Traffic Duty in the Morning

So why do I direct traffic in the morning?  There is a serious answer to this question, and the answer reflects the school’s educational philosophy. 

First, let me say that it is important to have an adult out there each morning to make sure that the students are safe as they cross the driveway.  And I like waving to the parents who drop their children off. 

But the most important thing I am accomplishing by directing traffic is welcoming students. Sometimes, I congratulate them on a performance or a game or a speech. But most of the time I just greet them, and in doing so, I am signaling to them that at Rivers it is okay for them to be themselves.  Teenagers crave validation (we all do, actually), and once they feel that validation from the community, the building blocks are in place for them to soar. This simple gesture coming from the authority of the school tells students that they can take risks, they can pursue passions, they can go about the business of becoming the person they want to become without worrying about how others perceive them or if they will be judged.

There are schools that motivate students out of fear.  Some motivate through a rigid code of conformity.  Others pit student against student.  Rivers is different.  By signaling to students that it is okay to be themselves, the school creates the fertile ground that then allows our great teachers to work their magic - challenging them, inspiring them, encouraging them. 

So why do I do traffic duty in the morning.  It’s a critical part of the equation that is designed to help students become their best selves, not through fear, conformity, or uber competition, but rather through extending an invitation and making that invitation as enticing as possible.  I think it is the best way to educate children.

Taking Stock

I recently read an article in The New York Times by Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield who proposed that a company's ultimate success often rests with its leader's willingness to step back, examine, and reset, if necessary, the company's basic assumptions and goals. For them, self-examination is seen not as a sign of weakness, but one of confidence and creativity.

At Rivers we are spending this academic year conducting a self-study as the first step in the school's re-accreditation. Committees of faculty and staff have closely examined everything from the curriculum to the administrative structure. A summary document of our findings will be reviewed by an outside committee of educators, including the heads of Greenwich Academy and Milton Academy, and they will make their own recommendations to Rivers next fall.

I have been most interested in the results of the recent surveys that our students, parents, and alumni have taken the time to thoughtfully answer, because, as our “customers,” they are the true measure of whether or not we are fulfilling our mission to educate knowledgeable and compassionate leaders of tomorrow.

Across the board, each of these groups placed the relationships between student and teacher in the highest regard. It has been, and always will be, our first and foremost goal – what sets us apart as a community – to teach, coach, and mentor our students as unique individuals.

Students also praised our strong sense of community that provides a safe, comfortable, and accepting environment. Alumni felt that Rivers had prepared them well for college, with dynamic faculty and strong academic support as key to their success.

As we move forward, we’ll use the surveys and self-study reports to chart Rivers’ future course. Already we’ve begun to address areas where we can do more. Our recent Day of Consideration grew out of the study’s finding that we as a community need more opportunities to discuss and celebrate not only what brings us together, but what makes us different. Throughout the day, students and faculty met in workshops to discuss everything from stereotypes in music to experiencing a major loss. Our hope is that, having initiated these conversations, we’ll be more inclined to talk about these topics in our daily lives.

I am excited to see where our self-study takes us. It is a great opportunity to enhance what we already do well and improve those areas that will make us an even stronger community of learners.

Faculty-Student Connections: Rivers' Advisor System

One of the values that defines Rivers is relationships. In fact, relationships are at the heart of the Rivers experience. We believe when students know teachers want them to be successful, and when students know they are valued not as achievement-machines but as multi-dimensional human beings, they are more likely to stretch for excellence and more likely to pick themselves up when they inevitably fall. Relationships provide the grounding for students to explore, try new things, and test themselves. These students know that adults are in their corner, ready to listen, provide feedback, mentor, and support.

Relationships are part of Rivers’ DNA.

Several years ago in an effort to do a better job of promoting relationships, the school undertook a self-examination of the advisor program. We liked our program, but we thought it could be better. We made several changes including adding more advisor-advisee time and one-on-one meetings, introducing parent-advisor conferences, creating advisor-team meetings, and using professional development money to discover best advising practices. These efforts stemmed from our desire to do a better job of living our values. The results have been dramatic. The link below will take you to a video about the Rivers advisor system. Enjoy!

VIDEO: Advisory Groups Nurture Student-Faculty Bonds

Why Rivers Implemented a New Schedule

This year Rivers introduced a new schedule, one that is significantly different from schedules of years past. With this new schedule, each course meets three times a week. On Monday each class meets for 45 minutes. On Tuesdays and Thursdays half of the classes meet for 80-minute blocks, and on Wednesdays and Fridays the other half of the classes meet for 80-minute blocks. 

So, why did we change the schedule?  What difference does a new schedule really make? 

For Rivers, the answers to these questions are in the values that define the school – specifically, our commitment to excellence, quality of experience, and innovation. 

The new schedule promotes excellence by forcing students to go deeper, gain greater insight, and revise their theories and assumptions. Longer periods mean deeper, more sophisticated thinking. Science teachers appreciate the extra time for labs and demonstrations. Teachers have had no problem varying activities within the 80-minute block to ensure students are engaged. 

