This fall I have been very fortunate to have been involved in our membership organizations. I am on the Board of Trustees for both the American Montessori Society (AMS) and the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS), on the executive committees as treasurer for both organizations.
My first meeting was in San Diego for AMS. We hold the meeting where the national conference will be, to familiarize ourselves with the location. This year we appointed a President Elect Mary Ellen Kordas, who some may remember facilitated for us at the beginning of the year for our World Cafe strategic planning session. We also approved hiring of a new Executive Director who will be announced shortly. The process was a thorough one. We hired Triangle Search firm, who is run by Pat Bassett, former President of the National Association of Independent Schools. The Search Committee was selected and Dane Peters (last year's WHMS graduation speaker) was the Chair of this Committee. The search committee helped to vette the candidates and after video interviewing, the field was narrowed to six people to interview in person with the Search Committee. The committee met them at LaGuardia Airport and then selected three to continue in the process. All three met the entire board in San Diego and then the final candidate was revealed, and will be announced shortly. Our current AMS president Joyce Pickering also told us about a new credential add on for Special Education, a training to help classroom teachers serve the needs of children with learning differences. Hopefully this will be finalized by June.
Last
week I attended the Heads of School conference for the New York State
Association of Independent Schools, as well as the Board of Trustees
meeting. I always feel so fortunate to hear the excellent speakers and be
a part of the workshops.
NYSAIS
is primarily made up of New York City schools. As you can imagine,
the Manhattan independent schools are extremely competitive, and one might
think very traditional in approach. I am very proud that the Heads
of School in NYSAIS are extremely dedicated to equity and justice, and despite
the competitive nature of their schools and the pressures to maintain the
status quo, they are consciously seeking ways to teach children to be
innovative problem solvers, develop creativity and be responsible leaders.
The
board retreat for NYSAIS featured Derrick Gay,
an internationally recognized consultant to schools and educational
organizations around the world on issues of diversity, inclusion and global
citizenship. The workshop helped us understand more about diversity and
what it means.
The Heads conference that followed featured Frank Bruni,
author and columnist from the New York Times, Ali Michael, and Eli
Green.
Frank Bruni was an excellent speaker whose main topic was on
his book, Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be. His review of research
revealed how little difference the college that people attended made on their
success (measured by salary, although the Gallup Purdue study is measuring
other success markers.) He also spoke on the tremendous mental health toll
caused by the perpetual focus on college admissions. Students can become
focused on college admission rather than enjoyment of life and everything
becomes a means to an end. Instead, students should select
activities and work that brings them fulfillment throughout their high school
experience. Then they should select a college to match these interests,
and then make the most of their college experience through hard work and
engagement.
Eli
Green’s workshop entitled Building Transgender-Affirming Schools. He
reported that students who are transgender are frequently bullied by peers, face
rejection from families, and are generally lacking sources of support and
affirmation. As a result, many transgender students are struggling personally,
socially and academically, with significant negative consequences, including
high rates of suicide. He educated us on terminology and definitions in
the areas of gender identity and sexual orientation, and also talked about ways
to help create an environment of affirmation for all. One of my takeaways
was the harmfulness of the cumulative effects of ‘micro-aggressions,’ such as receiving disapproving
looks.
Ali
Michael’s presentation was on How and Why We Need to Talk about Race as Heads
of School: Lessons from the Classroom. I was a little nervous about this
one as she is a white woman talking about racism. It was a great workshop
and despite times of discomfort, we all came out more knowledgeable and
motivated to do something more about eliminating racism. She talked about
the difference between multi-cultural classrooms and anti-racist classrooms.
She talked about “the talk” that parents have with their
children. For white families that might be about the birds and bees, but
for black families it is about how to behave around law
enforcement. We need to help our students walk in the shoes of
others so we can all work together to end racism.
