Education Updates Blog
Welcome to our blog, where we post updated information we feel might be helpful in your school or program search, scheduling alerts, relevant news from the educational, therapeutic and special needs communities… and our personal observations and suggestions
We hope you find this helpful.
We welcome your suggestions – please email them to us at JPD@dobconsult.com.
We've Got Issues, a book by Judith Warner - posted by Jody Dobson, January 24, 2011
Judith Warner began her research for this book to demonstrate that we are over-medicating our kids - but she concluded just the opposite: that these medications can help but too many kids are not receiving them.
Research on Brain Growth and Development - posted by Jody Dobson, January 14, 2011
Research on brain growth and development is changing conversations in many fields, including that of education. What are the primary influences on learning? Are they genetic? Environmental? Familial or cultural? And - related to these questions - how should learning be assessed?
My next postings - one from a New Yorker article, one from the head of a K-8 school - will address these questions.
In his recent New Yorker article, "How the new sciences of human nature can help make sense of a life," David Brooks quotes a prominent neuroscientist engaged in leading-edge brain research. He was asked how his research affected his view of his own life. Here is his surprising response:"I believe we inherit a great river of knowledge, a flow of patterns coming from many sources. The information that comes from deep in the evolutionary past we call genetics. The information passed along from hundreds of years ago we call culture. The information passed along from decades ago we call family, and the information offered (years or) months ago we call education. But it is all information that flows through us. The brain is adapted to the river of knowledge and exists only as a creature in that river. Our thoughts are profoundly molded by this long historic flow, and none of us exists, self-made, in isolation from it.
"And though history has made us self-conscious in order to enhance our survival prospects, we still have deep impulses to erase the skull lines in our head and become immersed directly in the river. I've come to think that flourishing consists of putting yourself in situations in which you lose self-consciousness and become fused with other people, experiences, or tasks. It happens sometimes when you are lost in a hard challenge, or when an artist or a craftsman becomes one with the brush or the tool. It happens sometimes while you're playing sports, or listening to music or lost in a story, or to some people when they feel enveloped by God's love. And it happens most when we connect with other people. I've come to think that happiness isn't really produced by conscious accomplishments. Happiness is a measure of how thickly the unconscious parts of our minds are intertwined with other people and with activities. Happiness is determined by how much information and affection flows through us covertly every day and year."
Read the entire article here.
Boarding Schools – topics of conversation. - posted by Jody Dobson, December 4, 2010
I just returned from the TABS (The Association of Boarding Schools www.boardingschools.com) annual conference in Baltimore. There were over 70 different sessions as well as keynote speakers on a range of topics; here are three that struck me as significant:
Marketing: In the age of "social media," schools are considering different ways to define themselves, choose and target their audiences, and cultivate not only new enrollments but ongoing loyalty within their key constituencies.
But this truth remains – each school needs a clear and distinct mission statement, and more importantly, needs to "do what they say they are" every day in every area. As a consultant visiting many schools every year, this is what I look for above all else. The real estate tour ("Here's our new gym, here's our dining hall, etc.") is not nearly as important as listening to the people who actualize the mission (head of school and faculty) and the people who are living it daily (students and parents.) I always urge my boarding school clients to do the same – and to use social media to become part of the conversations that are out there about all boarding schools. Under Helpful Links: Boarding and Day Schools, I have posted several helpful sites for parents and students looking at boarding schools.
Global Education: Nearly all boarding schools have significant numbers of international students. This is sometimes a concern on the part of prospective parents, who wonder if the schools are just filling beds. In some cases, this is indeed a factor. But many schools are realizing the educational value for all students of a more global perspective.
China is the second-largest country and fastest-growing economy on earth. Other Asian countries have been sending students to our schools for years. But there has been a dramatic increase in boarding school applications from Chinese families, who see American private schools and universities as the gateway to successful participation in this booming world economy. And American boarding schools are realizing that they need to respond in a more integrated way. It is the rare school now that does not offer Mandarin Chinese. Schools are offering exchange programs with Chinese schools, cultivating their Chinese families for fundraising, and instituting more courses with international perspectives, including the International Baccalaureate curriculum.
College Admissions – "Excellent Sheep": William Deresiewicz, Professor of English at Yale and Contributing Editor of The New Republic, gave a compelling keynote speech in which he questioned the value for our culture, our country, and especially our children of the enormous pressure placed on getting into college. Too many students, he claims, are "resume-building" rather than being truly educated, and too many school cultures are driven to define themselves in this same narrow way – by their college admissions lists. In college prep schools, the levels of fear and anxiety caused by this single-minded focus are well-documented and pernicious. And the trend continues at too many colleges. The ironic and tragic result: The very institutions that were created to serve the ideals of classic liberal education -"How do I make a life?"- are instead turning out "oligarchs in training" who are interested only in "How do I make a living?"
The good news – The best independent schools are aware of this pressure and are constantly pushing back against it, striving to keep the passion for learning, the search for meaning, and the need for moral imagination and courage at the center of their work with students - sometimes (unfortunately) in spite of pressure from parents to put college (or career) resume-building first.
Boarding Schools – Why would I want to send my child away?? - posted by Jody Dobson, October 26, 2010
Many parents who come to talk with us about school choices may already know about boarding schools. But for those who do not, the idea of considering a boarding school can come as a shock. Often there are popular misconceptions about boarding schools: They are for problem kids. They are for kids from unhappy families. They are too restrictive. They are too permissive! Drugs are everywhere. And so on.
I am a day school product. I worked in independent day schools for over 30 years. My sons both graduated from day schools. I often counseled parents away from considering boarding schools, largely out of the same impulse – Why would you want to send your child away?
But after more than a decade as a consultant, I know better. There are so many reasons why children are well served at boarding schools. I will mention just three reasons:
- Choice. The first reason is the most obvious; considering boarding schools as well as day schools significantly increases the choices for parents seeking the right schools for their children. Even in an area like Philadelphia, which abounds in great day schools, the choices are limited – even more so if special learning needs or extra-curricular interests are factors in the search. By considering boarding schools as well, a family in the mid-Atlantic region can have many more excellent choices within only a two-hour radius – even more if they expand further.
- Independence. A primary purpose of education is to give children the tools and experiences that will enable them to be independent, successful adults. That doesn't mean pushing them out of the nest before they are ready! But is does mean giving them safe, gradual, guided experiences in independence. Boarding schools do this very well. And the reality is, your children will be home, or you will be visiting them, every three weeks on average anyway – less time than a typical stay at a summer camp.
- Relationships with parents. It sounds counter-intuitive, but I hear it all the time: parents report that relationships with their children actually improve when they are enrolled in boarding schools. The senses of strength and competency that children derive from their boarding school experiences make them appreciate home and their parents from a new perspective. And parents no longer have to be "homework police!" They can simply enjoy their children's being home.
I will comment further on boarding schools in future blogs.
"If only I had done this sooner…" - posted by Jody Dobson, September 24, 2010
In our work with families with special needs children, we often hear parents say this. Often these are concerned, dedicated parents who have struggled to understand their children's needs and respond the best way they know how. Typically, they have tried local services such as IEP's, tutoring, therapy, or medication – but the struggles have continued. When they come to see us, they are understandably distraught, feeling they have somehow fallen short as parents.
Here is what we say to these parents: "You are doing this sooner. Sooner is now." The parents we see are concerned enough, dedicated enough, diligent enough, to have realized they can't give their children what they need without significant help – often the help of a residential placement – and they have come to us for guidance. Far from seeing them as parents who should have acted sooner, we congratulate them as parents willing to do whatever it takes to help their children.
The journey begins wherever it begins, and it is never too late.
