I agree, the article IS a great read, and so I share it too (click here for the complete article, an excerpt from Ripley’s book, The Smartest Kids in the World - and How They Got That Way). Because, as it did for the parent who shared it, the article also made me hugely grateful for our amazing school and amazing teachers, I also share a few ruminations of my own, prompted by Ms. Ripley's description of what parents should look for in a school.
If you’ll pardon a little prideful Head of School crooning, I'll call it: Our Own World Class Education – a Country School Snapshot. Here goes...
Pressed for time on campus the other day, I popped into a classroom for a rejuvenating seven minutes, watching inspirational teaching and engaged learning by 14 fortunate Country School students. When I folded back around to chat with the teacher later that day about what an exciting time I had watching the cooperative learning lesson, the teacher thanked me for coming by and remarked that she wished I could have stayed in the class for the whole period. I told this master teacher that I, too, wish I had had the time to linger and participate.
Then I added, after thanking her for what she gives her students, “One does not need to eat an entire cake to know that it is delicious."
When you watch a soccer game or basketball game or squash match or any sport involving a ball, you learn more about the quality of the players and the team competition by watching "off the ball." That means, rather than following the flight of the ball, you deliberately watch away from the ball, how players move when they don't have it, how they move to open spots to get free, how they anticipate the flow of the play. Wayne Gretzky is arguably the greatest ice hockey player ever. Puck aficionados say that it is because, while other strong players think three or four passes ahead, Gretzky was five and six passes ahead, anticipating the way the play might unfold.
Sophisticated teachers, like those we have at The Country School, do the same thing. They continuously anticipate how a class might unfold and could unfold. They do this when building their lesson plans and they do this during the flow of a unit or class.
I watch off the ball when I stand in a classroom doorway or sit in a classroom watching students learn and watching teachers engage. I like to see what sort of atmosphere has been created that encourages the students to participate, to help each other, to engage. Does the classroom atmosphere bring forward the quieter voices? Are the more talkative students controlling themselves and not monopolizing the conversation? Is the teacher subtle in his/her redirection and prompts? Is there a gender balance in the classroom?
I have a friend who used to judge the quality of a preschool by how muddy his daughter was at the end of the day. The more mud, paint and glue stuck to her, the better a day she had, he figured. In our classrooms on Opening Hill Road, I want to see the kids muddy. Regardless of the age, I want them covered figuratively with paint and glue. I want them to have contributed fully to the class discussion, really working hard, thinking and concentrating. The best learning is hard learning, in which students need to bear down and reach.
Years ago – unfortunately, many, many years ago – when I was new to independent schools and working as a young admissions director, part of my job was to visit local preschool and pre-kindergarten programs in the hopes that they would send more of their students to begin with us in kindergarten. The veteran admissions officer, who also happened to be our kindergarten teacher at this private school in Massachusetts, gave me the list of schools from which we routinely enrolled students and another list of schools from which we hoped to begin enrolling students.
At the end of that week of visits, I sat with her to review what I had learned about and seen at the various preschool and daycare centers. There was one with which I was particularly impressed. It was housed in a brand-new building, with equipment that looked like it had never been used, no tatters to the rugs. This veteran teacher shook her head and explained to me how to review a program. What I had overlooked was the best program in town, which did not have much money, but the students were up and about, took great pride in their program, the parents were practically evangelical about the school, the classroom was filled with music and laughter and cooperation. There were hugs throughout the day.
As a rookie, I had been impressed by the wrong things and I had overlooked the fact that students can be fully engaged, with the right stimulation and imagination, by a cardboard box.
At The Country School, we obviously try to do both. We want the students to have access to plenty of cardboard boxes, as well as appropriate technology, resources, and materials. Our families expect that of us but, were we to make a good argument in favor of tatters and cardboard boxes, I am sure our parents would trust us.
Finally, what is not visible when you are watching off the ball, is a school's commitment or lack of commitment to professional development. A school's budget will be one indicator but the even stronger indicator is how many of the teachers on a regular, monthly and certainly annual basis, are visiting each other's classrooms, attending off-campus professional development opportunities, sharing ideas, reading online newsletters and blogs. Good schools talk about what makes for good teaching and active learning. Good schools provide time at faculty meetings and professional development days at the start and end of the year to keep teachers growing.
I am proud of The Country School’s commitment to continuous improvement in all we do. An independent school is, of course, market driven. It is a peculiar construction in which the paying customers – the parents – are not the consumers of the product. Obviously, the students are the recipients of the education and we need to deliver for them every day. That continuous progress of updating of teachers' skills is essential, along with understanding the latest in brain research and what that indicates about knowledge acquisition. We teach toward student understanding and we are proud of it. Sometimes our teachers are at the front of the classroom and sometimes our teachers are working the classroom like a coach, encouraging, stretching, applauding and coaxing.
As I go into and out of classrooms all day and all week, sometimes for five minutes and sometimes for 45 minutes, I am astonished at the quality of instruction and the depth of commitment that the faculty bring. The students are very fortunate. This is the most talented, dedicated group of educators with whom I've ever worked. It is my privilege to serve them as they serve the students.
Many thanks to the parent who shared this article with us - and thank you to her Facebook friend who brought it to her attention with his sharing of the post, the Director of Admission at Phillips Exeter Academy. It may be difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes an education last a lifetime, but for those of us who have been working in schools for a while, we know it when we see it.
To "see" for yourself, click on this slideshow of TCS faces.
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