2022 Education Guide

2022-2023 EDUCATION GUIDE

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SCHOOL SEARCH

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EXTRA CREDIT

colorful accessories that make the grade pg 34 A CUSTOM PUBLICATION PRODUCED BY

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Confidence.

It’s built over time.

Our students graduate with the courage to have a point of view and the skills to express it, honed through years of practice.

UPCOMING ADMISSION EVENTS www.countryschool.net/visit

GO BOLDLY. 635 Frogtown Rd, New Canaan, CT • (203) 801-5608 New Canaan Country School is a co-ed, independent day school for students in Pre-K (ages 3 & 4) through Grade 9 living in Westchester and Fairfield counties. Graduates excel at top day, boarding and public secondary schools and go on to lead lives of impact and purpose. For more information, please visit countryschool.net.

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2022-2023 Education Guide

2022-2023 E D U CAT I O N G U I D E PUBLISHED BY MOFFLY MEDIA Publisher & Editorial Advisor Hilary Hotchkiss Editor Elizabeth Hole Senior Art Director Garvin Burke Assistant Art Director Lisa Servidio Production Director Tim Carr Contributing Market Editor Jessica Wells Digital Marketing Manager Rachel MacDonald

President Jonathan Moffly Chief Revenue Officer Andrew Amill Editorial Director Cristin Marandino Director of Content Strategy Diane Sembrot Vice President / Business Elena Moffly Founder & Editorial Advisor Donna Moffly For all inquiries regarding education marketing, contact Hilary Hotchkiss: Hilary.Hotchkiss@Moffly.com Digital version of 2022-2023 Education Guide: ilovefc.com/educationguide ilovefc.com • greenwichmag.com newcanaandarienmag.com • stamfordmag.com westportmag.com • fairfieldlivingmag.com

2022 EDUCATION GUIDE 1

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Curiosity, Creativity & Community

C NTENTS Features

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The Liminal State

Schools Emerge with New Ways of Being and Doing

by Rick Branson, Ed.D.

Beyond College

Establishing a Foundation for Overall Wellness

by Matt Byrnes

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Art Expression

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Young Creators

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Active Learning

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Back on Track

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Global Education

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High School Search

Make Your Mark and See Where It Takes You

by Lela Philip

34 school style // EXTRA CREDIT Colorful Accessories that Make the Grade

by Jessica Wells

38 helpful hints // SCHOOL OUTREACH 39 directory // WHO TO CONTACT notable quotes // WELL SAID 40 How to Approach Each School

School Listings to Start Your Search Words of Wisdom from Educators

Exploring Ideas and Channeling Creativity

by Nina Yuen The Importance of Inquiry in Early Education

by Carol Maoz How to Develop Healthier Patterns as We Emerge from the Pandemic

by Camille M. Bertram “My Life and Times” and Other Reflections

by Eric Widmer and Meera Viswanathan 5 Key Questions to Guide the Decision Process

by Kevin J. Altieri

COVER ART BY GARVIN BURKE; PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPH PROVIDED BY BRAND

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Departments

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Admissi

Preparing boys for life in a changing world.

An independent, college preparatory day school,

VISIT

providing character-based education for boys in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12.

g BrunswickSchool.ouort to learn more ab our admission process

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Curiosity, Creativity & Community

The Liminal State Schools Emerge with New Ways

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of Being and Doing by

Rick Branson, Ed.D.

Executive Director / Connecticut Association of Independent Schools

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n the article “How has the Past Year Changed You and Your Organization?” in the Harvard Business Review, authors Laura Empson and Jennifer HowardGrenville wrote about the pandemic creating a “liminal state,” which they describe as a “forced and prolonged separation from normal ways of being and doing.”

While Empson and HowardGrenville were writing about business organizations, the context they provide certainly applies to schools. They make an important point about the end of the liminal state: when we emerge, we will be changed in lasting ways. Their big question remains: “How can we make the most of those changes, both for ourselves and our organizations?”

Organizations across the country and around the world are rethinking their purpose, managing employee retention,

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and considering where employees will live and work in the future. Schools have similar considerations, but disparate ones as well, including how we maximize our partnerships; how we can best support teachers and learners; and how schools can foster a sense of belonging.

Independent schools are by definition, independent. In practice this means that schools are governed by their own boards of trustees that work in partnership with school leadership. Boards have three distinct modes in which they operate: fiduciary, strategic and generative. All operational decisions, such as curriculum and staffing, are the work of the Head of School and their senior leadership team.

During the two years of the pandemic, independent school boards worked more closely with school leadership to guide the school through the challenges, and we are left to consider this crucial issue: “How can we make the most of this

change?” Certainly boards must stay out of school operations, but there is cause for reflection on what we learned about school and board partnerships and how schools might rethink that partnership and maximize the talent of the board trustees. We saw this happen when schools formed committees to address the pandemic and brought in medical expertise from their boards.

Taken further, independent schools have formed deeper relationships within the state of Connecticut with local and regional departments of public health, with the state Department of Health, as well as with the state Department of Education. The value of those partnerships is significant and certainly valuable enough to be sustained.

Independent schools are institutions of teaching and learning, and that purpose has rightfully broadened. Schools learned in concrete, profound ways the value of

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B G B B B B U B C B C U U C C C U U C C C U C C U C D C D C E U E D E E D

E E E E

GFAMo

If If you you want want to to see how tall a see how tall a building is going to be, building is going to be, look how deep the foundation is.

look how deep the foundation is.

Greens Farms Academy’s Class of 2022 matriculated to:

Boston College (2) Georgetown University (3) University of Rhode Island Greens Farms Academy’s Class of 2022 matriculated to: Boston University (2) University of Georgia University of Richmond (2) Brown University Grinnell College Santa ClaraofUniversity Boston College (2)(5) Georgetown University (3) University Rhode Island Bucknell University Hamilton Scripps College Boston University (2)(3) UniversityCollege of Georgia University of Richmond (2) University of California-Irvine Harvard Smith College Brown University (5) Grinnell University College Santa Clara University California Institute of the Arts Lafayette College (2) University of Southern Bucknell University (3) Hamilton College Scripps College California Polytechnic State Macalester College California University of California-Irvine Harvard University Smith College University-San Luis Obispo University of MassachusettsUniversity of St. Andrews California Institute of the Arts Lafayette College (2) University of Southern Carnegie Mellon University Amherst Syracuse University California State Macalester California University Polytechnic of Chicago (3) Merrimack College College Temple University University-San Luis Obispo University of MassachusettsUniversity of St. Andrews Claremont McKenna College Miami (3) Texas at Austin Colby College University Tulane University Carnegie Mellon University Amherstof MichiganSyracuse University Colgate University Ann Arbor Union University of Chicago (3) Merrimack College TempleCollege University Colorado (2) College Middlebury Villanova ClaremontCollege McKenna University ofCollege Miami (2) (3) UniversityUniversity of Texas at(4) Austin University of Connecticut (2) New York University (2) University of Virginia (4) Colby College University of MichiganTulane University Dartmouth College University of North Carolina - Wake Forest University Colgate University Ann Arbor Union College Duke University Chapel Hill Washington University Colorado College (2) Middlebury College (2) Villanova University (4) Eckerd College Northeastern University (2) in St Louis (3) University of Connecticut (2) New York University (2) University of Virginia Elon University (2) University of Notre Dame Wheaton College, MA(4) Dartmouth College University of North Carolina Forest University Emerson College Pennsylvania (3)- Wake Williams College (2) EmoryUniversity University Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Washington Yale University Duke Chapel Hill University

Eckerd College Northeastern University (2) in St Louis (3) A Prek-12 co-ed independent school in westport, CT Elon University (2) University of Notre Dame Wheaton College, MA Emerson College University of Pennsylvania (3) Williams College (2) Emory University Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Yale University

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Curiosity, Creativity & Community

community and being in community.

