Notes from Roundtable Discussion on Foundational Questions

PDC Thursday Roundtables—February 14, 2013:

Topic:  Foundational Questions:  What We Live and What We Believe

Attendees:  Hans Doerr, Marty Miller, Cindy Crowner, Mike Eckert, Andrew Sykes, Blair Buck, Ann Williams, Jason Beck

Reading:  Foundational Questions PDC Blog Post

Thoughts:  Using the questions below, our discussion ranged from the set of “buzz-words” that we fall back on in these types of conversations to how we differentiate ourselves in the marketplace:

• What are the essential learning outcomes or qualities of your students when they graduate?
• What is the desired relationship at your school between students, teachers, and knowledge?
• What is the differentiated value that your school offers to your clients?

While we didn’t come up with any real answers to these questions, they did lead us to a number of very good conversations about the nature of school life at Blair and places like Blair.  The notes below come at these questions from a wide-array of vantage points, but they suggest a natural desire for focused goal setting and that proactive approaches with a defined set of intended outcomes can be incredibly helpful for faculty and students both in the classroom and the broader community.

Particular questions and issues that were raised:

•  Independent learning, critical thinking, having an ethical compass, lifelong learning, living with passion:  while we may list these traits as important, don’t all schools want to do these things? 
• How do we instill a sense of stewardship in our kids?
• Old-style boarding school life created an Old-boy network that provided real value to their personal and professional lives.  Is that a value we create – whether intentional or unwanted?  Is our alum network a vital contribution to the lives of our graduates?  Should it be?  How can make the most of this network?
• So many of our students come from non-traditional boarding school backgrounds and are fully buying into our community and way of life with a non-cynical sense of service.  Some schools have made it their mission to produce leaders of education and social change institutions.  Should such a public service focus become a more intentional part of our community and educational function?
• Do all of our kids feel challenged to lead or serve?  While our best kids do wonderful things in this way, what kind of improvements do we engender for those who don’t arrive at Blair as leaders and servants?
• A Value-Added Approach demands that we not simply claim the credit for the accomplishments of our best kids, but that we look at what we have provided for our students who struggle.  While we work at this in an organic fashion, it is hard to quantify and exists without structure.
• How do we differentiate ourselves from other boarding schools?  We should easily provide value over public and day schools, but what about our peer and aspirational groups?   
• How do we create Academic Differentiation:  APs?, a place that teaches service and learning? Technology in education and life?
• Why are students successful at Blair?  How has the school changed?  What do students who leave Blair think were the real values of their experience here?
• The value of an intentional approach to community life, the dorm experience, community service, leadership training, academic issues.  Differentiation asks for a specific set of approaches to these important areas of school life. 
• There is a ton of value and learning that happens at Blair in all areas of life, but how can we make sure it is being maximized for all our students? 
• Things that could be an area of focus:  service-learning, global studies (we already have a developed international program in Kenya to draw upon), Housemaster-ing as an educational function, harkness learning, essay writing, humanities curriculums, etc
• How do help kids find academic curiosity?  How do the adults in this community model the learning and living behaviors we expect of our students?
• When asked what makes Blair special, the conversation tends to rightfully come back to “community”…  what does that mean?  And how can we highlight what is special about our academic approach?

Action items:

1.  Look at surveying recent alums (5 and 10 year) to more fully understand how the Blair experience provides value in their lives both in college and beyond.
2. Continue broad conversations about how Blair differentiates itself in the community and in the classroom.  Be aware of how other schools market their value-added approaches to school life, and see where opportunities exist for Blair to carve a niche. 
3. Continue to advocate for academic approaches that go beyond the basic:  flipped-classroom models, humanities curriculum, skill-set alignment by grade level, Harkness-style classrooms.
4. Encourage more people to attend the regular PDC Roundtable Discussions.

Looking Ahead:           Thursday, February 21^st at 6:30 PM in Clinton 205.
Topic:  Advanced Placement Courses:  Academic handcuffs or a valuable curriculum?