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“Understand, Act, Live” In Head of School Dan Scheibe’s “First Word” (p. 1), Mr. Scheibe referenced the adolescent growth and transformation that takes place during the high school years, pointing out that “a personal, powerful connection can turn an educational event into an emotional event into a life-changing event.” There has long been vigorous debate among academics about how to create that powerful connection. To be sure, there is no one, right way. Organizations like the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the Council for the Advancement of Secondary Education (CASE), and the National Education Association (NEA) continuously study and research the latest educational trends and report on various methods for helping teachers and institutions become better educators.
These organizations and others have most recently cited educational trends such as an increased focus on collaborative learning; the importance of visual learning; the need to integrate interactive devices as learning tools (a.k.a. hybrid learning); an increased focus on critical thinking and problem solving as opposed to information memorization; and a growing trend to experiential learning, with a specific focus on outdoor education. Much of what happens at LA on a regular basis reflects these trends. The following articles and profiles demonstrate both the commitment by LA faculty to teach in substantial, meaningful ways and the impact their efforts have on the lives of their students.
“Educational innovations and trends are powerful levers of change. Academic content is an important cultural inheritance. But the dynamic current that gives energy to understand, to act, and to live is the powerful source of all that we learn, all that we do, and all that we are. Lawrence Academy is dedicated to bringing that current and that energy to life continually in all of the members of its community—students, faculty, alumni, staff, family and friends.” – Dan Scheibe, Head of School
Reflections of a Rookie Special Educator by Carol Bolger Esposito ’75
In 2009, after nearly three decades of practicing family law, I made a midlife career change and started along the path of becoming a special education teacher. I enrolled in the Master of Education Program at Gordon College. My naïve vision of graduate school was modeled on my college studies at Bowdoin College, sitting in lecture halls, soaking up the wisdom set forth by my learned professors. I believed that graduate school would be more of the same. Enter “collaborative learning.” I was totally unprepared for the moment when my first professor walked into the classroom and declared: “OK, let’s go, get up and break into work groups, you folks are teaching this class.” Whatever happened to passively listening to the professor and spitting back facts? Over
three years, I learned more about myself, my students, and special education than I ever would have in the traditional “sage on the stage” classroom.
In a 1974 shot, girls’ soccer teammates watch the cross country team cross the finish line. L–R: Carol Bolger Esposito ’75, Sandy Sweeney Gallo ’75, director of alumni relations, Meg Jones Meeker ’75, and Tom Warner ’75
ACADEMY JOURNAL / FALL 2012
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As a student at LA from 1972 to 1975, I was aware that ours was not the traditional New England prep school. I knew that LA offered non-traditional and innovative educational programs for learning. Our teachers taught us that students must take risks, share ideas, respect the differences between one another, and that through that essential collaboration, we all benefit by becoming lifelong learners. Under the leadership of Headmaster Ben Williams and the inspired guidance of revered faculty members Vincent Skinner, David Smith, John Curran, Joe Sheppard, and many others, Lawrence Academy pioneered this new form of learning. Our faculty did so not only through such formally established programs as Winterim and LA II (which still exist today), but also in their classrooms on a daily basis. Now, some 40 years and many