During the pandemic schools worked to maintain this community, moving student assemblies to a virtual experience to foster connections, for example, and yet we know that faculty missed in-person collaboration, students missed in-person interactions, and parents yearned to be on campus and visit their children’s classrooms. The value of community goes beyond the benefits of in-person learning, as we understand more deeply the importance of being together as teachers and learners in multiple situations. At the same time, schools will continue to use the exceptional new tools of virtual learning in very precise and strategic ways, and use the time in class to provide greater opportunities for studentto-student and student-and-teacher collaboration.

What we have learned has broadened our thinking and our practice regarding the purpose we serve as academic

institutions, and moreover, expanded our purpose as school communities.

We are far more attuned to the social and emotional health of both teachers and learners. How we care for adults and students has come into very clear focus, as the trauma of the past two years is addressed intentionally and patiently. More importantly, a focus on the social and emotional health of the people in our schools will have a lasting and positive impact for our communities. In one small example, we understand better the value of our campus outdoor spaces that recharge us and invigorate us, and provide opportunities to both catch our breath as well as opportunities for people of all ages to play.

The evolution of governance as partnership and schools as promoters of social and emotional well-being will not find its fullest potential until our communities are truly

places of belonging for all teachers and learners. This is a journey for our schools, and one that requires deep commitment as well as intentional action.

We know this from the study of neuroscience—a stressed brain cannot learn; it can do other things, including flee or fight, but it cannot learn, create or connect. Fostering a community where each teacher and learner is their authentic self creates a place of learning that is vibrant and relational—a place where both teachers and learners can thrive.

Nurturing and championing communities that value diverse identities, equitable practices and mutually meaningful connection between all members of the school community need to be prioritized for our future well-being.

Independent schools can authentically engage community members as they learn to focus on uplifting the multiple facets of the human experience.

An independent junior boarding (5-9) and day school (Pre-K-9) in Washington, CT

We believe in honesty, kindness, and respect.

We measure our success by our effort.

These values connect us to each other.

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An educational institution whose mission is to engender the intellectual and emotional thriving of all will shape the leaders of tomorrow to possess the skills to adapt to any national or international crisis.

The pandemic paradoxically both distracted us from, as well as focused our attention on, the critical nature of belonging. The emergence from this “liminal state” provides an incredible opportunity to return to the big question Empson and Howard-Grenville asked, and to apply it to our sense of belonging: “How can we make the most of those changes, both for ourselves and our organizations?” Independent schools are poised to embrace the answer and to model the practices needed to maximize the collective and individual talent in the community.

We are always looking forward; we constantly ask about the future of education. How will we use virtual

" We are far more attuned to the social and emotional health of both teachers and learners. "

learning and the tools provided by the virtual landscape within the structure of in-person learning? How can we help students prepare to ask and to answer the biggest questions facing the planet and its climate? How will we address the great inequities that exist across the planet and in times of scarcity of resources? The experiences of the pandemic may not have provided complete clarity on those questions, but perhaps we have learned something new and important about how schools will face the next global pandemic that certainly awaits us.

There are clear opportunities to consider how we can maximize our governance partnership, the social and emotional health of our communities, and the quest to build schools of belonging. The challenge of our schools is to consider whether what we have learned can and will generate permanent, new “normal ways of being and doing.”

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Curiosity, Creativity & Community

Beyond College

Establishing a Foundation for Overall Wellness by

Matt Byrnes

Head of School / Wooster School

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ear the beginning of a talk that I give to prospective parents at our school open houses, I ask them to think about the image of their children when they are forty, an adult in the future. What do they want for them? What would be the best outcomes for them based upon what they’ve learned in their own lives?

In doing this, I am recreating a series of focus groups we did years ago, work which helped us to set the course we’ve been on for nearly a decade. What we did then, and what I ask parents to do now, is to lift our eyes, look into our hearts, and find a place beyond college to serve as the touchstone for our school.

What we learned then, and have confirmed through the years, is that parents want their adult children to have

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deep, meaningful relationships in their lives—to love and be loved. They want a family and fulfilling work of some kind.

Parents envision future adults who still have a sense of wonder about the world and who want to engage in making it better, even if just at the community level.

They frequently mention lifelong learners, and people who have managed to achieve a sense of balance and wellness in life.

Not surprisingly, they want the life that most of us want to be living as adults (remember that this is aspirational!).

What parents don’t generally talk about is income or the relative prestige of a job. Fame, fortune and power are conspicuously absent. Certainly no one says, “It is most important to me that my child at forty will have attended a highly ranked and well-known college or university.”

I have no reason to think that if I gave this talk to different groups of parents from different towns around our country, the results would be any different. When parents slow down and think more deeply and clearly about future outcomes, when they step out of the desperate achievement race that culture, media, and schools themselves have forced them to run with their children, it is then that they can tap into the wisdom they’ve accrued over their own lives and see beyond college. Judging by the reactions I normally get, this is a place where parents would like to go more often.

In my talk, after having taken us decades into the future, we then come back to the present. If these are the lives we seek for our children, how can we best help them get there? How can they become balanced, engaged and fulfilled

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2022-2023 Education Guide

adults that we all strive to be ourselves?

Of course the foundation building begins at home, and then extends into school, where our children spend so many of their waking hours—the de facto center of the American social experiment. If these are the outcomes we want later in life, what role should schools play in preparing them for that journey?

Rather than talking about rigor, competition and high-stakes assessments, often pointed to as gold standards when measuring the worth of our schools, I talk about human development and learning.

These are the lenses we need to look through as we consider how to achieve our future goals for children.

At the heart of human development and thriving is relationships, so that is where we begin. Is the school focused on developing strong relationships among students and between students and

adults? Does the school demonstrate through its actions and programs that fostering a sense of belonging, which is central to relationship building and learning, is a foundational element of their work? Again, we turn to our experience as adults. A person who is able to establish and cultivate strong relationships—in school, at work, in life—has likely established the foundation for overall wellness. In the audience, heads begin to nod. Yes. While most schools recognize that better learning and more positive behaviors result when relationships are stronger and more numerous, most do very little to intentionally foster those relationships. Instead, they focus on sorting students into groups based upon their performance in a competitive, time-deprived learning environment.

Learning is not orchestrated according

to the realities of a child's readiness— developmentally, emotionally, and practically. Rather, all are required to listen to the same tune. The race to demonstrate some understanding of content then begins. It’s a race that largely needs to be run alone. Getting too much help is frowned upon, and helping others is detrimental to one’s own future success in the sorting process.

In this high-stakes environment, fostering strong relationships, which requires empathy, collaboration and sometimes a temporary sacrifice of one’s own ambitions, becomes quite difficult. Many schools hope that strong relationships will be a byproduct of proximity and the necessity of personal interaction within the system. Hallways, schoolyards, sports fields and band rooms are good places for social interaction, but students need guideposts and intentional

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Curiosity, Creativity & Community

learning for thoughtful relationship building in those venues. Hopefully, everyone finds their group, but hope is not a curriculum. But in a system designed to designate winners and losers, the intentional fostering of relationship skills and the hard-edged competition to “be the best” are almost diametrically opposed. The alternative is for schools to center on the individual learner, teaching the skills of thinking and reflection, celebrating difference, and creating a sense of safety and belonging by requiring that students get to know each other in classes where small group learning is essential.

I go on to talk about learning how to think, about building self-awareness and the ability to recognize and regulate emotions, particularly as they relate to behavior and choices. We like using the term “making thinking visible” with students. What are you thinking and why? How can you think more deeply?

