Schroedinger's Cameraman

From Chicago Public Radio's "This American Life."

If you can't see this, the direct link is here.

3 Bombs

A fascinating op-ed in yesterday's NY Times by Thomas Friedman about the differences between our lives and our children's lives. He compares the nuclear threat from the Soviets that shadowed our (boomer) childhoods with the three threats that he now sees challenging his children's lives: the nuclear threat from terrorists, the economic threat from a government deeply in debt, and the environmental threat from global warming. The element that creates the most anxiety is not knowing exactly when any of these "bombs" will go off, and the fact that only the nuclear threat is being seriously addressed. There are a couple of nice quotes in the article. From environmentalist Rob Watson: "Mother Nature is just chemistry, biology, and physics... Mother nature always bats last, and she always bats a thousand." And from John Holdren: "We're driving in a car with bad brakes in a fog and heading for a cliff. We know for sure that cliff is out there. We just don't know exactly where it is. Prudence would suggest that we should start putting on the brakes."

One of Tom's most thought-provoking columns.

Scream Trumpet

Apropos of absolutely nothing, here's a video showing one person's ranking of the top 5 high-note movie trumpet solos. In a previous life, I had dreams of being the next Maynard Ferguson.

Whew! September's Over!

Over the past 19 years I've seen the first month of the school year become just as busy and hectic as the final month of the school year, and man, I'm sure glad it's over. We've had one all school hike, two class retreats (with another next week), an expulsion, the beginning of soccer season, assemblies on drugs, recycling, and community service, back-to-school night, an evening poetry reading, an evening college application workshop, and the blending of new students and teachers into a new community. All in all it's been great, quite positive (except for the expulsion), and the new folks are proving to be great additions to our community. Alas, it's still exhausting, in a way that seems more intense than it was in 1991. Perhaps it's having more students, or the general anxiety caused by (choose any 3) the economy, 9-11, health care, angry town halls, our children's future prospects, or any of the myriad of issues we carry with us each day. As the days turn cooler (how do you like living in San Francisco East) our pace will slow a bit, and hopefully allow us to become more reflective and think more deeply about how and why we go about the work we take on. Soon enough the pace will pick up, as we begin to budget and plan for the 2010-2011 school year!

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on Flow

One of the really good thinkers of the past couple of decades, his concept of "Flow" posits that people perform best when they have a high degree of skill and strong (but not unreasonable) challenges. Lots of implications for our teaching, and education in general.



If you're not familiar with the TED conferences, their videos and podcasts are well worth checking out at ted.com.

Convergence

What will the world be like in 20 years, when our students' children are starting school?

More Obama-this time, health care

I'm in a writing frenzy today! It usually takes me weeks to get worked up enough to write!

Lest the wingnuts drive us to think that healthcare is just fine in America, our small business is facing a 20% increase in premiums next year. Tuition went up 2%. You can do the math.

Our broker says that 20% is pretty good... one of our small school compatriots is seeing a 76% increase in their premiums.

Our faculty's average age did not change, nor did any of us have catastrophic illnesses.

My choices: increase the teacher's contribution, weaken the plan we offer, fire all the old teachers and replace them with young teachers.

And we're just one, small, business. Maybe that's why we get hit so hard, where are we going to go? Something needs to be done.

We Survived the Indoctrination!

I'm sure that all of our students' parents are pleased that, despite our president's attempts to indoctrinate us with his socialist message, the school is still standing. A few of my personal highlights are quoted below. My favorite quote with regard to the controversy came from the NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who called the protesters "stupid." Quite right!

"But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. "

"And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it."

"...at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying."

"...the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

"That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

"These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

"No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in."

The latest from the Fringe

How unbelieveable is this... parents don't want their kids to listen to the President of the United States talk about the importance of education because they think he's "trying to indoctrinate their children with socialist ideas" according to the NY Times. I suppose it's no surprise in a country where 40% of the population believe in ghosts, and the value of science is undercut by the value placed on faith. (Personally, I'm comfortable with mystery, and the idea that while not everything can be explained, as time passes more and more can be.)

Oh well, we'll certainly allow our students to listen to the president during lunch on Tuesday, and hope that they take his message of hard work and accomplishment to heart. That, after all, is part of our mission as a school and as parents. And the further some folks move their kids to the fringe, the more room there is for our kids at the top!

We're Ready! Are You?

After a summer of painting and cleaning, and three full days of meetings, we're ready for the school year to finally begin! The place is just too quiet and empty without adolescent energy... remind me I said that come November!

Zero to One Hundred in one day

Well, maybe to 50 in one day... 100 will arrive with the students on the 31st!

