FALL 1997 THE NORTH SHORE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL BULLETIN E V E R Y O D Y S O M E O D Y A T N O R T H S H O R E Pulitzer Prize-Nominated Author, Film Maker Clifton Taulbert Speaks about "Eight Habits of the Heart" O n September 30, the North Shore community was honored by a visit from Clifton Taulbert in which the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author and film maker spoke about his newly released fourth book, "Eight Habits of the Heart." The book grew out of a speech Mr. Taulbert gave to the North Shore graduating class of 1995. History Department Chair, Kevin Randolph, who first encountered Taulbert's work and began the relationship with him, told the story best in his Head of School's Message..2 introduction of Mr. Taulbert: Division Heads Discuss Educating for a Lifetime....3 Six years ago I read an article in the Chicago What it Means to be Tribune detailing the merits of an obscure book, Clifton Taulbert returns to North Shore to share a College Preparatory "Eight Habits of the Heart" School 4-5 written by an Oklahoma businessman, called Once Developing Habits of Mind Upon A Time When We Were Colored... I was able Shortly after reading the book, I called the publishing Through Writing 6-7 to spend a wonderful spring afternoon immersed in company and asked for the author's address. Much Doing Numbers in the the simplicity and richness of its story. What I found to my surprise, I was not only given the address, but Marketplace -of Ideas 8 in the pages of the book was a warm, loving portrayal also his telephone number. I called Tulsa, Oklahoma. Establishing Lifelong Learning Skills 9 of life in the Mississippi delta during the period of The voice on the other end said "Freemount Did You Know? 10-11 segregation. The book moved me deeply. ..But it also Corporation, Cliff Taulbert speaking," and so Chinese Dissident Harry caused me to rethink the way I had always taught began our friendship. Wu Named 1997 Harold segregation as a part of American history. This Hines Visiting Fellow 12 Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored became glimpse through the window of African-American life North Shore Reaches Out an immediate success in my US History class. Like in the rural South presented me with a fundamentally to Deaf Community any provocative piece of writing, it produced spirited Through Theater 13 different perspective of the period. Far from the discussions but also questions from my students. Homecoming Attracts humorless, down-trodden, hopeless people I had Alumni from Near expected to find, here were vivid, three-dimensional Continued on page 17 and Far - East! 14 characters whose lives Meet New Alumni Association Board President were full of dignity and Molly Shotwell '87 18 and love and hope. NORTH SHORE Alumna Kay Mordock COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL Adams '21 Makes Television History! 20 Classnotes 21-28 E V E R Y B O D Y ' S S O M E B O D Y A T N O R T H S H O R E Message from the Head of School BY JULIE HALL "Be prepared" is the motto of the Boy Scouts. However, there are no When applied to a college preparatory school like standardized tests for North Shore, the motto has several levels. The most qualities like honesty, obvious level is a very basic one. We offer a full list responsibility, creativity, of Advanced Placement courses, SAT preparation or motivation, so in courses, and extensive college counseling to ensure place of statistics on life­ that our students attend the college of their choice. long habits learned, we We can present a statistical summary of test scores have stories to tell. and college acceptances to show that we are When questioned about Julia L. Hall, preparing our students well. Head of School writing at an open house ^ Although only 10% of students in the nation for prospective North Shore parents, one current take Advanced Placement Exams more than 50% senior replied, "I rewrote a paper for AP American of North Shore students do. Of last year's senior History three times, but not because I had to. I did class, 13% scored high enough in three or more it for myself. 1 knew it was the only way 1 would exams to be honored as AP Scholars. become a better writer." With-average class size of ^ We can point out that North Shore's senior twelve, Upper School teachers expect writing to be class went on to colleges like M.I.T., Middlebury, reworked, and they take time with each individual Northwestern, and Vassar, to name a few. student to critique papers, to make the process But it is not that simple. North Shore has never of writing a learning experience. been satisfied by defining "college preparatory" Last month, when Upper School Head Paul with statistics like these. High standards, academic Perkinson called last year's seniors at their colleges rigor, and a rich curriculum are basic, but they are and asked about how well we had prepared them, a only a base upon which to build a school that common thread in their replies was, "My professors measures itself on a higher level. We expect to are impressed by my ease at being an advocate for stretch ALL students - and with strong faculty myself; my peers are impressed by my comfort in support, we know they achieve much more in speaking up, having a voice." such an environment. We expect to stretch them in academics, arts, and athletics; we strive to These are skills we work on from the earliest develop in them habits of mind and heart that years. We have never been satisfied to be just a will have power far beyond their college years. basic college preparatory school, and I hope we We want them to know how to write, how to ask never will. For students at North Shore, attending Editor: Cheryl Grauherger questions, how to conduct research, how to be college is one of the "givens." And when they leave Photographers: Gail Carleton, Thomas Chin, Claudia Lockhart, honest, how to take responsibility, how to see the for college, students take with them both a solid Becky Meinke, Lauri Reagan real-world application of the material being studied, base of knowledge and the essential skills neces­ The North Shore Country Day School is a coeducational, how to think creatively. sary for getting the most out of every experience. college preparatory school of 400 students in junior kindergarten through grade twelve in Winnetka, Illinois. North Shore does not discriminate on the basis of race, nationality, ethnic origin or gender in any of its policies or practices. 