Better thinking and the skills that come with it build understanding and knowledge, which can then be applied to the next challenge. There are skills to learn, and yes, facts to remember—hard work and practice, too. This recursive process takes time and expert engagement and feedback from teachers. When done well, the outcome is a stronger, more confident and capable self.

At this point, in the audience, a number of people will now be making eye contact with their spouse or child. A look that says, “This is sounding familiar.”

As a teacher, this always makes me happy, because I see understanding and an interest in knowing more. Things are making sense.

Our examination of our future fortyyear-old’s life would not be complete without touching on the world of work, which is like school for adults. What are the skills and dispositions that the top companies want in their employees?

This is public knowledge because they talk a lot about it. Send us people who know how to collaborate, they say, who know how to learn in non-standard 10

situations, who ask good questions and are great listeners. Send us people who want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. This sounds familiar.

It sounds like many companies want to create that same culture of belonging, with people who have a strong sense of self, and well-developed thinking and work skills. Why do they struggle to find such people? Could it be that so many of their prospective employees have come through schools that don’t value or intentionally teach these things?

I finish my talk with the question that so many prospective parents have on their minds: What about college? I always lead with survey data from the Gallup-Purdue study, which ran from 2014-20 and which measures the success and well-being of college graduates later in life. The survey has consistently found that success and well-being later in life are more likely to occur for people who found two strong mentors in college and were actively engaged with their peers in extracurricular activities. In other words, people who forged strong relationships in college. The survey also supports the idea that longer term, deeper work in college, projects that directly apply what is being learned, also correlate highly with future workplace well-being.

What does not correlate, and never has, is higher levels of well-being and the rank or perceived prestige of the college or university attended. Read that last one again, parents: Where your child goes to college is far less important than how they go. Are they prepared to get involved, to seek mentorships, to explore new ideas and challenges and apply them in authentic contexts? Is your high school intentionally preparing them for this or simply for the process of “winning” the college search process?

I finish by showing an imagined life trajectory which runs from our high school through college and then into work and the independent, adult world.

I emphasize that the journey should be somewhat unpredictable, even by design, as the choices which determine directions

and outcomes can only be made as the life journey unfolds and new knowledge is gained. Trying to predict or stay on a predetermined path, if it prevents the development of those life affirming relationships, or leads one to a work life that is misaligned with one's talents or true interests, can result in an adult who is not experiencing well-being, despite sometimes appearing to have “succeeded” by the standards of wealth and/or prestige.

As I look around, the room is quiet, and the nodding has stopped. Parents are thinking about their own journey, and that of their child. Perhaps they are thinking beyond college.

As the Head of a local independent school, and long-time public school teacher, coach and administrator in the region, I have to accept that I have been complicit in perpetuating this apparent disconnect between what we really want for our children’s future—a healthy, meaningful life—and what we actually year about how our brains function, how we learn, how influential natural human development is when looked at in the context of school, I have worked to help create a school environment which is moving away from a focus on college admission as its primary mission and toward the future health and well-being of our students. Well-being which does, in fact, include success and security in areas like personal finances, job satisfaction, and continued progress toward personal and professional goals.

Not surprisingly, we’ve also found that colleges like that we are preparing them for the kinds of engagement and learning that they want their undergraduates to pursue. What I have learned and seek to share through this essay is that when we all look away from the grim horizon of competitive college admissions and toward the brighter one of future wellness and dare I say—happiness— parents, students, and schools can benefit and thrive.

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Curiosity, Creativity & Community

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Art Expression Make Your Mark, Unlock Your Creative and See Where it Takes You by

Lela Philip

Elementary Art Teacher / Brunswick School and Greenwich Academy

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I

have taught hundreds of art lessons over the past fifteen years, and there is nothing more satisfying than witnessing the glee of a child discovering what a mark on a paper or a blob of paint can do! Author Peter H. Reynolds and his book, The Dot, has inspired so many to do just that: make their mark.

In the art room there are no wrong answers. The anxiety, stress and pressure that can sometimes accompany academic tasks vanish and are replaced by the peace of mind that comes with unlocking your creative side. It is a judgment-free zone, where students think less about performance and more about the joy of self-expression and the process of making art. Often, I remind the class that they are the artists and I am there to provide the materials and guide them if they need

help; but in the end, it’s up to them to make a few decisions along the way and be happy with what they’ve created.

I love watching a child begin to see things from a different perspective. For example, the first time they are asked to look at a tree, they often describe it as brown. Upon closer examination, they are able to see that it isn’t really brown.

They may see varieties of gray, purple and even green. This realization of things often taken for granted opens up a larger creative world for these young artists.

“What color is the shadow in snow?”

I ask. The students usually shout out “White!” Looking more closely toward the snow-covered playground, they soon discover that the shadows are more like lavender and bluish tones.

After the students have opened their eyes to all this color information, some of

the complexities of color are now open for discussion. What color are the tables, or the floor tile, or the metal sink? And so on. Students really see that everything is an “ish” color, greenish-bluish and not exactly the pure color from the Crayola crayon box! When using paints, often there’s a shout-out from an excited little artist, “DISCOVERY! I mixed a lot of this blue with a little of that yellow, and I made bluish-green!”

Toward the end of class, the little artists are adding last-minute touches to their work and eager to take it home after school. Hopefully, they skip off down the hall feeling like they accomplished something that was neither wrong nor right, but a step closer to a more confident self and experiencing relief from stress in our busy world through creativity.

Lela Philip will be retiring at the end of this year to concentrate on her own artwork. / You can find her at LelaPhilipStudio.com

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Young Creators Exploring Ideas and Channeling Creativity by

Nina Yuen

Chair of Computer Science / Greens Farms Academy

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he creation of something original is a harrowing task. Be it an innovative, problem-solving design or a piece of visual art, the ideation that must happen to get there requires confidence, a suspension of disbelief, and a degree of magical thinking. It requires a harnessing of the self-editor, that nagging inner critic that often leads creators to dismiss an idea as impossible too soon. Perhaps most importantly, it requires a level of comfort navigating ambiguity—the ability to sit in the awkward space of not knowing how something will turn out.

Traditional thinking about art and

design education presumes that once a person absorbs a certain amount of knowledge—logs the hours, gains the credentials—they are ready to create.

I argue that the best ideas, the wildly radical ones, can come from young people who are uniquely positioned to create and absorb at the same time. And the good news: the researchers at Stanford’s d.school have outlined a list of design abilities that encourage students and educators to recognize and develop their own creative potential. These design abilities are bedrocks of my Design and Visual Arts courses at Greens Farms Academy in Westport, and many are surprised to learn that they all occur

before a prototype is created, before the pen touches the paper. It is a critical selfconfidence tool for young creators. The ability to push through self-doubt (the “Who will ever use this?” “What makes this piece of art ‘good?’”) in a young artist’s mind is priceless.

There is no IKEA manual when you are in the process of creating something that doesn’t exist, and the wherewithal to navigate the unknown and have confidence to move forward is one of the primary skills design schools seek to teach. The relevance of this skill set beyond artistic creation is not hard to imagine either. So how can we systematically encourage students to

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create with confidence? Follow steps one through five, rinse and repeat.

Step 1 Come up with Constraints Challenging yourself to build something within a specific set of parameters unleashes creativity in a surprising way—it demystifies the blank slate.

When creators are given no guidelines the idea that anything is possible can paralyze them—practicing creation within a particular framework demystifies the process and actually fosters more creativity and a better, more original product. It seems counterintuitive but these guidelines force students to be more productive. For example, in our design courses when I say, “You have total free reign to solve any problem, using any technology but you must use robots.”— or in visual art we often do this with

mediums: this is a photography project, this is a charcoal drawing—it allows people to channel their creativity.