After spending three weeks on Cape Cod with my 82 year old father, I'm back in the saddle here at The Nora School preparing for the new school year. Even after doing this for 18 years, I'm amazed at the amount of work that's needed to prepare the building, the faculty, and the families for the upcoming term.

Living life at the pace of an 82-year-old retiree on the Cape certainly is relaxing! Reading, an occasional trip to the beach or the golf course, having all afternoon to prepare dinner... life could hardly be more placid. Returning to school, needing to hire new teachers to manage our over enrollment, going to board meetings of other institutions, having the new bus painted and lettered, getting new lawn furniture, removing the rubble of summer cleanup, preparing for faculty in-service, and planning the creation of a new school community when students arrive, all takes a huge effort, and offers a stark contrast to reading Michael Connolly on the beach!

Perhaps this intensity is now compressed due to my desire to spend time free time with my father and give my sisters a break. Not having spent much time during the winter, spring, and summer breaks to manage the detritus of school life (such as digging out my office) means that when I am here the amount that needs to be done is fairly daunting.

Nonetheless, the world is an amazing place, full of surprises, and in a few days we'll again have the privilege of sharing all these wonders with young people. While my office will probably always be a bit of a mess, my hope is that it goes along with my curiosity and enthusiasm for learning and sharing.

Dad and his cousin Caroline at the Boston Pops concert in Hyannis.

Is planning overrated?

“In all the briefing papers prepared for the famous Clinton Little Rock [economic] summit in late 1992, the word Internet never appeared.”
– Daniel Gross, Newsweek

So, beyond our current recession, what disruptive force are we missing today?
(thanks to Daniel Pink for pointing out the quote)

For your summer reading enjoyment!

Happy Reading! The Nora 2009 Summer List.

For Parents sending kids off to college... The Myth of Maturity, by Terri Apter

By clicking on the links below you can order directly through the Nora Bookstore at Amazon.com.

Good for Everyone... Mindset, by Carol Dweck How intelligence is developed, and The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, by Wendy Mogel, on developing resilience.

Summer Reading Book Groups, please choose ONE.

Dave’s Group: The Last Town on Earth, by Thomas Mullen

Lorraine’s Group: Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson

Hedy’s Group: Life Beyond Measure, by Sidney Pottier

Scott’s Group: The Way Home, by George Pelecanos

Chris’s Group: Gateway, by Frederik Pohl

Mara’s Group: Pictures at an Exhibition, by Sarah Houghteling

Patrick's Group: The Five People You Meet In Heaven, by Mitch Albom

Nic’s Group: Hot, Flat, and Crowded, by Thomas Friedman

Janette's Group: Into the Blue, by Rebecca Gault

Anthony's Group: Red Sky at Morning, by Richard Bradford

Robert's Group: Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

Jay's Group: How Soccer Explains the World, by Franklin Foer

Enjoy!

Film in 5 years

Here's a time lapse video of Jill Enfield making a large format photograph using the wet collodian process, a process used for a period during the 19th century. I wonder if my videos on the Nora website on developing film will someday have historical value, or at least be fodder for the curious. If you're a fan of black and white photography, Jill's website is well worth checking out.

Sad News from Thornton Friends

Our friends at Thornton Friends School have decided that, due to low enrollment, they will be unable to continue in operation and are closing the school. This is a sad day for Nora, as the folks at Thornton have been long-time rivals as well as helpful colleagues over the past 30 years. Thornton and Nora (then WEHS), along with Parkmont, are about the only secondary schools left from the founding of the Washington Small Schools Association in 1988. Founded in 1973, Thornton is nine years younger than Nora, but during my early years had the more experienced leadership, a better building, more students, and set the standard that pushed us to always improve. They went out in style, defeating Nora 20-1 in what would be their final athletic contest on the softball field. It feels like a death in the family. We'll miss them.

Lest there be any concern about Nora, we are fully enrolled and staffed for next year, own our building, and have a strong (and conservatively invested) endowment. Now in our 45th year, we fully expect to be around for the next 45.

Congratulations Josh Blinder!

Josh, Class of '7?, won a Webby Award for "Best Online Video Documentary Series" for his series about African American and Jewish athletes in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. You can see the series here. Josh received the award in New York City on June 8, and was back at work in the Holocaust Museum when the guard was shot.

New Photo Exhibit

Another photo blog... it must be summer! There's a new exhibit down at National Geographic (between 16th & 17th Streets/L & M Streets, Farragut North Metro) on tourism photography in Europe using the lovely, soon-to-be defunct, Kodachrome film. While you're there, see the other very cool exhibit on lions and leopards! This is the time of year to get to these exhibits, as we can sometimes come to work late, or leave a bit early, or take a long lunch, or have a weekend "staycation" while seeing the world. And best of all, most of what we can see in DC is free (although it would be nice to actually be on this beach in Spain)!