio, earning an MA in Education Leadership from St. Mary’s College in the San Francisco area while working as an extension teacher at Sacred Heart Schools. From there, he went on to Kentucky Country Day School, back in his hometown of Louisville, where he became a lead teacher and earned increasing responsibility. It was his work there that earned him an administrative post here, and in 2013, he brought his young family to Fort Worth. Trey characterizes his role as “co-division head.” Shari shares all areas of responsibility with Trey except for budget. “Discipline, it depends on who makes eye contact first. Admission, it’s either one of us,” he says. The same goes for supporting the teachers in whatever way they need. “It’s whoever’s up,” Trey says. What he has found most surprising about the job is the pace.
Unexpected needs arise regularly. Educational expert Rob Evans has said that both the most problematic and most rewarding part of the assistant division head’s job is putting out fires. “It’s always something unexpected,” Trey says. “On my schedule I have two colors. I have blue, and I have yellow. If it is yellow, that means nothing takes priority over it. If it is blue, it might as well be blank, because anything can come along.” In between those fires, though, Shari has put Trey in a position of curricular leadership that is rare for an assistant division head. As head of the Lower School curriculum committee, he has led the charge on the adoption of the prestigious Lucy Caulkins Writing Program, including bringing in trainers from Columbia University, and has, along with Math Department Chair David Hoppe, provided outstanding leadership in the review of the Lower School math curriculum.
As for working with Shari Lincoln, Trey says, “Philosophically, we match up really well in what we want, but we approach it in very different ways.” He describes, admirably, her way of breaking difficult tasks into their component parts, her thorough preparation. What Trey brings to the table, then, is a lighter, improvisational style that reacts to the moment. Anyone who has ever sat down for a conversation with the two of them can see how much they enjoy working together and how each pushes the other further. Trey’s future looks very bright at Country Day. He is currently planning to begin a part-time doctoral program in Fort Worth in the fall (the University of North Texas and Texas Christian University are the top contenders), and he hopes that his two children will one day attend FWCD. In the meantime, we will all continue to enjoy the “Lincoln & Blair routine.”
Middle School I first met Assistant Head of Middle School Brad Jones when I, myself, was a division head at Casady School in Oklahoma City. Brad was a middle school teacher there, and, at one point, I interviewed him for the upper school dean of students position, though he withdrew from the search because he wanted to stay with middle school kids. When FWCD’s Head of Middle School John Stephens asked me if I knew anyone who might be a candidate for the School’s open assistant head of Middle School position, Brad, who had impressed me greatly during our interview, was the first person to come to mind. Originally a part-time coach at Casady, Brad went on to teach in Missouri (where he earned an MEd from William Woods University) and serve as a head football coach and athletic director at Saint Joseph Academy in South Texas before returning to Oklahoma City to teach history and coach football. He is an avid outdoorsman who also serves as the historian for the Oklahoma Air National Guard. That military sense of discipline, however, is well-tempered by Brad’s warmth and sense of humor. Student conduct and discipline are among Brad’s chief duties, and he is constantly in search of ways to serve others—whether that means giving of his time to offer afterschool study halls, arriving early at
school to “turn all the lights on” and open the computer labs, or, as teachers tout as what they most appreciate, the way he follows up with them to make sure they’re comfortable with how he has handled routine disciplinary matters. Additionally, Brad has made a particular effort this year to get to know the fourth-graders so that they will have a familiar face when they reach Middle School. In regard to how he works with John Stephens, Brad points out how John “definitely allows me to do things that are part of my strengths, but also pushes me to learn more about the position and puts me in a spots where I have to think more about my philosophy” as an educator.
In characterizing how his role differs from that of Trey Blair in Lower School and Peggy Wakeland in Upper School, Brad describes a continuum, where in Lower School, the head and assistant head primarily share the same tasks, in Upper School, the two have a clear delineation of duties, and in Middle School, Brad and John fall somewhere in between. This year, the three assistant division heads have been meeting every other week, and Brad says, “We’ve all learned something from each other that we’ve been able to take back and make our jobs better, and I think that it helps us start to prepare our kids for the next level.”
Upper School Assistant Head of Upper School Peggy Wakeland has a fantastic smile. It stretches wide across her face, her eyes light up, and, when smiling, her voice is filled with delight. Perhaps best about that smile, though, is that when you see it, you know you’ve earned it. She is absolutely without artifice, making her an ideal sounding board when you need honest feedback about an idea. Peggy is a pragmatist. This doesn’t mean she shoots down the ideas of others right away, but, rather, that she will walk you through, step by step, and help you see what would need to be done to make your idea a success— and she’s more than willing to help you do the legwork to get it there. After graduating from the University of Texas at Arlington, Peggy taught math in public schools for a long time before arriving at FWCD in 1994. Not long after her arrival, she enrolled in graduate school at TCU, where she earned an MEd (along with her bona fides as a Horned Frog fan), and was soon tapped to transition from the classroom to the administrative suite, where she has faithfully served the last three Upper School heads quite well. All three still speak quite fondly of her and are incredibly appreciative of the role she plays in the division. Beneath Peggy’s lack of pretension and her Kennedale-born humility, however, is a keen intellect. Her mathematician’s mind is highly focused, and she excels at seeing systems in their wholeness and developing processes for navigating those systems. She runs Upper School scheduling and registration with great aplomb, balancing the needs of many while still finding ways to look out for individuals who need a little extra attention. “Back before the rotating schedule, teachers with a new baby at home or the like would revel in their luck at getting first period off so that they didn’t have to stress about getting to school early,” reveals Head of Upper School Bill Arnold ’86. “That wasn’t luck—that was Peggy moving heaven and earth to make it happen, but never seeking attention for it.”
schedule rotation, developing special event days (often in concert with the class deans), and working with Upper School Administrative Assistant Judy Lee to keep teachers informed about coming calendar events.
Another area in which Peggy excels is in developing leadership among faculty. After encouraging Bill to reinstitute the class dean program, she took the four class deans, Molly Risewick-Zeno, Kendall Davis, Christy Alvear, and Maggie Philpot, on retreat with her to Eagle Mountain Lake last summer, where they “holed up” for three days to review the advisory program and plan for the coming year. She describes her chief duties as centered on “student management.” She’s charged with day-to-day operations, including conduct and whatever concerns come up “on the fly.” At the same time, she is also on call for the teachers, and when they need something, from another desk in their room to class coverage, Peggy gets it done. She manages the Upper School calendar, which includes planning the
In terms of curriculum, Peggy is charged with academic coordination of our Malone Schools Online Network program, managing course-related off-campus excursions, and, this year, leading initiatives with the Advanced Placement programs and the Upper School advisory program. With her institutional memory, relentless work ethic, and seemingly endless well of compassion, Peggy is an invaluable asset to the community. Of everything she does, though, that hard-earned smile perhaps shines brightest when asked about her favorite part of her job. “Interacting with the kids in an impromptu way,” she says without hesitation. That may mean subbing in a class or simply walking through the commons, where she gets to visit more casually with students. What she loves is when she is “able to find time to connect with the kids on an individual basis ...,” she says. “I don’t have any trouble enjoying my work. I’m looking forward to it all the time.”
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