Step 2 Embrace the Bad with the Good The best ideas are just refined bad ideas.

This is a refrain my students will hear again and again. Of course, it is often not until they see this actually happen that they believe this to be true. More often in the early stages of ideation. When brainstorming in art and design, my students are encouraged to throw out as many ideas as pop into their heads and take them for a spin. Too often ideas are dismissed as impossible too early without spending the time to consider the reasons for their impossibility. Some of the most original work derives from just beyond the realm of that concept of “possible.”

Teaching students the patience to sit with

that discomfort and to develop an ability for sticking with a problem a little longer than feels comfortable is a skill for life well beyond art and design creation.

Step 3 Socialize Ideas Teenagers are an inherently social cohort, and yet feedback, particularly on original ideas or artwork, is not always comfortable to give or receive. Creating a space where students feel safe enough to bring their ideas—even the notyet-refined bad ideas—to crowdsource among their peers is an essential piece of my curriculum. This is the process of choosing to make ideas better and it requires a vulnerability and flexibility on the part of the creator. The work of sharing the ideas or early prototypes of artwork forces students to express their process and goals and then receive

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feedback. It forces their peers to respond with thoughtful, honest feedback that involves ideas in addition to what is not working. These discussions are some of the most imaginative, and it is incredible to watch students build each other up rather than shut ideas down.

Step 4 Combination The pressure to come up with that one good idea is enormous and usually unattainable. It is important for students—and everyone—to remember that more often than not the best creations are a combination of several pretty basic ideas. The act of marrying these concepts together is what brings the originality and ingenuity—the beauty, in the case of visual art. For example, one of my students was working on a new system for book-finding in a library, and

he came up with three ideas: a GPS for the floors, light-up arrows for the aisles, and a robotic arm for the shelves. Instead of choosing between the three concepts, he realized he had to ask himself when his device needed to detect his location, light up or move, so he could elegantly braid all three ideas into his final design.

Step 5 Ask Yourself, "What Does Success Look Like ... For Me?" Arguably my favorite step in this creative process is this final one where students are given the authority to dictate how and by what criteria their idea and their creation will be judged. The students are encouraged to revisit the original problem they were trying to solve and then come up with the terms of their success.

One of the most interesting takeaways for me as a teacher is not only how

innovative students’ original work becomes when they use this framework but, as importantly, how it makes them feel. Understanding these steps and how to use them helps students feel safe in the not-knowing. We can develop a sense of trust in the process that takes the pressure off the artist or the inventor to have all the answers up front. And while my courses focus practically on the creation of visual art and original design, there is so much confidence that can be gleaned from this process and applied to “ideas” beyond the realms of STEAM and art.

The minds of this generation are fascinating to observe. There is a sweet spot where children transition from magical thinking to real-world creativity.

When students are young there is a childlike quality to problem-solving where the ideas they throw out include invisibility cloaks or a new species of

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animal that doesn’t exist. Their minds bend between the realms of the possible and impossible. For so many adults there is a moment where that ends. What I am noticing in adolescents today who have witnessed the wild expansion of technology in their lifetimes is that they are slower to dismiss things as impossible.

Their minds are open to what the future might look like regarding things like artificial intelligence and virtual reality— their editor selves are maybe not as strong as the generations before them, which is a really beautiful thing.

Independent schools, GFA included, have made huge strides in recent years toward prioritizing inquiry projects and original work. Giving young people the opportunity to engage in original, selfguided work as part of their educational journey rather than as a capstone to that journey gives students awareness

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of their own unique abilities to navigate ambiguity. Each student or group of students will progress through these five steps to creative ideation differently and yet each will walk away more confident about the idea they are forming and themselves: the designer or artist.

We are encouraging them to be bold and try things out before knowing exactly how they're going to do them and having all the answers. To me the five-step process helps students put one foot in front of the other to start to see things as doable. The way out of the stickiness of the editor-self is in the doing. Our students are becoming more and more accustomed to walking into a classroom knowing there will be equal parts doing and absorbing. The tricky part for them is figuring out how to evaluate an original idea. They wonder: “If I am the only one doing this, how will I know if it is

excellent or not?” and that can be scary. In these situations, I explain how a big part of the success of the thing they're doing is being able to tell the story of what they did and why. That process-narrative is an identity story that not only helps students develop a voice to explain their work, but also encourages them to think about how they describe themselves to the world.

These creative strategies are a useful way of getting unstuck—unstuck to the idea that something will not work, unstuck to the disappointment when a first or second attempt fails, and unstuck to the idea that there is one standard for success. They allow students to look at a problem from a different perspective and to get wild in their thinking to come up with radical and yet attainable solutions.

And, we need this generation to have confidence in their wild, radical solutions, don’t we?

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Active Learning The Importance of Inquiry in PreK-Grade 12 by

A

s an educator, I am constantly asking myself: How can students achieve the deepest learning? How can we help our students learn in its truest form?

I am referring to the kind of learning that sticks, learning that delivers skills and foundational knowledge but also creates a sense of meaning, confidence and desire to take it to the next level.

It begins with students becoming agents in their own learning. When students are exploring, reflecting, questioning, evaluating, making connections—and teachers are creating and guiding these moments of discovery—students are truly learning.

This is called inquiry-based learning, and it can be done at every grade level and in every discipline. Inquiry is not limited to the sciences. Students develop a research mindset and apply that approach to all subject matters. They learn to search and re-search. From discovering the world around them in pre-kindergarten to crafting complex and

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Carol Maoz

Head of School / King School

multidisciplinary senior projects, students embrace learning through discovery, exploration, and hands-on experiences.

Every aspect of the educational experience should prioritize and optimize engagement—from the wide variety of active, immersive learning experiences to intentional efforts to reach each and every student. True engagement is the entire community’s commitment to excellence in learning.

This approach to education is driven by exploration, curiosity, and play. This begins with the youngest learners, the pre-kindergarten students.

Recently, our littlest detectives armed themselves with a jug of water, a few wooden boards, notepads, and a plan to uncover what types of creatures are inhabiting the nature trail on the King campus. They flattened mud and sprinkled seeds and lettuce to create “a critter tracker,” a device that would preserve the imprints of different species that crossed the mud, allowing students to examine the footprints and unlock the mystery of what types of animals are living in their

midst.

This is a perfect example of an inquirybased learning approach. Through this activity, the students observed, planned, collaborated, and asked lots of questions.

Questions like: what animals live on campus; why don’t we see them all the time; do these animals live near me?

Their young minds are developing the skills of observation through exploration and play, and this project allowed them to do just that.

Our fifth-grade students recently studied ancient Egypt. How did they do this? They rolled up their sleeves and created projects featuring Egyptian hieroglyphics, King Tut’s tomb, an informational display of the Nile River, pyramids, mummies and more. The projects were meant to represent different aspects of ancient Egypt, but students were also encouraged to connect them to their own interests.

“I wanted to study sports because that’s something that I’m interested in,” said Paxton Freeman, ’29. “I wondered about what types of activities the

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Egyptians used to do for fun and started researching sports that were around back then. That led me to archery.” Inspired, Paxton made a target, an arrow and a crossbow out of cardboard box and wood for his project.

“The projects are a great example of the active learning that happens when you let students ask questions and lead in their own learning,” said fifth grade teacher Helen Santoro. “When students make connections, it makes it meaningful, and they dive deeper into it. They realize they want to learn more, and that leads to other learning.”

Teachers are not only experts in their fields; they are experts in childhood and adolescence. They know how children learn and what is developmentally appropriate. Teachers should constantly ask themselves, “What would my students try if they were not afraid of

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failure? What would they dream without preconceived notions? What would they do if they knew they could make a difference?”

