Reacting to Tragedy Together

I just witnessed an amazing thing. Rivers faculty, students, and staff gathered this morning for a forty-minute assembly to honor the victims of yesterday's horrible tragedy in Boston. After a few introductory remarks, we let individual members of the community speak. Most who spoke were students. They were amazing! They talked about their fears, about the need to tell those that we love that we indeed love them, about the strength we need to fight hatred with love, about the need to support each other. Before we filed out in silence to gather at the flagpole, I told the students that I was blown away by their love and wisdom. It was a great Rivers moment, filled with honest emotion and reflection. As three students lowered the flag to half-mast, I prayed for their safety and silently thanked them for their willingness to share and be vulnerable. It is in that vulnerability that we find connection to others and strengthen our community. 

Ready for the Real World

One of the key goals of our mission here at Rivers is to “prepare our students for leadership in a world that needs their talents, imagination, intellect, and compassion.” For the past seven years, Rivers has gone a step farther to prepare students for the future by arranging summer internships in local business and research institutions. These internships are specifically designed to enable Rivers students to be productive members at their respective workplaces, rather than observers as summer interns often are.

Rivers’ interns share their experiences with the rest of the community during the summer through Facebook posts and at symposia on campus throughout the fall. It is so impressive to hear what these students have accomplished at such a high level. How many high school students have been invited to present papers at national conferences? Last year, Rebecca Iafrati ’12 spoke to the American Heart Association about her research at Boston University Medical Center on the relationship between obesity and blood clots. The previous year, three interns -- Alex Post ’10, Aaron Behr ’11, and Charlie Harrison ’11 -- presented their summer research at Bruker Daltonics during a national chemistry and spectroscopy conference.

The summer internship program is just one of a number of initiatives at Rivers to make learning relevant to the 21st century – a time that requires students to think creatively and independently, and be an effective team player. Our interdisciplinary courses, leadership lab, and flipped classrooms all help give our students the skills and experiences they need to face their future with confidence.

Please click here to watch a video story about three of this summer’s science interns and what they gained from their experiences at Reactive Innovations and Bruker Daltonics.

Rivers' "Innovation Engine"

When I step back and look at the innovative environment we have developed and continue to cultivate here at Rivers, I think of our 21st Century Education focus group. Many of our recent innovations can be traced back to this group of faculty members. I affectionately call this group our “innovation engine;” it comprises faculty members who participate on a volunteer basis. They meet several times during the school year to discuss topics that are on the forefront of education. As they explore these topics, they come away with ways in which we can better live our mission at Rivers – ways in which we can innovate. One major addition to the curriculum that was originated by a member of this focus group is our Interdisciplinary Studies Department. Please take a moment to watch the following excerpt from a speech I recently delivered to a group of parents, which describes how this department started and how our Annual Fund helps support innovation at Rivers: 

If you are having trouble viewing this video, please click here.

Leading an Independent School

Last month, Independent School, the quarterly magazine of the National Association of Independent Schools, published an article I co-wrote with a retired head of school about strategic thinking in schools. Cynthia and I loved working on the article two summers ago as we each reflected on our own experiences as leaders of independent schools. As the article points out, many heads sadly tend to become problem-solvers instead of thinkers and visionaries. The job certainly lends itself to falling into this trap. But too often the result is that no one is thinking deeply about what the school is and what the school can be in the future. Strategic thinking, supposedly what schools are paying heads to do, takes a back seat to solving problems with the head becoming the problem-solver-in-chief. 
 
Good strategic planning requires research, study, and deep thinking. Unfortunately, heads often substitute their own biases and values for the hard work of thinking strategically. As a result, schools unnecessarily limit their potential. 


Over the coming 24 months Rivers will begin its own strategic planning process. It will do so, however, only after we have completed our self-study for accreditation next year and an analysis of the intensely competitive independent school market in the Boston area. In short, we will look inward to see how we can do a better job of living our mission and look outward to determine if those improvements are important to prospective families. Both perspectives matter. Gazing inward provides the grist to inspire our educators; focusing on the external grounds our vision in the reality of the market place. Great strategic planning marries the two perspectives.

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.