The Sound of Silence

Usually, when our students are in “The Forest,” an area of wooded landed just past our campus, there is an abundance of noise that can be heard all the way back to the main school building.  When I hear this, it brings a smile to my face, as it is the happy noise of middle school students enjoying our Outdoor Program.  This Friday, however, students were stationed throughout The Forest and the only thing that one could hear was the sound of birds and the wind in the trees – and the occasional snapping sound of a stick burning in a fire.  

This Friday, all students in grades 6 through 8 participated in our annual Winter Solo.  After a brief organizational meeting, students went off to their individual places in the woods with a ferro rod and an aluminum foil packet of food they made earlier in the day.  The typical chatter and clamor of Outdoors was replaced by focused industriousness.  It was truly a sight to behold!

Once all the fires were extinguished and the students emerged from The Forest, they beamed with pride and self-satisfaction.  While they certainly were not in the wilderness, nor were the weather conditions treacherous – our students were challenged, and they provided clear evidence of their learning.

I can’t recall the last time that I was so pleased by the sound of silence during Outdoors!

Is this on the test?

“Is this going to be on the test?”  For many teachers, having students ask this question ranks highly on the list of pet peeves.  It really is a loaded question, as teachers worry that answering in the negative somehow means that what is being said is unimportant or inconsequential.  Likewise, an affirmative response may put too much emphasis.  For the most part, teachers are generally “peeved” because the question has undertones of anti-intellectualism.

I wish that I could say that students at The Beech Hill School don’t ask this question.  Unfortunately, they do, and quite frankly, assessment and feedback of understanding through tests and quizzes are essential elements of learning.  So, querying a teacher about the relative significance of a topic is not the worst that one could do – indifference would be much worse.

Lately, however, I have been struck by the number of ways that students engage in their education at BHS that is not formally assessed.  For example, last week we held our Winter Carnival.  A cadre of students, with the assistance of Mr. Holt and Ms. Marklin, planned, organized, and administered the events of the week.  The students dreamt up the themes of the daily dress and they orchestrated an amazing afternoon of activities on the final day of Winter Fest.  They were given the agency to own the event, and they did.

Similarly, this Friday we held our annual Invention Convention, which is the culmination of the 7th Grade Solutions class.  There is nothing on our students’ transcript that says “Solutions Class” – yet every year our students put forth a great effort to develop creative solutions to their everyday projects.  In the last 5 years, The Beech Hill School is proud to boast that two of our student inventors were invited to the National Invention Convention in Detroit, Michigan.  This year’s inventions were, like past years, creative, unique, and a culmination of great effort.  The students learned a great deal through the process, yet there was no test and no grade.

In the end, we have found a good balance between formal assessment and reporting at BHS, while inspiring our students to pursue and protect their curiosity.   For far too many, middle school becomes a time when curiosity is replaced with anxiety and a perceived need to perform.  At The Beech Hill School, attending to this balance is just another reason that our students thrive.

Grappling with Discomfort

When I was in high school, I wrestled.  I did not grow up wrestling, rather it was something that my football coach suggested that I do to improve my athleticism.  Wrestling is different from any other sport in which I ever participated, and I learned a great deal about the sport and myself during my competitive years.  My senior year, our team had T-shirts made with the slogan – “pain is just weakness leaving the body.”  For those that have wrestled, this likely seems quite normal, even tame, and for those that have not, it may seem a little radical.  Ultimately, enduring grueling training is ingrained in the culture of the sport, so that the match is never as hard as the practice.

Lately, our Skills classes have been exploring the connection between learning, the brain, and emotions.  As we continued to explore this topic, it became clear to me that discomfort, to some degree, is a regular and necessary part of the learning process.  Unlike wrestling culture, however, students, in general, don’t tend to champion the idea that learning should have a discomfortable component.

Truth be told, for several years I used the hash tag - #learning is fun – for BHS posts, because our students truly enjoy all of the hands-on projects and activities.  However, it is not as fun, and does not make for a good Instagram post, to watch as students build strong learning habits.  In every class, every day, students are required to use their planners, organize their binders, and complete other tasks that, eventually, become strong habits of mind.  It is this daily attention to the acquisition and maintenance of skills that is hard for most adolescents.  Throughout their time at BHS, our students are intentionally challenged and supported as they develop these necessary life skills.