847.446.0674 310 Green Bay Road, Winnetka, 1L 60093 www.nscds.pvt.kl2.il.us E V E R Y B O D Y ' S S O M E B O D Y A T N O R T H S H O R E Division Heads Discuss Educating for a lifetime The three division heads, Pam Whalley, Lower School, Todd Nelson, Middle School, and Paul Perkinson, Upper School sat down to discuss the theme of this issue of the Acorn, "What Does it Mean to be a College Preparatory School?" What follows are excerpts from that conversation. Acorn: What does it mean at North Shore to be a college preparatory school? Whalley: From Lower School on, students are given organiza­ tional tips for planning the appropriate amount of time to complete work. Students who need to finish homework will finish it during recess. We see this as the student taking respon­ sibility. This is what they will need to take through their school Division Heads Paul Perkinson, Pam Whalley & Todd Nelson and college years. Its like the old saying "You can't take your Perkinson: People say it is such a luxury to have the class size mom to college." North Shore students don't need to. we have. Its not a luxury. It's how you DO it. We're not the Our fifth graders already know how to use search engines to aberration, the class size of 26 students with one teacher is the locate information on the Internet, and they already know that aberration. That is a relatively new, twentieth century approach, they must cite sources. They know what putting information having high schools mirror factories, processing kids and giving "in your own words" means. They are being raised here know­ them skills to become good laborers in a free market economy. ing the ethics of dealing with downloaded text. These are areas In that model, giving kids a voice is a dangerous thing. that some current college students are struggling with. High schoolers from large schools sometimes come to North Acorn: How does technology change the academic landscape Shore with the notion that the adults in the community are for students? their adversaries, that they are the whip crackers. They think Nelson: Technology is pushing us. Kids are learning and that adults set the bar of expectations, don't care whether you processing information and feeding it back in dramatically get over them or not, don't care HOW you get over them. different ways than they have before. What does that mean in Instead the model here is one with a lot of support people. terms of who is preparing whom for the next century? Students Acorn: But you have to have that bar of expectation. What is have concrete skills, not just data entry, but deciphering messages the standard? What are the goals? And how do we meet them? and interpreting the world in a way that is being presented Nelson: The whole concept of the bar comes so far short of unlike it ever has before. Adults, then, need to be the vanguard what anyone's sense of expectation around here is. To merely of value and of attaching the wisdom of the culture at the same jump over a bar is easy. It's a minimal expectation. Anyone can time that what the culture is feeding back to kids day to day, get kids to do that. In any curriculum in the School, I see such in a very fast and glamorous fashion, is superficial and very a higher set of goals than just jumping the bar. The goals are attractive, but shoddy and not necessarily creating a better society. higher because we're attaching our work to something bigger Boundaries get blurred on the Internet. If you can take somebody and broader than "the track," which is this linear sense of else's work and paste it in, it doesn't feel like copying. It makes progression that leads to college and career. I think kids here it harder for kids to understand those lessons that were pretty always have a sense of why they are doing what they are doing. much implicit in the former technology. There is a reason for it beyond Friday's quiz, November's grade Perkinson: It is an old problem with new variations. The old reports, the conference with parents. They understand that problem has to do with teaching integrity By and large learning there is value and meaning to intellectual activity here and now. integrity is a social experience. You negotiate within yourself I think college is a great experience. I had a wonderful time in and with other people a sense of what is right and what is wrong. college, but looking back, I'm not sure that I knew exactly how When you have a hyper-competitive learning environment, you to make the best, fullest use of it. I think if I'd had an education get a very skewed notion of right and wrong, because there is a like this one, I would know how to make better use of my strong sense of service to self and getting ahead of others. eighth grade year as well as my twelfth grade year and.. .what Acorn: Does our class size help to facilitate that negotiation and to do in college. If college is without meaning, it is empty, and counter the hyper-competitive environment? that