News
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A Merle-Smith Holiday
As our children put the finishing touches on this week’s Seasons of Light Beako, I was reminded of the light that was embodied by a formative figure in my career, Mike Merle-Smith, whom I met when I was a young teacher at Princeton Day School – my first PDS! Bright, patient, creative, and encouraging, he…
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The Need for Light
In this Season of Light, I have found myself increasingly troubled by the fevered rhetoric of our nation’s leaders and what impact that will have on our children. On the one hand, it’s tempting to dismiss, thinking that this is a particular, transient political moment and that our children are young and hence shielded…
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Primary Points: A Strategic Plan for The Primary Day School for 2025-26
Parents whose students were enrolled last year will remember being invited to a few “listening sessions” aimed at gathering families’ ideas for the school’s new strategic plan which was formed last year with input also from the faculty and the Board of Trustees. A draft was approved by the Board of Trustees at its October…
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A.I. & Parenting
At Back to School Night I made the case that, as parents and educators of Primary Day-aged children, we have the opportunity to avert our children’s paths from the deleterious impacts of phones and social media. As I stated, we need to start implementing the key recommendations of social psychologists who have researched how a…
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How Do You Assess Growth?
When my children were small, like many of you probably do, we devoted a door jamb to marking their height at least a couple of times a year. It was always astonishing to come back and note how much taller they had become. If you could, what other types of growth would you like to…
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Fostering Transformation
This past weekend, as I read your children’s end of year reports, I was moved, as I always am at this time of year, by all the beautiful transformations that were documented. Thinking and learning styles have emerged as if from a chrysalis. Readers surfaced and moved ever upward. Confidence and social skills blossomed. Maturation…
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Is Quitting OK?
A few years ago, when Primary Day parents and faculty discerned the most important values we wanted to inculcate within our children, determination – our PDS value for April – was high on the list. We all can agree on the many benefits of learning to persevere, stick to it, and push through difficulties. Developing…
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The Morning Handshake as Symbol and Connection
With the coming of March and some flowers poking through the soil, we have reinstituted an esteemed tradition at Primary Day that was set aside during COVID: the morning handshake. This past Monday morning I instructed each friend on the fundamentals of a proper handshake: using the right hand; a firm but not crushing grip;…
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Some Simple Opportunities of Winter
Given the cold and the dark, January and February can be challenging months for adults, with accompanying books, products, therapies, and methods devoted to more successful “wintering.” For young children, though, the winter months are often times for consolidation of earlier learning and enormous growth. Over my years in schools, I have observed that the…