This work is not glamorous, but it is critical.  Unlike the joy that comes from having one’s arm raised in a wrestling match, the joy that comes from improved learning skills is gradual.  Through the years, however, I have witnessed the great pride that our students exhibit as they begin to reap the benefits of their new skills.

Perhaps I will make a t-shirt extolling the virtues of organization, like “organization is just loose papers leaving the cubby.”  I will report back if this takes off…

Look Both Ways

On Thursday, in Skills classes, all 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade students watched May Brooks-Kempler’s TED Talk, Think Cyber, How to stay safe in an online world.  Her presentation served as a springboard for meaningful conversations with the students in the class, and really got them thinking.  Her presentation is rich with information and practical advice, but there was a point she made early on that resonated for me.  In passing, she asked the audience to consider that just over a hundred years ago, in cities throughout the world, there were very few laws or even accepted practices about crossing streets.  My research shows that it was not until the 1930’s that traffic control was widely attempted in the United States, even though the first pedestrian fatality is traced back to 1899.  One source indicates that the crosswalk was first successfully introduced in 1929 – which is still 30 years after the first fatality.

Ms. Kempler suggests that cyber-safety in the 21st Century is the same as road safety in the 20th Century.  Her comparison is a hopeful one, as in the Skills classes, every single student could identify the tools and the rules that one needs to follow to safely navigate even the busiest streets.  The notion of crossing at the crosswalk, looking both ways, and obeying the traffic signal was universally understood, and I would wager that this would be true of elementary school students as well.

While it would seem that road safety in 21st Century is a problem of the past, today’s adolescents have yet to benefit from universally accepted and understood rules that allow them to safely use the internet.  Perhaps this issue is more complex than simply traversing a busy intersection, but I am not so certain that it is.

In the meantime, the students at The Beech Hill School will continue to work on becoming safer and smarter users of the internet; as the technology that is present for our teachers and students is remarkable.  Eschewing technology because of the real dangers that exist would be as foolish as never crossing a street.  Despite the lack of universal norms and controls, we have learned a lot about wise ways to utilize technology – and when to limit its use as well.  I can’t imagine my life without my car, and after living in Philadelphia for a period of time, I can’t imagine trying to cross a street without crosswalks and traffic signals.  Life is better with technology and will be even better still when we agree to use it in a safe way.

"Is there another kind?"

For the majority of my adult life, I have lived in New Hampshire, so I am no stranger to the spectacle that is the first in the nation primary.  With the changes in technology, however, this year seemed different.  Like the past, there was an abundance of television advertising, and every day, as I checked the mailbox, I found dozens of mailers.  This year, I also received an astonishing number of text messages.  This was a little different from the past, but this trend started a few years back.  What I found remarkable this year was the regular and consistent use of hyperbole by all candidates in all formats.

One day, I would receive text messages warning me that a certain candidate was coming to take my money.  The next, a mailer informing me that another hates America, and so on.  It was rare to see politicking that simply stated a policy position or tried to get one “up close, and personal” with a candidate.  The overwhelming majority of the communications were designed to lead one to believe that their vote was not just an expression of preference, but that it would have dire consequences. 

This sense of dire consequence reminds me of the movie A Few Good Men.  Colonel Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson, while being cross examined by Lieutenant Caffey, played by Tom Cruise, gets trapped in his own sense of hyperbole, as he tries to convey the idea that all danger is “grave danger.”  In the scene, this begins the Colonel’s unraveling.  The moviegoer comes to see that there is a wide range of danger, and that not all danger is “grave,” as Col. Jessup previously suggested.

While the bombardment of hyperbolic rhetoric in the primary season is aimed at voters, it is on full display for all.  Our students passively and actively consume this rhetoric, many without the maturity to understand that hyperbole is a rhetorical device that is used to induce an emotional response.  Despite the fact that we work to help our students become more savvy consumers of media, many are still developing their critical thinking skills, and are unable to accurately decode rhetorical devices.

The primary has come and gone, but the Presidential election is still to come.  With that, it seems likely that the normalization of hyperbole will continue.   It seems to me that adolescents in our modern world will continue to struggle with the normalization of hyperbole.  This can have a number of negative impacts – including an increase in anxiety.

At The Beech Hill School, we will continue to make efforts to help our students consume all forms of media through our Skills program and within the curriculum, in general.  However, there is little doubt that the rise and normalization of hyperbolic language is just another challenge for today’s adolescents.