Moreover, the new schedule reflects Rivers' commitment to quality of experience. We are no longer herding students from one class to another without suitable breaks and time to decompress. Students report that homework is much more manageable, and the pace of the day is not so frenetic. 

And finally, the new schedule illustrates the spirit of innovation that is a hallmark at Rivers. This is a school that is constantly looking for more and better ways to live its mission and values. The drive to find a better schedule that fosters both excellence and quality of experience emanates from this spirit.

Both students and teachers praise this schedule change! Click here to read more about the new schedule and to see some feedback from faculty members and a student.

Expressing Our "Life Force"

This summer, I had the opportunity to read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. The story prompted me to think about Jobs and Apple, and the question "What makes an organization great?"

I've spent a lot of time throughout my career thinking about this question and reading books and articles about the essential ingredients that make up great organizations – leadership, technical expertise, collaboration, management techniques, marketing, strategic planning, and execution.

But the biography of Jobs gave me a new slant. I came to the conclusion that perhaps the most significant reason for an organization's greatness is the passion to bring an idea to life and the ability to find a means of expressing that idea.

Apple's greatness stemmed from Jobs' obsession with bringing the marriage of technology and humanity to life – the functionality and practical work of computers married to a belief in creativity, elegance, art, design, and experience – the human dimension so antithetical to technology before Jobs. He was committed to finding ways to express this idea.

In this regard, he had so much integrity that he demanded even the inside of the Mac be elegantly designed. This demand was the truest reflection of his passion for making incarnate his idea of the need to combine functionality and elegance in technology.

Yes, Jobs wanted to beat Microsoft and other competitors, but the genius of Apple did not arise from that desire. Rather, it came from this passion to birth an idea. It was Jobs the artist, not Jobs the businessman or computer expert, who was the essential element in Apple's greatness.

The great dancer and choreographer Martha Graham wrote a poem that captures this concept so perfectly, and I quote in part:

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy
A quickening
That is translated through you into action
And because there is only one of you
In all of time
This expression is unique.

And if you block it, it will never exist
Through any other medium,
And be lost.
The world will not have it.

During the past year at Rivers, we have spent a great deal of time reflecting on what Excellence with Humanity means to us. What are we most passionate about at Rivers? We’ve distilled our thoughts down to five attributes that we use to define Excellence with Humanity - five areas that illustrate the "life force" of this idea:

• Excellence: We’re committed to maintaining high standards in and out of the classroom. 
• Quality of Experience: It matters to us that our students are happy - that they gain a sense of self-efficacy and autonomy by facing the challenges we give them.
• Relationships: When we know and care about our students as multi-dimensional human beings, they will stretch for excellence and be willing to take risks. 
• Innovation: We’re continually looking for better ways to live our mission. 
• Character: We want to graduate great academicians, artists and athletes, but we also want to graduate great human beings.

At Rivers, Excellence with Humanity is OUR collective art - it is our creation and it demands that we seek its expression in the work we do.

This is the mission and the promise we are committed to at Rivers.

Setting High Standards and Pursuing Passions

As I read David Brooks' brilliant editorial, "The Creative Monopoly," I could not help but think of Rivers and its mission. For some people, I suspect, The Rivers School “motto,” "Excellence with Humanity," presents a bit of a dilemma. The initial thought may be that excellence requires constant struggle, a super-competitive mindset, and a focus on defeating those around you in order to win the prize. Brooks acknowledges the importance of a competitive spirit but, he argues, that spirit taken to the nth degree can also stifle creativity and squash the discovery of individual passion. He writes:

“…students have to jump through ever-more demanding, preassigned academic hoops. Instead of developing a passion for one subject, they're rewarded for becoming professional students, getting great grades across all subjects, regardless of their intrinsic interests… they move into a ranking system in which the most competitive college, program, and employment opportunity is deemed the best. There is a status funnel pointing to the most competitive colleges and banks and companies, regardless of their appropriateness… Competition has trumped value-creation. In this and other ways, the competitive arena undermines innovation.”

This certainly describes the prep school I attended. As students, we were taught to compete; school was a form of academic boot camp. Learning was not intended to be fun or social; the only satisfaction we might glean from the experience was the bond of having all survived each learning experience. We counted ourselves as tougher than others; creativity, imagination, and passion all took a back seat to learning how to compete.

Rivers is different. It's true that we teach our students how to compete. We challenge them with high standards and a rigorous program. But learning how to compete at Rivers shares the spotlight with discovering talents and igniting passions. We demand students use their imaginations in order to cultivate their creative spirit. This calibration – this balance between teaching students how to compete while also fostering their creative spirit, their humanity – is the Rivers Way. It is sometimes difficult to understand this balance because we often spend a great deal of time in the "competitive myopia" as Brooks calls it. That myopia undermines innovation; it also undermines true happiness – people using their talents and passions to make the world a better place.