These questions allow teachers to create environments where students feel supported and encouraged to explore new interests, seek answers and challenge themselves. Therefore, students ask more questions, explore more ideas and make bigger plans. They become fully engaged, present — and unafraid of being themselves.

Our middle school students engaged in a project that explored the role of activism in effecting social change. Their teachers put together a list of over 80 activists under the age of 25 for the students to research. The idea behind the age group of these agents of change was for students to find them relatable.

Once the students identified an activist

of interest, they created a project of their choice that best represented their research and learning, such as a web page, artwork, a dialogue or presentation. Presentations ranged from climate change to education reform and the rights of individuals with disabilities.

Amy, ’26, and her partner, Gillian, ’26, designed a staircase with an accessibility ramp out of popsicle sticks to show that “With the right support and advocacy, people with disabilities can achieve just as much, if not more, than anybody else,” Amy said. Their chosen activist, Anna Landre, has spinal muscular atrophy and is an activist for disability rights.

Not only do the projects encourage students to connect with a cause, but they also challenge them to come up with innovative solutions to promote change in the world around them.

Students embark on a full exploration

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of self and others. When students are given the opportunity to go wide and deep—uncover new interests, challenge their abilities, hear different perspectives and share their voices—they gain a better understanding of themselves and their purpose.

Upper school students built a three-dimensional model city made of buildings and vehicles designed to address real-world issues. To begin the project, students were prompted to empathize with a cause or community and ask themselves, “Who do I want to help and what do they need?” Once they defined a problem they wanted to solve, they began formulating ideas for how the design of their prototype might provide a solution to that problem.

Design thinking is the concept of using design to construct a solution to an issue.

“For my project, I raised my building on stilts to avoid water damage in areas

that are highly susceptible to flooding and gave the roof a sleek slant to ensure no rain or debris would catch onto the building,” said Madeline Werner, ’25.

Other students drew from their passions to identify an area of improvement. Jayden Grayson, ’25, expanded on his interest in off-roading vehicles to design a utility terrain vehicle that makes it easier for communities in remote areas, such as deserts or mountainous regions, to access resources.

The students also used computeraided design (CAD) software to create digital designs of their prototypes. All of the three-dimensional prototypes were brought together to form a model city aptly named “City of the Future.”

These are just examples of the types of learning that happen in classrooms.

Learning that is centered around research and inquiry, learning that

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Back on Track How to Develop Healthier Patterns as We Emerge from the Pandemic by

T

Camille M. Bertram

Certified Educational Planner and Founder / The Bertram Group

he image from spring 2020 is etched indelibly in our minds: our students, huddled in their bedrooms, headphones on and attending class online.

The pandemic upended everything and rocked our world on so many levels.

This included routines, behaviors and boundaries between parents and their kids. Moms and dads, accustomed to sending their children to school for eight hours a day—or even having them live in boarding school dormitories with house parents—suddenly found themselves with a front row seat to every stilted Zoom class and awkward social interaction.

This new window into the challenging world of adolescence arrived as parents faced unprecedented anxiety themselves.

Dr. Thomas Callahan, Educational Psychologist and a therapeutic placement specialist, explains the dynamic this way: “None of us are at our best when we're distressed, when we're afraid, when we're sad or when we're anxious. Those feelings are kryptonite to relationships. Parents are having more difficulty attending to their kids because they are not attuned well to themselves, due to all the changes they're experiencing.”

Adding additional stress, the

pandemic unfolded during a period of immense social and cultural intensity including important social justice issues and a divisive political climate and a presidential election. “Our students have been trying to find a sense of normalcy during a highly unusual period of time,” says Charlie Cahn, Head of School at Suffield Academy in Suffield, CT. The results, according to these and other experts, were dramatic. Parents understandably became more deeply involved in managing their students’ lives at older ages than ever before. “I don't think there should be any sense of blaming parents because they’re right to be concerned about the well-being of their children—those are good instincts from parents,” says Peter Becker, Head of School at The Frederick Gunn School in Washington, CT. “None of us liked the situation we were in.”

Becker’s school has its own example of how the norms adjusted as COVID took over. Before the pandemic, Gunn did not give parents access to student academic records in real time. Parents could not look up performance on a test or a quiz immediately; they had to wait until the end of the quarter, just like parents did when we were kids. However, when students headed home as the pandemic began, Gunn administrators gave

parents access to the online gradebook, recognizing that their role was changing during that unusual period.

The problem, I am told, is that as we emerge into this nascent, post-pandemic world, not all our patterns are shifting back. Becker knows how that happens.

“Though it is developmentally important for high school students to navigate assignments and grades without direct input from parents, parents at Gunn still have access to grades in real time even though students have been back in person since the fall of 2020,” Becker says. The question for all of us is how to put the genie back in the bottle as things return toward normal.

“What is an unspoken part of the pandemic is how those relationships have been blurred. There's a term that we use for unhealthy relationships, and that's ‘enmeshed,’” says Dr. Callahan.

“The layman’s way of thinking about this is that the child sneezes and the parent catches the cold. So a parent would see classroom behavior on a screen—which is not necessarily reflective of behavior in a classroom—but during COVID saw their kids under stress and they immediately wanted to fill that void.”

That meant that parents stepped in to try to fix things. They helped more with homework, woke up their kids who could

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have tackled that themselves, and stepped in to demand that schools intervene in peer squabbles.

The pandemic also disrupted roles between parents and teachers. “I think it blurred lines between parents, who essentially were facilitating homeschooling, and the professional educators at schools, and I think that has complicated the relationship,” says Jody Reilly Soja, Head of School at Indian Mountain School in Lakeville, CT. These professionals say, all these changes can stunt children’s growth, leaving them stuck at a younger age developmentally. There are solutions, however. School leaders and professional psychologists have shared some 8 great tips to get us all back on track: No. 1 Take care of yourself first. This reminds me of when the flight attendant

24

asks parents to put their oxygen masks on first before they can properly do so for their children. Re-double your focus on eating well, sleeping well and exercising regularly. Also, be kind to yourself. None of us do this perfectly!

No. 2 Expect your student to do developmentally appropriate things, such as get themselves up for school in the morning, make a healthy breakfast, pack their own lunch, manage their homework and do their own laundry.

Becker says these are all reasonable expectations for most students by the eighth grade.

No. 3 Give your child the opportunity to try—and the freedom to fail. This means letting them do their homework, manage social challenges, and advocate for themselves with teachers and coaches.

No. 4 Stop regularly checking online grade books. If you want to check in, ask your child how things are going. Trust their teachers to let you know if there is a problem.

No. 5 Let kids solve their own problems.

If you find yourself at odds with a teacher, a coach, or a fellow parent, pause and take a breath. Ask yourself what you are reacting to, and if it is necessary for you to step in.

No. 6 Seek professional help if appropriate. “If the parents find that their feelings are dictated by their child's feelings—if their child is sad and so that makes them sad, if their child is anxious, so that makes them anxious, if their child is angry, so they become an angry, that's a sign that professional help could be helpful,” says Dr. Callahan.

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No. 7 Remember your child can handle challenges. Dr. Callahan recommends the following script: “Okay, this challenge is new. This is different. This is hard, but I have confidence in you as a growing person to be able to identify some ways that are good for you to get through this, and I’ll support you in those efforts.”

No. 8 Consider boarding school or even junior boarding school. “One of the best gifts that kids get when they come to a school like ours is a sense of independence. The ability to ask for help from other adults in their lives, and to take ownership of their work is so important for their growth and development,” says Soja.