emptiness will catch up with you sooner or later. Division Heads, continued on page 16 3 E V E R Y B i O ^ D .y * 5 5 O M' E B O D Y A T * N O R T H S H O R E What It Means to be a College Preparatory School BY SHARON STAFFORD COOPER. DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE COUNSELING There are topics guaranteed to strike fear into the most fool­ hardy of souls, and this one certainly qualifies. It is large in scope, subject to widely varying interpretations and, terrifyingly, will probably reveal a great deal more about the writer than the subject under consideration. Nonetheless, having opinions of my own and not enough sense to be cautious, count me in. An absolute definition of what it means to be a college preparatory school, like defining what it means to be a teacher or a citizen, is pretty nigh impossible, because it immediately involves intangibles which are exceedingly real but hard to codify. What comes to mind is not just "to prepare a student for college." That is the "of course" part of it - the given. The mind spends about a nanosecond dealing with the obvious and then goes hunting for the rest of it, because there is an "a rest of it" somewhere. Sharon Cooper A basic definition is not helpful, probably because what we are trying to capture has more to do with the experiential than the attended in my far-away youth would be things like the presence concrete. The simple door of the term "college preparatory of academic rigor, a belief in excellence, holding students, and school" opens to a universe, and that universe, on one hand, ourselves, to certain moral and actual marks, the fostering of a proves evanescent in the explanation much in the same way as greater good, an understanding of hard work, fair play, honesty, someone trying to explain exactly what being a parent means, courtesy, traditions, seeing things through, community, the On the other hand, that same universe becomes very specific assumption of good will, hopefulness, laughter, the love of young when the occasion presents itself. Being a parent is far more people, the love of the great legacy of human knowledge.. .the than simply having a child, yes? Consider when you trek list could go on forever. Certainly the list in my heart does. through the dark watch of nights when your child has a high The second concept is one that Cheryl Grauberger, with her fever, inwardly lost in fear - or when you must tell an adolescent usual keen insight, summoned up when I was speaking with "no" in spite of the fury or the tears that will surely descend her about this article. "For me, a college prep school has some­ along with typhoon winds. thing to do with accountability." She is, of course, precisely Here are only two of the infinite pieces of parenthood. In the right. That is the other "heap." We may have all sorts of ideas first, you are made stunningly vulnerable in those long hours about what a college preparatory school is "about," and all of with your sick child by the welcome, but shattering news that them laudable, but it is the sense of being accountable to those you have reached that place in your life where you love some­ ideas that may provide a telling signature for us. one more than yourself. The implications of this epiphany are Accountability is an extraordinary quality that can be, and often far reaching for the human psyche. Downright scary. The second is, simply lost in an organization that has no sense of itself. It is piece shows you are prepared to activate your youngster's essential to both our personal and community's well being and, displeasure and emotional separation in order to do - or to interestingly, it is a trait which must be taught. And if we hold teach - what you feel is right for him or her. You love enough ourselves and our students accountable to certain ideas, to whom to sacrifice being the short-term "good guy" for the long-term or what are we accountable? benefit of your youngster. This latter usually centers around a principle or an idea that you wish your child to learn. In the first, It may be helpful for those of us who are parents to reflect on you love your child more than yourself, in the second you honor why do we do what we do? Why do we stay up all night and a principle enough to feel it essential for your child's well being. tend a.little one, why do we set limits when it is NOT going to make us popular? The answer most of us would move to is These are only two resonant examples in the endless permutations because we have found that we wish the good of someone else of what it means to be a parent. They are specific examples, but more than our own immediate good and also, in seeking that that specificity bleeds away when someone, out of the blue, asks "other" good, we are ourselves somehow enriched. Inherent "what does it mean to be a parent?" You find yourself mumbling, in the concept of being accountable to your children includes seeking divine inspiration, and ultimately, reduced to saying wishing to be accountable for their future, to the fine, honest, something like "you'll know it when you meet it." substantive adults you wish to help them become. Now we My sense is that at least a partial meaning of a college preparatory have moved to being accountable for a future we may not school may lie in two "heaps," so to speak. The first has to do see and in doing that, we seek to help not only our children, with certain notions we may have. Some of the notions that I but the world they will inhabit. This kicks us into the next have about North Shore Country Day and the school that I dimension - the larger good. E V E R Y B O D Y ' S S O M E B O D Y A T N O R T H S H O R E HJL When we start getting into this