Making History

The following is a guest post by faculty member, Ben Leeming. Ben is the History Department Chair at Rivers.

This year the Rivers history department initiated the first phase of a long-planned shift in the history curriculum with the launch of a brand-new ninth-grade course titled Perspectives in World History (PWH). Students and teachers alike have responded favorably to this new offering, which approaches world history from a thematic perspective that emphasizes the historical roots of present-day issues such as “wealth and poverty,” “the environment,” and “violence and conflict.”

PWH seeks to confront ninth-graders with relevant issues seen from multiple points of view and challenges them to grapple with ambiguity and contradiction in an effort to develop their own critically-informed opinions. PWH is internet-based, research and writing intensive, and skills-oriented. The course aims to equip students with the critical thinking skills necessary to navigate a rapidly changing, expanding, and globalized world. 

The ultimate goal of the changes we are making in the history department is to foster passion for historical inquiry in our students. We hope to kindle this passion during the freshman and sophomore years through exposure to newly-conceived year-long courses, and then fan it into flame junior and senior years by allowing students to delve deeply into more specific areas of study. Many of us recall from our college days that experience of opening up the course catalogue and pouring over page after page of history offerings, wishing we could somehow take them all. This is the sort of experience we hope to present to our Rivers students. 

The second phase of changes will unfold this coming academic year and involves shifting United States History, traditionally taught during the junior year, to the tenth grade. As history faculty members, we wanted to offer a greater degree of choice to students interested in history and to shift the balance of course offerings away from the traditional, year-long survey course and toward a variety of diverse and interesting history electives. By moving U.S. History to the tenth grade, we will eventually open up both eleventh and twelfth grades to electives, many of which are totally new and currently in the planning stages. 

U.S. History will remain a graduation requirement, and will be taught to both tenth and eleventh graders next year until it can transition fully into the sophomore year. We are already referring to 2012-2013 as “the year of United States History” in the history department! Students who receive the necessary departmental recommendation will have the option of taking the Advanced Placement U.S. History course, which will be available to both tenth and eleventh graders next year. Honors U.S. History will be offered simultaneously for qualified students. 

The third and final phase of the course changes will commence in the fall of 2013. By this time PWH will be in its third year as the foundation of the Upper School history experience, U.S. History will have settled into its new position in the tenth grade, and juniors and seniors will have many exciting electives to choose from. Each elective will fall into one of four “strands”: ancient history, early modern history, modern history, or U.S history. Examples of elective topics will include: modern Latin America, modern Africa, modern India, disease in history, Muslim Empires, the Maya & Aztecs, war in the nuclear age, and “Big History.” As a consequence of moving AP U.S. History to the tenth grade, AP Modern European History – arguably the most advanced history course offered at Rivers – will be open to both juniors and seniors beginning in the fall of 2013. In an effort to provide an uninterrupted strand of Advanced Placement courses to qualified Upper School students, we are also considering offering AP Government as an option to juniors and seniors. Finally, the Rivers history department will continue to offer the option for Independent Study, effectively a one credit “elective” in which interested students may arrange for directed study of a historical topic of their choice with a history faculty member. 

Our aim is both to inspire in students a lifelong love of history and instill in them the qualities of a good historian: analytical, informed, open-minded and perceptive.

"Hope is a Good Thing"

On Friday, I watched Rivers students perform Man of La Mancha. The performances were captivating, and the young Rivers thespians earned a standing ovation. The play presents the struggle with the age-old conflict between delusion and hope – the romantic vision versus the practical reality. In the end, despite the misguided, fanciful antics of Don Quixote, hope seems to win. Quixote's romantic vision softens the heart of Aldonza/Dulcinea, almost erasing the grit and grime of her soul so she can find compassion and reach out to the man who believed in her.

"Hope is a good thing." Remember that line from the Shawshank Redemption. The pragmatists wrongly believe that hope is about the future, about a misguided, unfounded prediction of what will happen. Hope is about the present; it's about finding ways to sustain ourselves when life goes terribly wrong. And it works, not always in the way that we intend, but it works. Aldonza became Dulcinea because Don Quixote saw her and treated her with respect and even reverence. It was his romantic vision that changed her. Once she accepted that vision – in essence once she accepted his love – she could rise above her self-absorbed life to find meaning.

