Mindset »»
Posted on Sep 01, 2010
The release a few weeks ago of this year’s Mindset List by Beloit College professors Ron Nief and Tom McBride provided a timely reminder of the more important discussion of mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. For the last thirteen years, a fresh start for the incoming freshmen at Beloit has included participating in the Mindset List. Each August, the list summarizes the cultural and experiential framework found in the freshman class. At its heart the exercise is an attempt to maintain a connection across the generations and to provide reference points for professors who wish to provide relevant course content and analogies. Oh, by the way, it’s not too bad a marketing tool for Beloit College either!
The ongoing work of Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success on the other hand, suggests the foundational truth that one’s mindset relative to personal brain development, learning, personality, and by extension future success, follows either a “fixed” or “growth” model. Those who believe they are born with finite intelligence, talents, mental abilities and potential have fixed mindsets, while those who maintain a growth mindset see their present intelligence, talents and mental abilities as merely a springboard to a lifetime of mental growth through dedicated hard work. The growth model provides a picture of endlessly pliable potential. As you might guess, maintaining and teaching a growth mindset leads to a life filled with motivation, creativity and success.
Now the interesting aspect of this seems to me to be that those Beloit College freshmen clearly have been framed by their cultural experiences. It would be nearly impossible for any of us to escape such a formation. The real question is where will they develop from this point? One laughable suggestion on this year’s list is that few of the freshmen “know how to write in cursive.” Even if that WERE true, do they believe they can learn cursive? For this year’s group, Curt Cobain’s music is found on the oldies station, Clint Eastwood is a sensitive film director and wristwatches are at the Smithsonian. As part of a generation “grown up digital,” 33% of these young people send over 100 text messages per day and “old-fashioned e-mail” is a tortoise unworthy of their time. So what? Is this a springboard or the cutting board? While I still cannot speak proper Starbuckian at the espresso bar, “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” are natural tongue twists for the Class of 2014; regardless, if a college freshman were in doubt about their coffee order, would they believe they can grow, develop and solve their dilemma or will they remain frozen in the cultural rut believing this is the hand they have been dealt?
It is our role as educators at RPDS to nurture firm foundations in our students, which are built upon the finest spiritual, academic and physical teaching. However, as a school and as parents we will have missed our target if we have not also firmly trained a “growth mindset” in our children that encourages positive, transformational and constructive growth. Such underpinnings are our assurance that the future will be very bright indeed!
Just Jump »»
Posted on Aug 25, 2010
As a faculty and staff our theme for this school year is Connections. There are myriad ways our lives are interconnected personally, through prior generations and to the natural world. Last week as we met to discuss our summer reading (Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv and Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology by Allen Collins & Richard Halverson) there were a flood of ideas connecting RPDS through these authors to the reflections of others and to the broader educational community. As RPDS enters its 62nd year, we are also reminded that many prior educators, parents, students, trustees and supporters have prepared us to meet the educational challenges of the 21st Century.
You may remember the TV commercial showing a young child at the edge of a boat dock considering a first jump into a lake. In the scene, the child’s father is standing in the water, arms outstretched, encouraging. Just jump! There is an old story of a man caught on the 6th floor of a burning office building. With the building fully engulfed and no safe internal exit left available, the man approached his window. The smoke from the floors below obscured his view of the ground and all he could hear were the people on the ground screaming for him to “just jump.” Yet, his feet were frozen on the ledge even though he could feel the intense heat of the danger so close at hand. Finally, the man heard the voice of his father call from below, “its all right son, its safe, just jump.” A voice he trusted was all the encouragement he needed.
At the start of a new school year, children need extra helpings of love and support. There are new classrooms to find, new routes to follow, new teachers to meet and new friends to make. This can be unsettling for many children and we work hard to reassure them on a daily basis. Even if your child is familiar with the surroundings, new children in the classroom may alter previous interpersonal relationships. For some reason, even adults who know of their own discomfort in new settings, assume children will handle such changes with aplomb. We all must remember that our “just jump” encouragement must be reinforced with patience, love and understanding.
At times, God too encourages us to “just jump;” however, such prodding is always preceded by relationship, preparation and equipping. We can imagine years of such supportive nurturing, which prepared the man caught in the fire to trust his own father’s instruction step from a 6th floor window. It is good advice for us too as we prepare children to jump into a new school year. Welcome home to RPDS!
Graduation 2010 »»
Posted on May 26, 2010
As any school year closes there is both joyful hope and sadness. Our hallways are adorned throughout the year with fabulous examples of the work of talented students. Cognitive victories have been celebrated, as have spiritual and physical accomplishments. Our sixth graders have demonstrated that our RPDS Graduate Traits are both demanding and attainable; our proud graduates are ready for the rigors of competitive middle school programs. Yet, there is also room for sadness as friends move, summer separates and treasured educators retire.