willingness-to-serve-a-larger-good- To be held accountable is usually to end up doing what you territory and then find a thinking community that shares those believe to be the right thing. This can put you in a tough situation perceptions, it doesn't take a big leap to consider what a good from time to time, of course, but since you are accountable for college preparatory school can mean. However, at the heart of what you do and say, you start viewing all of your actions it all is the concept of being held accountable for the values through your ethical and moral lens to satisfy not only your that are professed. More than that, it is a belief that to be held community, but - to your shocked delight, yourself. That last accountable is in the right and proper order of things. It has an item is something which secretly grows in the fields of account­ "of course" sense to it. Of course, you stay up with your child, of ability, the ethical soul. I would not presume to say I have one, course you set limits, of course you should be held accountable. but I experience them regularly at North Shore Country Day. We are, in a college prep school, not only accountable to one another to do the very best that we can, the entire community So, in the same way that you know seeks to be accountable for that future we may not see and to ideas and principles larger than ourselves. Have we all done our what being a parent or a teacher or collective finest to prepare for all of the young tomorrows in our a citizen means when you meet it, keeping? Have we taught our students the same accountability we profess so that it may be passed on? If so, the community, I would hazard you will also and by extension the world, can find it has prepared for its own know a good college preparatory tomorrows as well. school when you become a To be held accountable for showing participating member of it. up and doing the best you can, every day, with a sense of reciprocal So, in the same way that you know what being a parent or a teacher or a citizen means when you meet it, I would hazard you will also responsibility in a small college know a good college preparatory school when you become a parti­ cipating member of it. All of the ramifications are not obvious, but preparatory community results, they are there and they will present themselves exactly. I have found, in a love affair Perhaps one of the things that a college preparatory school may mean is being actively engaged not only in your position as where you end up getting far teacher/student/parent/staff, but also in what you believe. The more than you give. community will gently (sometimes) hold you to those beliefs and, from time to time, ask you to state them in order to help define itself. A thinking community constantly asks itself, "what The results of learning what it means to be held accountable do we believe in? What are we about?" It is a living organism are both immediate and visible while remaining subtle and which must check on its consensus with itself through its surprising in the long term. In the short term, a student facing philosophy and objectives, its central code. In writing this article, a class for which he or she has not prepared is made clearly I find myself making a declaration of a part of what a college aware that a noticeable disrespect has been shown for every preparatory school means to me, but also asking questions of member of the class, the teacher, and the subject being studied. the community who reads this: " Is what I am saying true? Is By not preparing, the student has negatively impacted not only this what we believe? Are we doing what we say we believe? individual progress, but the learning of the entire environment. Are we teaching what we believe?" To be held accountable for showing up for every practice results in having a team that trusts you. To show up to teach As for what remains for me after all this time, I find myself every class is to have your students count on you. As Woody helplessly grateful for the fabulous extravagance of the human Allen said (I think), "Eighty percent of life is showing up." To hearts that spent years in bringing me to adulthood. I am be held accountable for showing up and doing the best you immeasurably richer for those who loved more than themselves can, every day, with a sense of reciprocal responsibility in a and who, in all my years as a child and as an adult, taught me small college preparatory community results, I have found, in to recognize the countries of happiness. I would like to think a love affair where you end up getting far more than you give. that I remain a part of the college preparatory community Somewhere along the endless line of accountable days, you lose because it practices so much I believe in, but it is equally possible your heart to the endeavor because the community requires a that I am here because it believes in the best in me. The distinc­ piece of you to continue in good health. It is then that the tions become blurred. And of course they would. And of course romance of what you believe becomes a breathing reality. they should. E V E R Y B O D Y ' S S O M E B O D Y A T N O K T H S H O R E Developing Habits of Mind Through Writing BY KATHY MCHUGH, ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CHAIR Because people do not simply write what they have already "excellent crop of students"?! The word "crop" is not used learned but also learn as they write, students at North Shore to describe children! To make matters worse, it's as if Country Day School write often, and they write in all the Grant is succumbing to the whole ordeal by drilling the disciplines. Of course their writing takes many shapes and children, as if what is being done is a natural