Becker and Cahn echoed Soja’s sentiments. “It’s really good for the parent and the child to go through the process of the child developing the agency over

"I think the pandemic made more families realize that providing a world-class educational experience for our children is one of the greatest gifts."

their own learning,” Becker says. “Yes, there are bumps and that's part of the child developing. It is age appropriate in high school for students to have places that have minimal adult presence. That feels scary to everybody involved, but that's what we're training them to do—to exercise that risk. Taking healthy risks is hard, but kids need to practice making mistakes.”

Boarding schools are great at allowing students to grow by taking risks with appropriate guidance. “We know some certainties about adolescence that help shape our philosophy: high expectations need to be balanced with encouragement; and clear boundaries and rules with room to experiment and grow,” says Cahn. “We need to combine this with firm, developmentally appropriate guidance. This challenge—blending some non-negotiable standards of conduct with room for adolescents to

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build psychological autonomy—rests at the heart of parenting and of leading a secondary school.”

This approach has beautiful results.

“We've got a bunch of first-time boarding families,” says Becker.

“They had a good relationship with their son or daughter, and now they have an evolutionarily better relationship with them, because they see their kids thriving living away from home,” Becker reports. “So, the parents are happy with their child and themselves. The parents are happy with the school. The whole family dynamic has evolved to this really beautiful sort of next phase.”

“I think the pandemic made more families realize that providing a worldclass educational experience for our children is one of the greatest gifts,” says Cahn at Suffield. “We are so fortunate as residential schools to

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Book Recs for Parents Experts share their favorites A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix

by Edwin H. Friedman and Peter Steinke And Then They Stopped Talking to Me: Making Sense of Middle School

by Judith Warner Attack of the Teenage Brain

by John Medina NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed

by Jessica Lahey The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control over Their Lives

by Ned Johnson, William Stixrud, PhD

have vast amounts of space for a limited number of students. Therefore we didn't have to worry about hybrid programs or whether we had enough room in the classroom to stay socially distanced. All of a sudden, this kind of education moved higher on the list of things families wanted to provide for their children.”

Whatever your child’s educational setting, the experts I spoke with expressed confidence that we can turn in a healthy direction again. “I am very optimistic that our kids are going to become more resilient than we give them credit for,” says Becker. “I think if we flip the script and constantly remind these young men and women about how strong they are and what they've just endured, these kids are going to actually come out stronger and more resilient than we have seen in the last couple of generations.”

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Global Education My Life and Times and Other Reflections by

I

Eric Widmer Former Head of School at Deerfield Academy and King’s Academy in Amman, Jordan Meera Viswanathan Head of School at The Ethel Walker School

think that I should begin by explaining why the title of this reflective essay is in quotation marks. It happens to be the title of the book that my great-grandfather, Cyrus Hamlin, wrote about his life, our family, but especially about his time in Turkey and as the founder of Robert College in 1863. So I have borrowed the title, not to be presumptuous about my own life, but rather as a way of referencing my family’s involvement in global education, going back to the nineteenth century, which as I think about it, is actually where my own story began.

Cyrus Hamlin It was in 1839 that my great-grandfather Cyrus, a Congregational minister in Maine, quite suddenly volunteered to be dispatched to Turkey by the American Board of Foreign Missions.

But at heart he soon realized that he was less a missionary than an educator.

Or, he might have asked, wouldn’t school teaching be a more effective extension of his work in Ottoman Turkey, reconsidering its place in the world and soon allied with France and Britain in the Crimean War against Russia? The American Board did not agree. Cyrus was thereupon able to concentrate his resources and Yankee ingenuity where he believed it mattered most, helping Florence Nightingale ministering to wounded soldiers in the British military

hospital in the Scutari district, across the Dardanelles from Istanbul. Most notably, he offered his support, by baking loaves of bread and doing the laundry in great (but empty!) beer vats, leading famously to the founding of Robert College. And what a testament to the founder, that the school is still going strong today in Istanbul, surely among the foremost of Turkey’s international schools. Cyrus went back to the United States where he became president of Middlebury College, but in his heart always “la voile est prête, et Byzance m’appelle,” as the poet André Chénier notes.

My great-grandfather’s assistance to Florence Nightingale was surely a factor in the decision of his granddaughter, my mother, to become a nurse—with a Registered Nursing degree from Yale and an M.A. in Chemistry from the University of Vermont after graduating from Wellesley, and to respond to a plea from a hospital in Bogotá and establish in Colombia the country’s first national program in public health in 1928 under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation. Returning to America, she was quickly recommended by the Foundation to be the founding dean of the first collegiate school of nursing in Lebanon at the American University of Beirut. There she met and married my father, who was French, the Director of the French Section of the Boys’ Prep School, soon to become International College when it moved to Beirut from

Smyrna. And it was therefore in Beirut, at the AUB Hospital, that I was born.

World Languages I can see that I took into my own life the impulse of an educator following familial lines, not necessarily restricted to work only in my “adoptive” country of America. For whatever career awaited me, however, I had to somehow be prepared. And that meant, first of all, studying world languages. I began with Latin, Greek and French in high school (Deerfield) and Russian and German in college (Williams) and then Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian and Manchu in graduate school (Harvard). During that time I spent a semester in the Soviet Union and a year in Taiwan. In my first academic position (Brown), I began by teaching Chinese and Central Asian History, but twenty-five years later, my old school (Deerfield) asked me to come back as Head of School. At least I could introduce the teaching of Arabic, and find myself in the first class!

As I think of all the twists and turns in my life, it is hard not to imagine that somehow a kind of destiny is involved, and that I was simply following in the footsteps of my great-grandfather, and my mother, and even my absent father in finding myself back in the Middle East as the founding Head of School of King’s Academy in Jordan. But in retrospect, it seemed to happen fortuitously.

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Establishing King's Academy It was in 1999 that Abdullah Ibn alHussain acceded to the Hashemite throne of Jordan as its monarch. Abdullah was a graduate of Deerfield in the class of 1980, and always loyal to his school. For me it had been Deerfield ’57, but I was now in my fifth year as Head of School.

Wouldn’t it at least be worth sending an invitation to His Majesty King Abdullah, to return to his old school and speak to our graduating seniors the next year at the Commencement exercises in 2000— just to test the possibility? Well, HMK Abdullah responded very agreeably, and he indeed privileged us with his presence and a rousing commencement oration.

It was an appropriate mixture of royal pomp and kingly cheeseburgers for him and his many Deerfield classmates who had returned to celebrate with him. He stayed at the manse (Head of School’s house) with my wife Meera and

me culminating with an unforgettable breakfast on Commencement morning.

It is a story I enjoy telling, because it was at that moment King’s Academy had its founding and that His Majesty would be reciprocating the opportunity Deerfield had given to him.

Over breakfast, HMK suddenly turned to me with the comment, almost off-hand it seemed, that he could imagine having a school like Deerfield in Jordan. Then, taking the thought further, he asked, if there were indeed such a plan, would I be willing to consult along the way? Of course I agreed, not imagining where this narrative would soon be leading.

If it all happened in just that way with King’s Academy being properly founded in Jordan with the beginning of the 2007-2008 academic year, as is well-known, there was still the question of how and in what form this new school would emerge from that chrysalis-

breakfast some six years before. How does one plan for a school that would be international, intercultural, interlinguistic and amphibian to boot? To give me some much-needed help—well, to take over the planning of the King’s Academy curriculum—I turned to my wife, Meera Viswanathan, at the time Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown, soon to be Dean of the Faculty at King’s Academy, and since 2016, Head of School at The Ethel Walker School.