A friend of mine once said of hope: "Act as if it's real, and see how your life is changed." A big thank you to the Rivers actors for reminding me of this lesson.

How Art Prepares Students for a Changing World

Rivers' recent results from the Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards competition remind me of the importance of art in preparing our students for a changing world. Fifty-one Rivers students garnered recognition including 10 Gold Key recipients. It's an astounding achievement, and a testament to our superior art faculty and talented students.

So, why should we care about art in secondary education? Why does Rivers insist on a two-year art requirement when most schools require just one? After all, many colleges do not consider art grades when evaluating student applications. When I came to Rivers in 1997 these were questions I asked with an eye toward reducing the prominence of art in the curriculum. But after a few years, I became a convert, and now I'm a "true believer."

Here's why: Art demands that students use the skills of an entrepreneur. The student must use her imagination to create a vision. That vision must be adjusted to match her skills. In other words, vision and execution are bound to each other. The student must then be open to mid-course changes as she executes her plan. And finally, she must have standards by which to evaluate each step of the process. What other subject so consistently demands imagination, vision, creativity, execution, mid-course adjustments, and honest evaluation? These are the skills that will make a difference in the 21st century. These are the skills of an entrepreneur.

Art matters for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the cultivation of important skills not always found in the traditional disciplines.

Enhancing the Quality of Student Experience

A few weeks ago, each of the four Upper School Deans spent the day shadowing a student from his/her respective class. The idea for this “shadow day” originated with our Assistant Head of School and Dean of Student Affairs, Jim Long, and has continued now for several years. The insights gleaned from these days allow us to assess our students’ quality of experience.

When I use the term "quality of experience," I am referring to the degree to which students are truly engaged in the learning process, the extent to which they are deriving real meaning from their experiences at Rivers, and the balance between their intellectual and social pursuits. After “shadow day,” the Deans always come away with a great appreciation for the high caliber of teaching they observe, but they also invariably come away with a concern about the intensity and pace of the school day. These observations have led us to re-examine our daily schedule this year with the hope that we can do a better job of enhancing learning and improving the quality of student experience in the future.

We examine our program constantly. Excellence is a critical value at Rivers, but we refuse to achieve it at the expense of other equally important values: quality of experience, relationships within the community, our spirit of innovation, and character development. At Rivers, "balance" does not mean sacrificing a part of each of these values. Rather, it means living in the tension these values sometimes create and using our collective imagination to reconcile these tensions to produce a stronger learning environment and a better experience. We want our students to leave Rivers loving to learn, and that's why quality of experience matters to us.

"Sled Dog Moments"

On Monday Dr. Amy Enright, a member of the Rivers history department, gave a wise and wonderful talk to our students about searching for work that inspires us individually as opposed to fulfilling the expectations of others – work that feels more like play than work. In this talk, she referenced a news story she read last year called “Why Do Sled Dogs Run?” which explored the reasons behind why sled dogs find pure joy in hard work.

Dr. Enright went on to call times of hard, yet rewarding work “sled dog moments” because sled dogs appear to do their work simply because they love it. We tend to lose ourselves in this kind of work and become oblivious to time and our surrounding environment. Dr. Enright implored our students to find these moments in their work.

One of the defining attributes of Rivers is the concern for students' quality of experience. Quality of experience at Rivers means students squarely facing the challenges we put before them and, as a result, finding meaning in successfully meeting those challenges. It means students gaining self-confidence and self-efficacy such that they come to believe they can do this thing called adulthood. Part of this journey is students’ discovery of what they love and what they are good at; herein lies the power of the "sled dog moments." Recognizing those moments - those times when, as Dr. Enright states, "work becomes an expression of self" - is critical to leading a happy, fulfilling, and meaningful life. In turn, it is our job as parents and educators to help young people reflect on those moments, embrace them, and learn something about themselves in the process.