part of life... forms, since learning in school and in life is multifaceted. I'd A very sensitive question is raised when I think about like to share with you just a few of the writing assignments of Jefferson's punishment. Are we playing God when we eleventh grade American Studies students. Reading student writing is one of the joys of teaching. You'll see what I mean if sentence people to death because of a crime they commit? you take a look at this excerpt from junior Pria Sinha's essay Do we really have the right to pick a time and place for on Leslie Marmon Silko's use of the image of a spider web in another man's death, even if he killed someone? ...With the novel Ceremony: knowledge comes power, but with power comes responsi­ ...it is the image of the spider web that restores Tayo's bilities which can sometimes feel like burdens. Matthew health and restrengthens his bond with the land. The Antoine's "life lessons" are ones that must be sifted story itself is spun like a spider web, in a complex rather through in order to pull out what is really meaningful. than linear fashion. Ceremony ends the way that it He had no hope for the future. And, in a way, I can begins, with the image of sunrise; this suggests that the understand why When you never see any change, all story is circular and follows the form of a web... The you can go on is faith. web-like nature of things is seen as an obstacle in the . Kyra Seay way of Tayos well-being; his inability to think clearly is Response journals provide teachers with windows into the due to the complexity and the confusion of the net in minds and hearts of their students, and what fun it is to have which he is caught: "He could feel it inside his skull - the this privilege of watching them make connections, agree, argue, tension of little threads being pulled and how it was with ponder and evaluate. Moreover, because journal writing is tangled things, things tied together, and as he tried to informal and unpolished, students often feel more willing to experiment and to take risks. pull them apart and rewind them into their places, they snagged and tangled even more." The world at this point Engaging in different types of writing leads students to think is a chaotic mess to Tayo. Because he has been exposed to about the purpose of a piece of writing and the intended audience. The unpolished writing of a reading response might such evil, he is no longer able to make sense of things. In be inappropriate in another context. Pria's ideas for her essay his perception, the web of life is no longer symmetrical or on Ceremony had their origins in her journal entries, but she balanced; it has become entangled by images of war and knew that stopping there would not be sufficient for a more destruction, of evil and hatred. formal analytical essay For this assignment, she and her class­ Pria Sinha mates chose topics, looked back over the novel and their responses as they brainstormed about those topics, created Pria's writing exhibits so many of the habits of mind which rough drafts, shared their writing in order to receive responses we encourage our students to develop: exploration, creativity, from peers and teachers, revised and edited. In practice the observation, reflection, connection, imagination and sensitivity. process is usually nowhere near as linear and neat as it sounds Often teachers use informal writing to help students to explore here, for the steps keep circling back upon one another. ideas and to generate new ones as well. By keeping response journals as they read, students learn to become questioning, Sharing, responding and dialoguing throughout the process reflective and thoughtful readers. Here is a comment junior play key roles in building a community of writers. Students Kyra Seay made in response to A Lesson Before Dying, a summer experience writing as a social and collaborative activity, which reading assignment: quietly works to undercut that myth of the writer as an isolated individual. Done well, sharing and responding engender trust, The scene in which Dr. Joseph comes to the school for his respect and cooperation. Reading their writing aloud helps "inspection" is so heart-breaking and angering for me. An students to hear their own voices and to listen for what is E V E R Y B O D Y ' S S O M E B O D Y A T N O R T H S H O R E unique in the voices of their classmates. It also creates an opportunity for all voices to be heard. For instance, after they read A Lesson Before Dying, we asked students to write poems using only the language found in the diary of Jefferson, a semi- literate young African American man unjustly sentenced to die in the electric chair in 1940's Louisiana. Teachers wrote along with the students and shared their work, thereby becoming part of the community of writers, a community in which we all learn and teach. This sort of work also requires readers to pay close attention to the beauty and sound of language, an attentiveness that should be an important part of all their writing. In addition, students keep language notebooks in which they record any language that strikes them as interesting. Too often students have bought the myth that writing falls into two categories: creative writing Kathy McHugh and everything else. This sort of mind-set suggests, of course, that creativity is not necessary or desirable in many forms of Laura Chadwick did an amazing job of capturing the voice of writing. In this excerpt from an analytical essay on Their Eyes her third cousin, Tex Ditto, who lived in Oklahoma during the Were Watching God which Raven Moore wrote during her junior depression, and of bringing him to life for her readers: year, she clearly has rejected this myth, for her