WEBB Magazine excerpt: Taylor Stockdale's Letter Spring/Summer 2018

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SPRING/SUMMER 2018 WEBB M AGA ZINE

R THIS CR A Z Y G A M E W E PL AY

ecently, when on a conference call with fellow board members of the World eading Schools Association, we were asked to brainstorm a theme for our upcoming conference in rague in the summer of . There was a small but important group of educational leaders from all over the globe on the call representing schools such as arvard Westla e and Webb from the west, roton from the east, Eton ollege from the , and top schools in hina, Africa and India. As we started to bat around ideas for the world educational summit, we tal ed about the changing nature of the wor place given advanced technologies what it means to be a global leader how to retain school culture while embracing this new world. These were all rich topics we agreed, and ones we should and must be addressing. But then the conversation too an interesting turn.

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Student health and wellness the impact stress plays on a student today was o ered up to great discussion. We began to name the many pressures students now experience in a world that feels undependable at best, and violent and out of control at worst. ind you, this wasn t just a group of American educators. t was a group of leaders from all corners of the world. We were all seeing it the impact and downside of unrealistic performance expectations on students, oversi ed parental ambitions and finally the fren y over college admissions. Students worldwide are so good at putting up a brave front, and yet often they are in turmoil underneath. We landed on a conference centered on the human condition student health and wellness in a highly stressful, unrelenting world. What began as a conference call ended in catharsis. As educational leaders at the world s most venerable institutions, we suddenly new that first and foremost we shared a deep concern for the well being of our ids.

S O, W H AT E X AC T LY I S T H E G A M E I ’M S P E A K I N G O F? Well, it goes something li e this. n , the maga ine US News and World Report began a poll to ran colleges and universities according to a number of indices far too complicated to mention here . The net result of this was that colleges and universities began what was at first a rather subtle competition, but over time has exploded into a virtual industry in which colleges and universities have entire o ces devoted to doing everything possible to ensure their institution is ran ed as high as possible. f course, there are institutional categories, from small private colleges to major research universities and everything in between. ut, again, the net result is everything that each of the roughly , ran ed colleges does is distilled down to a number, a ran ing, a spot on a list. This ran ing is then either celebrated widely, or spun as a challenge for the next year. The game, year to year, seems to get more insidious, more overt, and more damaging. Americans, and as it turns out people around the world, are infatuated with rankings, even though in our hearts we now a single number doesn t

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come close to capturing what a given institution does in changing the life of a student.

A primary measurement tool used by US News is admission selectivity. n other words, what percentage of applicants a school accepts. The lower the number, the more competitive it is, and the higher the ran ing. So here s the game. olleges and universities do as much as they can to get as many people as possible to apply to their institution, and then turn around and reject as many of those applicants as possible all the while touting inclusivity, etc. The more applicants they can deny, the better. t is never framed in this manner, but this is the game. titled this letter “This ra y ame We lay,” because am loath to tell you that prep schools have gotten into this game as well. We, too, are now being rated and ran ed by multiple sources, many of which ma e little sense to us. or example, one prominent ran ing relies almost exclusively on the percentage of ids who ta e A tests. The ran ing doesn t even consider how the ids perform on these tests, just the mere number of tests ta en. ther metrics are even more mysterious. now that rivalries among close competitors arvard vs. ale, T vs. altech, Andover vs. Exeter, etc. are as old as the institutions themselves. But none of them, and that includes Webb, were built to serve a ran ing number over the uality of an educational experience in which the mind, body and soul are nurtured and challenged to ma e a better world for those who will follow. m not writing this to call for a revolt against the ran ing machine, but more as a reality chec . What we stand for is far more than a ran ing. n fact, would argue it is far more than even a prosperous and successful life. ll conclude with a message of hope. t is derived from a boo recently read entitled Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress by Steven in er. t s a great read and reminded me again about

the important work we are doing here at Webb wor that will have a lasting impact on mankind through our graduates. In his boo , in er tac les the pessimist s eternal uestion, “ s the world falling apart ” With unbridled enthusiasm he answers “ o ” elying on a rich storehouse of historical data parsed out over some pages and an astonishing graphs , in er argues that life span, prosperity, safety, peace, nowledge, happiness and more have been on the rise in one manner or another since the last two thirds of the th century to today.

Why irst among his answers are education and literacy of various types education has led us to democracy and prosperity. n a nutshell, following in er, it will be places li e Webb that will ensure our progress and momentum continue.

In this issue of WEBB Magazine our major features describe in detail our new, innovative curriculum. The first piece describes how we use technology and educational design as tools to better e uip students for higher level learning. n the second feature, we describe how we ve also held onto teaching foundational s ills and habits of mind, including our time tested, whole student programs in honor and moral courage, leadership, teamwor , community building, and more. We count on and use the best of both the old and new here at Webb all of it flowing from those “timeless ideals” begun in the Enlightenment. Again, thin , why would anyone ever want to reduce this serious and complex wor to a simple ran ing Taylor . Stoc dale ead of Schools