At graduation tomorrow I will be emphasizing positively approaching the future with hope and joy. There is an increasing need to combat our society’s tendency to focus on the negative. We can admit that not all outcomes are positive while still approaching life’s choices optimistically. John Wooden used to say it this way, “do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” I would add, “do not let what you cannot do…or have never done interfere with what you can do!” I have shared the sentiments of author Tom Peters before but they apply here as well, “celebrate what you want to see more of.” We do this naturally as we train pets and performing animals. After all, no one found “Hans the Roller-Skating Parrot” taking a spin through the jungle! I would guess that months were spent just getting Hans comfortable grabbing and holding on to the little skates. For some reason we quickly get impatient with this model when we deal with human growth, behaviors and accomplishments.
Unfortunately, our culture leads us to assume that instantaneous successes and results are not only possible, they should be expected. Methodologies routinely championed focus upon the negative, utilize punishment extensively and adopt a zero tolerance for mistakes. The end result is a lack of patience for building successes slowly piecemeal and a reticence to persist at the new things we find difficult. At RPDS we work diligently to confront this “headwind” and to provide the tools students need to positively face their tomorrows. Our graduates are now ready for the challenges found outside our community. As we share our talented students with Jacksonville, Florida and America, RPDS too is shared. Through their lives we extend our reach and our story grows. God’s speed Class of 2010!
Summer Ahead »»
Posted on May 19, 2010
With the prospect of summer vacation so close at hand, the discussion among our students quickly focuses on how they intend to spend the months of June and July. With the start of vacation next week the expanse appears endless … yet in just a few months the common theme will be, “where did the time go?” Obviously, this is a common lament for us all. School graduations are life milestones, which provide an opportunity for both graduates and well-wishers to pause and to reflect not just on where the time went, but also on how it went.
There is a common teaching technique employed by instructors attempting to help students realize that decision-making requires an ethical-moral component and not merely situational thought. A dilemma dialog begins in which only small bits of information, just small slices of time, are revealed prior to calling for a decision. When there is no reason to suspect that further information (the future) will be dissimilar from that which has already been revealed, students respond quickly, never suspecting that the decision required more complex thought. Eventually the class becomes adept at probing the hidden realms of the dialog to better balance their decision making.
Time management too requires careful thought. Each day, and of course the summer vacation is no exception, provides a block of time for carving. Sleeping longer than necessary is a temptation. If we are to avoid the feeling so often expressed today, “I didn’t have time,” we need to plan ahead for each day. Many have encouraged this with the thought that we should live today as if it is both our first day and our last day. I would suggest a slightly different technique. Approach your choices by asking, if you knew now, what you will know when the time is gone, how would you choose to spend this day? I hope you will find refreshment in each moment of the summer ahead and will be eager to share your adventures with me when you return next fall!
The Value of NO »»
Posted on May 12, 2010
In the research sciences there is a concept referred to as the “null hypothesis.” Loosely, this is a reference to those times when a hypothesis is refuted by data. The reason this is important to the scientist is that when employing classic “if…then” relationships, the most meaningful and dramatic learning takes place when the answer returned is NO. Imagine I am studying meteors (a meteorologist of sorts – but that is fodder for another Headliner) and I hypothesize that meteors are combustible; therefore IF a meteor penetrates earth’s atmosphere, THEN it will be destroyed in a fiery blaze. I learn very little from the thousands of meteors that support this hypothesis and infinitely more from the one meteor that comes crashing through my roof! In other words, if I can establish what is definitely not true I know more than I do when I have thousands of examples of what may be true.
I was thinking about this last week as I listened to a news story about police using a Taser to control a teenager who interrupted a MLB game in Philadelphia by running helter-skelter across the outfield. Apparently, the teenager had called his father moments before the incident to ask him if he should jump down onto the field. NO. In today’s popular culture “no” can be a particularly onerous word to say and even more painful to swallow. Frankly, few of us enjoy hearing it and it is rarely followed by silence. “But…” “Please reconsider…” “Who else can I speak with?” “Does this really apply to me?” These are common sentiments for us all and you can bet that the scientist who has devoted a lifetime of research to a particular hypothesis is equally aggravated when the day arrives that the data say, “No.” Young people too grow and learn the most from bumping into the “no’s” in life. As hard as it is, boundaries are not set when we hear, “maybe.” It is only when hearing a meaningful “no” that we realize that a particular avenue is indeed closed. A verbal “no” also establishes the values and rationale of the speaker, while it builds respect in a way that a list of promises can never accomplish.