creativity, imagi­ The sand storms would come in from Oklahoma, Kansas, nation and attentiveness to language are wonderfully evident: Nebraska and so forth. I've seen it two o'clock in the The mind that still speaks of being black and being who afternoon, and the sand storms would roll in like fog does they are is muffled and gagged until it is dead and until down around an ocean. And when that sand storm would they can really believe that they got wherever they are roll over, in five minutes, you couldn't see your hand with because they are "white" enough. They have classed off it right in front of your face. It just turned coal black; I and have become beautiful to the world, however, it has mean the sun was completely blacked out. The chickens only made the soul of their being ugly and hollow with didn't even have time to get into the chicken house. They cobwebs for morals. They have masquerade parties in sat right down in the yard, and the sand drifted in on their living rooms everyday, and self-hate sleeps in their 'em... Life just had to stop while the storm passed... bedrooms and cuddles around their hearts every night. Equally compelling for me were her writing memos, pieces in Raven Moore which she was self-reflective about the writing process: The American Studies oral history project requires careful You understand the story when you hear it. There's listening to voice and language. It also allows students to see that literature and history are quite connected rather than rigidly something in a voice that tells you more than the separated disciplines and that their own family history is words. ..You can't write down a dialect;you must hear connected to the curriculum. Not surprisingly, this project it to understand which words mean more than the others generated some of the best and most interesting writing of the and the emotion carried on the back of a syllable... How year. I found myself making copies of so many of the projects fortifying it is to listen to a family members story of to keep in my file of student writing that 1 love. After interviewing survival. He came out of poverty and hunger with faith, his grandfather about World War II, Rashad White wrote: and you think, that's the same blood that runs through I really enjoyed talking to my grandfather and listening my veins. To tell a story is more than telling a story. It's to his experiences and views on World War II and racism. passing along history, pain, love, life and hope with a rise My grandfather inspired me to stop blaming and start in tone, or a whispered word. That's what counts anyway, helping. I think this was an experience that money cannot the life of an individual and the survival of a family. buy. The knowledge that he has instilled in me is priceless Laura Chadwick and something that will be with me for the rest of my life. Rashad White It's enough to make you want to be a teacher, isn't it? E V E R Y B O D Y ' S S O M E B O D Y A T N O R T H S H O R E IJ Doing the Numbers in the Marketplace of Ideas BY TODD R. NELSON. MIDDLE SCHOOL HEAD T he market is up a few points. The eighth graders First Chicago Bank in Wilmette is pleased to show us the money. in Lee Blocks math class are checking their Our sixth graders tour the building, but they are more preoccupied stock holdings and rethinking their investing with the inner workings of banking. They establish their own objectives, adjusting to todays numbers, trading bank, each student playing an authentic banking role: president, or holding what they've got, all as pan of their teller, accountant. The bank is only one part of a larger economy participation in the Chicago Tribune Stock Market Game — an they are exploring, since they must all use their weekly paycheck interesting way to learn decimal/fraction conversion. They've had to rent an apartment, buy a car, pay bills and operate a household. presentations and discussions with parents whose investment- They make money the old fashioned way: with the middle related careers supply relevant expertise, and now they must school Xerox machine. But in fact, they are learning social lessons take their $100,000 dollars (imaginary!) and do their best with in value and diligence as well, since they are responsible to one real-time trading over the Internet, a privilege allowed only 10 another for thorough, accurate work. No one gets paid for sub­ schools in the Northern Illinois region. Furthermore, they use standard work; in fact, you get docked in North Shore dollars. the daily newspaper to review current events that may have an We're accustomed to thinking of schooling as a rather linear, impact on economic trends and even the companies in which chronological sequence, leading from kindergarten to higher they have invested capital, to say nothing of learning to read education, a chain of linked curriculums that must be experienced graphs and charts. in order. And this is true as far as some skills are concerned, particularly in math and languages. But many of the tasks we assign to children of all ages can be asynchronous with the developmental moment, but very much on target in terms of abilities and interests. Talent and interest are fostered and revealed by a rigorous spiral of connection and reconnection with facts, skills and unfamiliar challenges. Middle School children can certainly aspire to interests and skills beyond merely behaving like high school students. Maturity, to many adolescent children, simply means more sophisticated forms of entertainment and amusement rather than responsibility and intellectual opportunity. The consumer-oriented media does a good job of harvesting consumers, but perpetuates a shallow sense of how to 'do the i numbers' responsibly, whether this