Developing the Curriculum King’s Academy would have the unambiguous assignment of offering a curriculum following the HMK’s mandate that it would follow the American AP curriculum, and it would meet national expectations for future leaders (for example, preparing students for the Tawjihi high school leaving certification in Jordan) and readying

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students to be competitive candidates for leading universities everywhere. That was never in doubt. Meera had sat through a number of early meetings, including those we had with the Minister of Education in Amman, and was prepared to synthesize our thinking so the result of this or that planning exercise might be exciting, even original innovation.

When it came to English and Arabic, she put to the board an idea of teaching the two languages in a new configuration.

She said that instructional objectives of the languages should be identical. While English would be the principal language of instruction, and while mastery in English, including writing, should be attained, along with a serviceable knowledge of English literature, it would be silly to relegate Arabic to the status of a foreign language in a country where it was almost everyone’s native tongue.

Arabic should be taught exactly as English was to be taught. She proclaimed that King’s should have a flagship department housing both languages, side by side, and the department should carry the name of those noble humanistic pursuits: “Communication, Rhetoric, and the Literary Arts.”

In a May 2006 email from Meera, who was still at Brown, and with me and other staff already in Jordan, she elaborated on what she had already put forward to the board. It was a document that we in Jordan kept ever at our sides, as it laid the groundwork for so much of what came to describe the original, thoughtful, creative way the school marched confidently to its opening a year later. I share some of her email detailing the approach below.

Meera Viswanathan's Approach “We hope to generate in our students a sense of excitement and possibility about language, both oral and written, and its capacity to help us articulate feelings and ideas; analyze the world around us thereby engendering understanding; and finally allow us to put forth propositions whose validity we will establish by

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Curiosity, Creativity & Community

the mustering of evidence in order to persuade others (i.e. rhetoric). Critical to this goal is the ability to inspire in our students a love of reading, which in turn means a love of thinking about ideas and their implications. If we can accomplish this, more than 75% of our task is completed, since most of what we learn, we learn on our own as autodidacts.

“There are a number of radical things about our curriculum as devised thus far: the regional emphasis, the idea of a culmination (capstone) project, the study of Chinese at the secondary level to name a few. Similarly, the notion of CRLA, the distinction drawn between Ethics, Philosophy and Religion as a department and Theology as a department, and the idea that students have the opportunity to read their own literary heritage in multiple ways and simultaneously have the opportunity to see how others outside the Arab world would read this

body of work could have extraordinary significance. Nowhere else does this take place. Remember we are trying not merely to replicate what has been done, but to explore the possibilities of doing new things in new ways, provided these have as their ultimate goal, the enhancement of King’s students’ understanding and not merely novelty for novelty’s sake.

“Here in America, of course, we cannot ‘internationalize’ in the same way, remaking all of our schools from the ground-up as we did at King’s Academy. But the last few decades have been a time for significantly broadening and enriching school curricula and approaches. Our students can have their horizons stretched to include coursework on China, Japan, East and Southeast Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, the countries in Africa along with much

of the Southern Hemisphere. Included would be the chance to learn languages not previously taught in high school— Chinese, Russian and Arabic among noteworthy examples. Technology has radically redrawn and erased formerly impervious boundaries—our students, who often possess intersectional global identities, cross national boundaries regularly through social media, have at their disposal concurrent translation services, are as likely to listen to K-Pop and eat fusion Cuban-Chinese food and watch Japanese anime as they are to do anything else.”

My wife Meera sometimes comments that one of the lessons of international education is the fundamental one of learning what it means “to be a stranger in a strange land.” If all of us could better comprehend this, we would have a chance of finally being at home in the world around us.

AtKi ngSc hool , webel i e v et ha t t hes ma r t es tper s oni nt her oom i snott heonewi t ha l l t hea ns wer s , butt heonewi t ha l l t heques t i ons .

Wek eepourey eont hec ur i ous ones–t heoneswhoa r en’ ta f r a i d t oa s kwhy , t ot r ys omet hi ngnew, t ogeti twr ongbef or et heygeti tr i ght .

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Ki ngSc hool i saPr eK1 2i ndependents c hool l oc a t edi n St a mf or dt ha ts er v est hes t udent sofFa i r fiel da nd Wes t c hes t erc ount i es .

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Curiosity, Creativity & Community SCHOOL STYLE

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2022 EDUCATION GUIDE 35

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Curiosity, Creativity & Community

High School Search 5 Key Questions to Guide the Decision Process by

Kevin J. Altieri

Director of Admissions / Fairfield College Preparatory School

C

hoosing a high school should be a fun, rewarding experience. After all, in Fairfield County, if you are able to choose a high school for yourself, you are both blessed and talented. We are in an area of the country with tremendous public and private options for high school.

Unfortunately, the process can be stressful and the decision making difficult thanks to the strong options available.

To help with the stress it is best to get started as early as you can. Don’t wait until the fall to reach out and explore options. Even if it is just a web search, you can get a clear picture of the different timelines that exist and become prepared to manage those deadlines!

The decision part, that can often be the daunting aspect of this process. But it doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to be an educator to know what is best for you and your family. To help with that decision-making process, I’ve put together a list of five key questions or

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areas on which to focus your search. These are intended to be a guide, not a map, so use them in a way that fits your family.

Your answers will be different from your neighbor’s and that is how it should be since, after all, every family is different.

No. 1 Academics As a parent of a twelve and ten-yearold, I am grateful to live in this part of our country, where schools tend to have strong academic profiles and prepare our children well for their future. But strong academics aren't the only thing to look for in a school. One of the best questions to ask is: Will the academics challenge me appropriately? It is especially important to ask this question as we emerge from the madness of the last two years with an acute awareness of the role that stress and anxiety play in our ability to succeed. Will the school teamwork with me to create the most appropriately leveled course of studies possible to ensure that I am both challenged and motivated?

One of the best ways to get to that answer is to ask: Does the educational philosophy of the school align with my learning style and needs? Some kids are goal-oriented and driven to achieve the absolute highest honors they can while others are more intrinsically motivated.

Others are motivated by sports or the arts. The school you choose should match your philosophy of education if it is going to meet you where you are on that spectrum. When asking about this during the admissions process, be clear about who you are and what your philosophy is.

If the school is a potential match, you’ll know it almost immediately as long as you are clear.

Finally, every student needs to be pushed just to the edge of their comfort zone academically, socially, and in other areas so that they can walk themselves into the improvement zone. When the school is asking students to leave their comfort area, are the teachers available to help the students navigate these new waters outside of the classroom hours?

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Do they provide an environment in their classrooms that promotes the exploration of new and different ideas through respectful dialogue? These are questions that are important to ask whenever you visit a school. After all, the goal of your high school education is to grow, not just to achieve.

No. 2 Extracurriculars In my experience most kids have a clear idea as to what extracurriculars they want to be involved in when they explore high schools. In those cases it is extremely important to ask: Does the school have the clubs, activities or sports that I want?

If not, do they make it easy for me to start a new club, or do they offer the opportunity to participate in my activity outside of school while also actively participating in the life of the school?

Extracurriculars are one of the best ways

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for a student to engage in the life of the school, which is one of the key indicators of a child’s likelihood of success in the school.

Sometimes though, kids haven’t found a true interest by the time they are looking for high schools. For those kids, and even for the kids who “know” what they are looking for, they ought to be able to find other interests that blossom during their high school experience. So, it is also important to ask: Does the school have diverse extracurricular opportunities for me to explore and grow?

No. 3 Culture School culture is a tough thing to gauge without visiting. After all, a culture really is defined by how we feel when we experience it. As you walk around a school take note of how you feel. Are you intimidated? Why? If you are

intimidated because you aren’t used to being around such big kids, okay.

But, if you are intimidated because the overall environment doesn’t feel welcoming to you, that is a very different story. The only way to truly judge this is to engage as many people as possible on your visit. Try to talk to a student, teacher and administrator.