Community at Its Best

On Wednesday, January 4, most of the school's students and teachers traveled to Fenway Park to watch the girls’ varsity hockey team play St. George's at Frozen Fenway. It was a great Rivers moment – a shared experience that strengthened our community. This sense of collaboration and coming together around shared experiences is a cornerstone of the Rivers way.

Last Monday, Middle School math teacher Sam Poland spoke to the entire student body about the regret he still feels about giving up his dream of playing basketball in college, even though that decision led him to another activity he found fulfilling: singing. His point was that we need to think carefully about the choices we make, and his speech captured the attention of the entire student body at All-School Meeting that day. It was another shared moment. 

The concept of community can be an enigma. Americans, in particular, extol the virtues of individualism and sometimes chafe against the straight jacket of community pressure. Some American writers have criticized community for creating a culture that stifles the individual. I've seen this happen; I get it. 

But I'm not ready to toss community building aside and label it irrelevant at best or detrimental at worst. I have seen too many instances when community has lifted our students and promoted their growth as individuals: the star athlete who learns the value of teamwork, the senior who shares the poignant death of her father in her senior speech, an upper classman reaching out to freshmen. Community at its best encourages each of us to use our individual leadership strengths and to sublimate our individual wants in order to satisfy our intensely human need for connection. When those connections reflect and support our core values of respect, honesty, compassion, and responsibility, and enhance the quality of experience here at Rivers, how can we not be enriched as individuals?

Music at Rivers: Instrumental in the Learning Experience

The following is a guest post by Rivers Performing Arts Department Chair David Tierney. David is also the Director of The Rivers School Conservatory.

The interview on The Rivers School website with Rivers’ Jazz Director Philippe Crettien gives the listener insight into nearly every aspect of what makes the music program at Rivers so outstanding. The passion Philippe has for jazz is evident in every word and gesture; the depth of his dedication to teaching is palpable as he talks about the cycle of students and educators teaching each other; and his commitment to “being in the moment” with a “valid music statement” through his own learning and performing is unambiguous. But what makes Philippe a great teacher and the jazz program at Rivers the envy of public and private schools across the country is his unshakable belief that every student can play jazz well and the generosity of spirit and energy that he uses to guide every one of his students through the mastery of their instrument, music, and jazz.

Why is jazz so important? Before we can answer that question, we need to acknowledge why music in general is so valuable to learning. During the past 20 years, there have been numerous and extensive studies conducted by the National Association of Music Educators, McMaster University, University of California at Berkley, and Stanford University, to name a small handful, on the relationship between music and learning. The evidence seems to overwhelmingly prove that studying music trains the brain for higher forms of thinking including sequential learning which translates into stronger reading comprehension and math scores for music students. In my opinion, music also fills the most serious abyss in our education system – and perhaps in our society today – a lack of self-discipline. The very nature of learning an instrument, while providing the student with an intensely personal connection with a teacher-artist, requires the student to think and work independently, develop self-confidence, engage in honest self-critique, think creatively, communicate clearly and concisely, and persevere.

Both jazz and classical music require technical mastery of an instrument and artistic creativity. While the classical musician needs to interpret a musical score in order to bring the notes on the page to life, the jazz musician must use technique and improvisational skills simultaneously to both create and perform un-composed music using only a handful of written directions (changes) in the score. Jazz performance is uniquely authentic, requiring the performer to be the composer in the moment, creating and playing music with passion, developing musical ideas by listening, thinking, and responding to others in the performance. The best analogy I have heard is that the classical musician is like a Shakespearean actor who has mastered a script but must now bring a character to life, while a jazz musician is the actor without a script, perhaps with only a few notes for direction, who must immediately perform in character and engage in dialogue with other actors.

At Rivers, we hold students in both classical and jazz studies to the highest standards. Philippe Crettien is emblematic of the quality of teachers and the program at Rivers. He pushes his students' artistic imagination and critical and creative thinking skills to levels they never dreamed of attaining. The result is district, state, and national recognition, signifying a program of unparalleled depth and quality.