means buying consumer goods, equities, renting an apartment or saving one's allowance. Our kids understand that there is simultaneously a numerical Eighth Graders Katie Bearman, Andrew Meador (center) and Brian Jessen check daily quotes for their stock market project. and ethical 'bottom line.' The Wrigley Building is a marvel of art and engineering. The In Middle School, we hope that our use of real-world simulations seventh graders in Jim Leesch's math/science class are getting a reveals math as a language that describes relationships, obligations, walking tour of the Loop from North Shore alum Bill Hinchliff, opportunities and structures and is not simply discrete equation- '64, who gives them a historic and aesthetic perspective on the solving for homework or memorized for a single performance buildings. They have learned about Frank Lloyd Wright and the on a test. Perhaps Robert Frost's definition of poetry can be Chicago School of Architecture. But they will also go beneath usurped to make the point: "[Math] is a way of taking life by . the skin of the world's tallest skyscraper with Howard Jessen, the throat." Clearly, there are plenty of higher order thinking grandfather to two North Shore students and former school skills attached to each of the curriculums I've mentioned, and trustee, a retired structural engineer. Howard supplies vocabulary strong emphasis on calculation, mental math and arithmetic - for discussing stress and load and mental models for the foam the 'times tables,' fractions, decimals and long division are the core and balsa wood buildings the class will construct as part means to a very engaging end. We're confident that we are of their spring Chicago History unit. This expands into a real simultaneously attending to the continuum of concrete math estate simulation in which students determine the value of skills which students must acquire on the path to proficient property in a changing Chicago neighborhood and come to adulthood, and to the continuum of life applications of math. understand how social perceptions, change and prejudice How many of us, buying our first car, choosing stockmarket influence the price of a house: the intersection of ethical and investments, or designing a building, can say, thanks to our economic value. Seventh graders also establish loan companies middle school experience, 'been there, done that.' and learn the fine points of interest rates, loan amortization and the money market. E V E R Y B O D Y ' S S O M E B O D Y A T N O R T H S H O R E Establishing lifelong Learning Skills BY HELEN REEVE CONLON, SECOND GRADE TEACHER H ow does one begin to instill seven- and eight- year-olds with lifelong skills at North Shore? In second grade, we introduce the use of an agenda. This planning tool helps students to organize due dates for homework activities, allows them to share highlights between home and school, summarizes books read during the week, and allows them to record highlights from lessons learned. The second graders are learning to become managers of their time by using the agenda as a visual planner and a daily home/school communication device, much like the day planners we all use in our professional and personal lives. Students have been able to look ahead at due dates and then begin to budget time for homework activities, plan play dates and enjoy extra curricular classes. Second graders have also become more aware of their own work through self, buddy and teacher editing. Throughout the writing process of brainstorming, creating a rough draft and beginning to edit, the youngsters focus on their writing Helen Reeve Conlon with second graders through the use of a "super star." The "super star" is a visual Woody Multhauf and Cindy Taylor device placed on the classroom wall that challenges the writer grader has the opportunity to evaluate his/her academic, social to hone in on five areas at each stage of writing. For example, and behavioral progress by commenting on the report cards. one student's super star might remind a student to focus on: Before conferences, the student and the parents create academic, capitalization, use a dictionary to check spelling, use end marks, behavioral and social goals for the next term. Then, during the add adjectives, and reread work aloud. Setting individual editing conference time, the student, parent and teachers share the goals helps students to develop a keen and purposeful editing goals each has established. The active participation of the second eye. It also gives students a real sense of accomplishment, as graders in the triangular conference reiterates the importance of each time a goal is mastered, it is replaced by a new goal on the student's commitment to learning. The student, parents, and one point of the star. the teacher share strategies, concerns, and clarifications, rather than impose them, during this goal setting time. This makes We use this same individualized approach with weekly spelling students feel more invested in the process, and it gives them a lists. The lists include words that help to teach spelling rules greater sense of ownership of their learning. along with everyday spelling challenges taken from the student's personal dictionary (created during the student/teacher editing Researching is another important life skill introduced in second step). Students develop positive peer interdependence as they grade. Ninth grade research "experts" lead second graders test each other on their list of words. Here are two examples through their first fact-finding mission by introducing them to of individualized lists : reference tools such as atlases, encyclopedias and Culturegrams. The facts they record enrich the Family History projects begun 1. patch 1. black at home with the help of parents. In small groups, students 2. catch 2. sack learn how to access Family History information. By February, 3. batch 3. stack second graders can use these research skills independently by 4. stitch 4. shack using reference books, magazines, trade books and the Internet 5. pumpkin 5. track to help them as the pursue an animal research project. As part of the project, each student becomes an "expert" on one animal. 