Today’s relativistic society implies that everything is negotiable, open for debate or situational. While there is tremendous value in open discussion, we will always learn more and go further by respecting the “no’s” in our lives. Each family must weigh how long its list of “no’s” will be and which items will be included in their inventory. Approaching one’s list with consistency and even temper provides children with healthy frames of reference and trains young people for the personal decisions when adults cannot be present.
Construction Lessons »»
Posted on May 05, 2010
Here at RPDS we are rapidly approaching the start of major construction on the Rice Sports Zone. Preliminary site work will begin before the end of May. As you know, this project will “touch” roughly two acres of play space and parking lots. Our intention is to spend the summer hard at work so that we are largely finished as school opens in August. At home, we are busily completing a construction project involving our roof, decking, bedrooms and bathrooms. All this activity reminds me that back in late 1980’s we mustered the great hope and energy needed to purchase a classic “California fixer-upper.” It was 2000 square feet of demolition, reconstruction, repairs and upgrades. I was committed to doing the work myself and looked at it as a teachable moment for our young boys. As I renovated each area the untouched spaces screamed for attention; the torture spanned many months. I also vowed unsuccessfully to take a VERY long respite before tackling such madness again!
I discovered many important lessons within those walls, under our floors and behind the stucco. The first was that my sons were a great demolition team. They could pull down more drywall per hour than could be believed. Second, drywall work is a dusty, messy business. However, most importantly, I learned that remodeling is really a process of uncovering problems. I soon dreaded exposing new (read that expensive) issues that needed to be corrected before the bigger job could continue.
In our world today, the temptation is to avoid the difficult issues or problems that come our way. For our long-term health, safety and happiness this is generally not the best approach. As painful as it was to remove wall sheeting and thereby expose load-bearing beams eaten paper thin by termites, I still needed to know. I really could not seriously contemplate merely applying a new covering of drywall. I’m anticipating that equally as crucial obstacles will arise as we at RPDS tackle our construction this summer. Parking will disappear, phone and network lines will be severed, and massive boulders will appear precisely where underground cisterns are designed to rest. It is always tempting to deny a problem exists, but never responsible to feign poor vision rather than to see it.
Whether there are home remodeling projects ahead for you, or you chose to live vicariously through ours, use these experiences as a reminder that as other difficult issues surface, they are best met honestly. Celebrate the truth that these are opportunities to solve problems and redirect life rather than to cosmetically hide things for another more painful day.
Exceptional Lives »»
Posted on Apr 28, 2010
In his book, Love Adds A Little Chocolate, Medard Laz credits Søren Kierkegaard with reminding him that “every person is an exception.” With each birth and each child I pass in our hallways I am reminded of the wisdom of this seemingly simple insight. Today’s hectic schedules leave little time for more than brief encounters with those who cross our paths. To make matters worse, we then allow such superficial interactions to form the basis of deep and lasting opinions about those we meet. The old American Indian proverb that “we not judge another until we have walked two moons in his moccasins” is also worth recalling. The few minutes we share with others cannot do justice to the complex individuals standing before us.
Ms. Beatrix Potter is most famous for her stories about the adventures of Peter Rabbit and Mr. Toad. However, few people know that by the time Beatrix was in her early 30’s she was totally captivated with the scientific study of fungi and their reproduction. She recorded her studies in highly detailed watercolor drawings and spore prints of nearly 300 specimens. Beatrix decided to submit her work to the Royal Botanical Gardens Scientific Society. In the early 1900’s it was difficult for such societies to accept the fact that high quality science came in feminine packages. Sadly, those “seeing” Beatrix Potter did not recognize the “exception” she represented until after her death! Fortunately, the fact that Beatrix Potter was also an exceptional writer was more readily embraced.
The challenge for each of us is to see the uniqueness in those around us and to attempt deeper, more understanding relationships with others.
Color Outside the Lines »»
Posted on Apr 21, 2010
Our student production this week of folk tales from around the world has our students thinking of moral lessons taught in creative ways. Often such tales present thoughtful dilemmas and the listener must wrestle with the potential outcomes. When it comes to decision making there is never a substitute for careful thinking and weighing of the choices available. Valued friends and advisors clearly can play a helpful role; however, in the end it is the individual that lives with the ramifications of the choices they settle upon. With that in mind, it may be best to remember that some creative resourcefulness can be a lifesaver.