Does your tour guide stop any of these people in passing throughout the tour to help you get to know them and, through them, the culture of the school?

If you are unable to visit a school early in the process for any reason, you can ask questions of the admissions team to get to the following: Do the overall school values align with my values? Essentially, you are trying to determine if the mission of the school is in line with the mission of your family.

Guiding students and families as they navigate a challenging educational landscape

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No. 4 Transportation A simple concept that is too often overlooked until late in the process is ease of transportation to and from school. That doesn’t just mean can I get to and from school with relative ease? It also means that you ought to ask the following question early in the process: Do the transportation methods include options that support involvement in the life of the school? This isn’t a yes or no question for an admissions officer. Follow it up with how? And when? And even why?

For a school to offer transportation to and from your town is great. For that school to be able to explain how transportation can work for your child, so they can participate in the extracurricular activities that keep them engaged in the life of the school is necessary. This isn’t to say that the school must provide that transportation. It just means they ought to be able to answer you thoroughly when you inquire about your family’s transportation needs.

No. 5 Net Cost Regardless of whether you are a family that will pay full tuition or one that needs financial aid, this is one of the most important areas because, after exploring all these other areas, you should have a firm understanding of the school’s value proposition. By the time you are done exploring a school, you should be more focused on what you are willing to pay for the particular educational experience, rather than what the stated tuition is.

Once there, the rest is simple.

Because you now know what you are willing to pay for that educational experience, all you must determine is what the actual cost to your family is and if that is equal to or less than what you are willing to pay. The actual cost to a family is a simple calculation of tuition plus any fees minus any financial aid and scholarships. If that is more than you are willing to pay AND you still want

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HELPFUL HINTS How to Approach Each School “Now more than ever, schools focus on soft skills to differentiate candidates. To set students apart, we encourage them to dig deep and tell their story beyond the classroom. This will illustrate who they are not just as learners but also as principled members of society.”

—Verona Keating and Jacquie Quigley Founding Partners, Keating Quigley Educational Consultants

“During the interview process it is important to share personal stories to show your authentic self. You should be able to relate these stories to how you will contribute to the school, as it will demonstrate preparation for the interview—use examples and be specific.”

—Krissy Naspo, M.A. Managing Partner, Boarding School and Non-Traditional Advising, The Bertram Group, LLC

“Direct communications with schools can demonstrate genuine interest while giving admissions interviewers, coaches and special interest faculty greater insights about an applicant. Specifically, a student’s communications with schools allows them to build relationships and illustrate their ownership of the search process.”

—Alyson Henning Walker Family Education Advisor, Henning & Partners

to attend the school, call the admissions office and have that conversation. Not every school can easily discount the tuition further, but many have an appeals process for need-based financial aid that a simple call can initiate.

Along the way you should also discover if the school’s staff makes a conversation about your family affording the school a comfortable one to have. This is going to be extremely important, because it will give you a glimpse into the value the school places on you. Being open and honest with you in a conversation about affordability is one of the best ways a school can show this. Not all schools are equal in terms of their access to resources that help make the school affordable for all. For example, independent schools that are members of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Association (CIAC) are not able to provide athletic scholarships or to stray from typical need-based financial aid practices in order to achieve an outcome, while some other schools are. This would be a scenario where an open and honest conversation can help you and the school gain an understanding of each other to ensure that you avoid assumptions and misunderstandings that might prevent you from making the best decision.

Conclusion In the end, what you are getting at by answering these questions is a value proposition: Is this educational experience worth what it will cost based on our resources and how close what the school provides matches the values of my family? As you explore these five questions you will be able to rule some schools out quickly, while others will move to the top of your list just as fast. As that happens, you’ll know you are doing this right. No matter what you experience though, remember to keep it light. This is a wonderful time in your child’s life!

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DIRECTORY

Connect 2022-2023 Adver tisers

AVON OLD FARMS SCHOOL Avon, CT avonoldfarms.com THE BERTRAM GROUP Westport, CT thebertramgroup.com BRUNSWICK SCHOOL Greenwich, CT brunswickschool.org THE ETHEL WALKER SCHOOL Simsbury, CT ethelwalker.org FAIRFIELD COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL Fairfield, CT fairfieldprep.org FAIRFIELD COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL Fairfield, CT fairfieldcountryday.org THE FORMAN SCHOOL Litchfield, CT formanschool.org FREDERICK GUNN SCHOOL Washinton, CT frederickgunn.org GREENS FARMS ACADEMY Greens Farms, CT gfacademy.org GREENWICH ACADEMY Greenwich, CT greenwichacademy.org GREENWICH COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL Greenwich, CT gcds.net IONA PREPARATORY SCHOOL New Rochelle, NY ionaprep.org KING SCHOOL Stamford, CT kingschoolct.org THE LONG RIDGE SCHOOL Stamford, CT longridgeschool.org THE MASTERS SCHOOL Dobbs Ferry, NY mastersny.org THE MEAD SCHOOL Stamford, CT meadschool.org MILLBROOK SCHOOL Millbrook, NY millbrook.org NEW CANAAN COUNTRY SCHOOL New Canaan, CT countryschool.net RUMSEY HALL Washington, CT rumseyhall.org RYE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL Rye, NY ryecountryday.org SACRED HEART GREENWICH Greenwich, CT cshgreenwich.org SCHOOL OF THE HOLY CHILD Rye, NY holychildrye.org ST. LUKE’S SCHOOL New Canaan, CT stlukesct.org ST. JOSEPH HIGH SCHOOL Trumbull, CT sjcadets.org THE UNQUOWA SCHOOL Fairfield, CT unquowa.org VILLA MARIA SCHOOL Stamford, CT villamariaedu.org WESTMINSTER SCHOOL Simsbury, CT westminster-school.org WHITBY SCHOOL Greenwich, CT whitbyschool.org WILBRAHAM & MONSON ACADEMY Wilbraham, MA wma.us THE WINDWARD SCHOOL White Plains, NY and New York, NY thewindwardschool.org WINSTON PREPARATORY SCHOOL Norwalk, CT winstonprep.edu WOOSTER SCHOOL Danbury, CT woosterschool.org

2022 EDUCATION GUIDE

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Curiosity, Creativity & Community N O TA B L E Q U O T E S

Words of Wisdom from Educators “Schools that nurture a connected community— with intention— empower children to trust their intuition.

When children know they are known, they trust their curiosity will reveal who they really are.”

IAN CRAIG

Head of School, Rumsey Hall

“For independent schools, as with the world, curiosity and creativity must have limits imposed by the needs and expectations of our communities.

Our good fortune is the freedom to not only explore our expectations but learn why those expectations exist and how to responsibly challenge them.”

STUART WHITCOMB

“It never ceases to amaze me how inventive middle school children can be. Especially if you ask them to come up with ways to help other people.

We can learn from their compassion, lack of inhibition, playfulness and willingness to question what's possible.”

KIM GERARDI

St. Luke's designLab

Director of Wilbraham & Monson Academy Middle School

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PREPARED TO THRIVE

“When children learn early that they can solve problems—the whole world benefits.”

-Kim Gerardi, St. Luke’s School designLab

designLab Challenge: Create sustainable neighborhoods using the designLab’s 3,500 sq. ft. fabrication space. Present work to peers, teachers, and guests from Habitat for Humanity and clean energy consulting firm MHR Development.

Find out how St. Luke’s prepares students to thrive now and into the future: www.stlukesct.org/thrive St. Luke’s is a secular (non-religious) day school for grades 5-12, serving 30 towns in Fairfield and Westchester counties.

(203) 801- 4833 | admissions@stlukesct.org | www.stlukesct.org 377 North Wilton Road, New Canaan, CT 06840

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