6. Halloween 6. stack The culmination of the project is a formal project presentation 7. faint 7. plan day held at the Lincoln Park Zoo. 8. human 8. ghost Through assessment and reflection designed to heighten evaluation 9. doubledecker 9. witch of self, through time management, and through developing 10. ghoul 10. pumpkin writing and research skills, our second graders begin to under­ Second graders develop another important lifelong skill as they stand and develop the very skills that we all understand are begin to take ownership of their development by attending crucial to success not only at North Shore Country Day, but parent conferences. In advance of the conferences, each second also for all realms of the world beyond. E V E R Y B O D Y ' S S O M E B O D Y A T N O R T H S H O R E M D id You Know? W Members of the Tibetan Institute for Performing Arts (TIPA) based in Dharamsala, India visited the School for a Morning Ex. on September 22. The group performed vocal and instrumental music numbers along with cultural dances. Originally sponsored by the Dalai Lama, the Auction Co-Chairs, Ingrid Szymanshi and Mary Ann Finlay, group has travelled together for the unveil the theme for the 1997-98 Auction, "The Secret Garden." past 15 years in an effort to bring a taste of Tibetan culture to others $ Auction Co-Chairs, Ingrid Szymanski and Mary Ann Finlay, around the world. unveiled the theme for the 1997-98 Auction, "The Secret Garden," at a Woman's Board Auction kick-off party in September. The Auction will be held on Saturday, February 21, 1998. Woman's Board members are hard at work putting together exciting items for the gala event. Items that hold special appeal include tickets to sporting events or theatrical performances; Members of the Tibetan vacation homes for one week; high-tech, items such as cameras, Institute for Performing Arts play instruments and sing VCRs, and computers; and items signed by celebrities or sports songs from their Native Tibet figures. Anyone interested in donating items to the auction during Morning Ex. should contact Ingrid Szymanski at 847-251-7182. W Lee Block's eighth grade science students, and John Knight's Richard Franke, parent of alumnae Katherine '77 and Jane ninth grade geography students, participated in a month-long '80, former Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Life Trustee, environmental science study along with 200 schools from received the National Humanities Medal in September. Selected around the world. Eighth graders collected rain and measured by President Clinton, honorees are chosen based on significant its pH as part of the sixth Students Watching Over Our Planet contributions they have made in their fields. Richard Franke is Earth (SWOOPE) acid rain study. The ninth graders then the former chairman and CEO of the Chicago investment banking entered the results into a database and analyzed the results from firm John Nuveen & Co. He has long been an active supporter the other schools participating in the study, looking specifically of the humanities in American life. As chairman of the Illinois at the longitude, latitude, and elevation of the school submitting Humanities Council from 1988 to 1990, he spearheaded the the results. The goal of the project is to involve students in long- development of the Chicago Humanities Festival. Now in its term science activities that give them opportunities to share data eighth year, the festival is a citywide, four-day event that brings with students in other areas through the Internet. together 26 of Chicago's premier cultural institutions in a $ "Equality," a quilt created by the fifth grade students of Jane celebration of the humanities, attracting some 25,000 people to Moore, was on display at the Botanic Garden November 5-9. 91 programs. Mr. Franke's vision was to create a festival of ideas The quilt was designed by Teddy Cooper and named for a story where preeminent scholars, performing artists, internationally by Ben Kegan. Jane Moore also had a quilt of her own in the renowned poets and novelists, and home-grown talents would show entitled "Once Upon a Time: The Good Mourning all work together. His interest in advancing the arts and Bereavement Camp Quilt." humanities is also evident in his extensive variety of service on cultural commissions and boards. He is a member of the ^ Shirley Smith, Math Department Chair and Co-Dean of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the senior fellow of the Studies, led a workshop entitled "Integrating Technology and Corporation of Yale University, a member of the board of the Writing for Better Understanding" as part of the Illinois Council University of Chicago and chairman of its Visiting Committee of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) Annual Conference in for the Humanities. He has served on the President's Committee October. Shirley's workshop was designed to help teachers take on the Arts and Humanities, and he currently serves as chairman their Algebra I and II students to a deeper level of understanding of Americans United to Save the Arts and Humanities and by showing them how the combination of writing and technology president of the National Trust for the Humanities. helps to create mathematically powerful thinkers.