There once was a tyrant who forcefully maintained complete control of his kingdom. Soon news reached the royal household that a poor commoner was in love with and wished to marry the king’s very beautiful daughter. To make matters worse, the princess was also deeply in love with the young commoner! Well, the king would have none of this. He ordered the man arrested on a fabricated charge. There were no courts or fair trials in the kingdom, for it was the king’s edict that criminals be judged by fate. The accused would be brought to the town’s public square and presented to the local population. Two envelopes were presented to each criminal. In one, a card proclaimed “guilty” and in the other envelope a card announced “innocent.” The ultimate choice of freedom or death was left to the fates. Now, our commoner knew what lay ahead; he also was a very smart young man. He suspected that the king wanted to kill him and he therefore guessed that each envelope would contain a “guilty” card. (This is what we used to call, “heads I win, tails you lose.”) So when the king presented the commoner his two envelopes the young man picked one and read the card. He immediately began jumping for joy and shouting, “innocent, I’m innocent!” He then quickly ate the card. Those present protested, “you have eaten the card, how will we verify that you really had the “innocent” card and its pardon?” To this the commoner replied, “that is easy, just look in the other envelope!”
There are numerous times in life when the cards all seem stacked against us and none of our choices look attractive. Such times are opportunities to rely upon our intelligence and resourcefulness. These are the times to “color outside the lines” and to strive for novel solutions. You will find that your choices multiply with a little creativity.
Olympic Motto »»
Posted on Apr 15, 2010
“Citius, Althius, Fortius,” Swifter, Higher, Stronger became the Olympic motto in 1924 for the 8th Olympiad. The choice was prophetic of the events to unfold. These were the games made famous by the actions of Scotsman Eric Liddell and Britain’s Harold Abrahams. Their story was popularized in the movie Chariots of Fire . It would be painful for a modern athlete, whose physique, technique and diet is minutely honed through years of computer modeling and personalized training, to watch Eric Liddell run. His arms, legs and head all ran separate races; this was not a polished, “show time” athlete. It is understandable then that Eric’s sole event became the short 100-meter sprint.
In the months leading to the Olympic Games the news circulated that Eric’s 100-meter event would be run on a Sunday. He was resolute from the start. A devote Christian, Eric would not run. Eric’s teammate and friend Harold Abrahams could run and he astonished the world by becoming the gold medalist! Eric withstood the tremendous pressure and in another departure from the modern approach, he instead entered the 200-meter and 400-meter events for the British team. Eric became the first Scotsman to stand on the Olympic medal platform and his bronze medal equaled the best finish in that event by any British athlete. Although Eric improved his performances with each race, he barely passed through the 400-meter qualifying heats and advanced. On the day of the 400-meter finals Eric surprised the field, which included the world record holder, by jumping to an early lead. The other runners could not catch Eric as he wind-milled around the track that day. Whether it was the presence of the beloved Queen’s Cameron Highlanders bagpipers, his personal faith or God himself, Eric was unbeatable. He ran the 400-meters in a new world record. Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams each returned home with the gold medals they so desired, yet each had won his award in an event he had not anticipated winning!
In life we often find ourselves unprepared for the events we enter. The recent few years are evidence enough of that fact! As individuals we are seldom the most polished, rarely the most gifted, or possibly even the most practiced as we approach our daily challenges. Yet, emotional strength, hope and the persistence to excel can overcome numerous other deficiencies if we have established a reservoir filled with such character components to draw upon. These too are essential elements of our school curriculum and a vital element in our list of our graduate traits.
Spring and Spuds »»
Posted on Apr 07, 2010
Wow! What a difference a few weeks’ time makes in the season of spring. Anyone with pollen allergies is miserable, popping antihistamines or both. However, if there is a more beautiful time than this season with temperate breezes, Azalea, Dogwood, Wisteria and myriad other flowering plants showing off, I am hard pressed to single it out. Yet, for the vast majority of flowering plants the time and energy spent actually blooming is minor. For most of a flowering plant’s annual cycle and life cycle they exhibit little evidence of their potential beauty.
Have you ever noticed that some potato chips have green patches on them? If you are like many others, you have set these rouges aside thinking they might make you sick. Green chips are not a clever marketing ploy for St. Patrick. It will come as no surprise to any of you that true potato chips are made from potatoes! Potatoes, of course, are plants and plants didn’t become as biologically successful as they are by wasting sunlight. Sometimes potatoes get “confused.”
Potatoes grow naturally underground by forming tuberous portions of the stem to store starches. However, sometimes these tubers grow so near the surface that cultivation, rain or irrigation removes the overlying soil, which exposes the potato to the sun. The resulting sun scald causes the potato to quickly assemble chlorophyll to trap sunlight energy. The good news is that chlorophyll is harmless to humans.
You may still choose to set green chips aside because eating green chips is too close to eating Green Eggs and Ham! However, whether these days find you enjoying spring flowers or eating green chips, think of these examples as reminders from the plant world that it is difficult to judge something by its appearance. Remembering that little “life lesson” as we approach the children and adults we rub shoulders with each day is a bonus of the beautiful spring season.
