Parent Night Remarks – 9.23.21
Neil Mufson, Head of School

Thanks so much for Zooming in tonight to gain a deeper sense of where and with whom your children spend such a significant piece of their day and to hear about the program, key goals, and procedures you’ll want to know so they will be ensured a great year.

I feel confident that you’ll come away from the evening feeling that your children are in exceptional hands, and that you’ve made the right investment to ensure that they have the benefit of the best possible education and foundation for these most important years.

I also hope, as a result of tonight, that you’ll be more likely to reach out to your child’s teacher when you have a concern or question, because that open communication, that engagement as parents in the educational process has consistently been found in the research to boost a child’s performance in school.

Tonight I wanted to share some thoughts with you on two topics. First, some of what I have noticed in my first weeks at PDS; and second, some small things I have found over the years that can have an outsized impact on the kind of student and person your child becomes.

But before I launch into that, I wanted to express my gratitude to you, most importantly for entrusting your children to us here at Primary Day. I take that trust as a sacred commitment we have to your child and to your family.

I also so appreciate all of your cooperation, understanding, and patience during these

extraordinarily challenging times. We are absolutely devoted to doing our best to ensure your child’s safety and that of our faculty and staff. Even when a vaccine is available for our children, we will remain vigilant, cautious, nimble, and prepared for the next twists and turns that the pandemic will bring. So thank you for all you are doing to comply with our protocols and for realizing that our children’s and our staff’s safety depends on all those little mindful decisions and observations you make along the way.

Thank you, too, for your patience as we work out our drop off and pick up procedures which are also based first on safety. Our fine-tuning of the afternoon pick up line has led to some real improvements, and we will soon be rolling out an app that will help further smooth things out in the morning.

As the faculty, staff, and I have welcomed your children Back to School, I have been struck by several things. First has been the absolute dedication and expertise of our faculty and staff. I see their deep developmental commitment at work every day. They lend amazing warmth and “kid knowledge” to their classrooms and routines, and their way with our students is so masterful that joy and purposefulness radiate from every learning space. Our teachers are real experts at the ages they teach, so be sure to make use of that expertise when you have questions or concerns about something your child is or is not doing. They know what’s normal, what works, what doesn’t work, what’s age appropriate, and they can offer a wealth of information, guidance, and reassurance.

I have also noticed that PDS children are exceptionally engaged, attuned, and eager. Their curiosity and energy seem boundless, and that kind of attitude toward school and learning is both infectious and palpable throughout the school. There’s an ebullient and happy hum that permeates this place, an underlying eagerness and motivation on the part of the children that prompts all to exercise their curiosity and to stretch themselves.

Community and kindness are also evident here. I have been so impressed by the care and respect your children show for one another.

Part of what makes Primary Day unique is that your child is part of a peer group that is uniformly attuned to the value of education, to doing their best, and to giving their all. I see and sense that every day. Of course as children get older, their peer group exerts an even stronger influence on them. But I very clearly see that PDS creates and capture this enormously positive side of peer influence that helps establish the right attitudes towards school.

When your children are surrounded by other children who have active and eager minds, when they’re happily engaged in a classroom where their teacher is a developmental, instructional, and child relationship expert who knows them so well, and when they come from homes which clearly prioritize education, they are bound to soar. That is what I see happening each day, even this early in the year.

I also would like to mention some seemingly small and perhaps obvious practices that you can put in place at home to enhance your child’s growing independence, sense of responsibility, and positive approach to learning and to life. I’d like to focus tonight on 3 simple things that eventually pay very powerful returns.

First, make sure you increasingly allow your children to do things on their own. Whether it’s cleaning up their toys after playing (like they do here), putting toothpaste on their toothbrush, or gathering their things to be ready to hop out of the car at morning drop off, consider giving them regular responsibilities or simple chores around the house. For instance, have them take on straightening their bed in the morning, helping with choosing or packing their lunch, making sure that their backpack is properly loaded and in the right place so it can just be grabbed in the morning, or sharing or reading stories with younger siblings. Take a look at how your household works, and find some authentic tasks they can regularly undertake that are truly helpful and that they can do consistently. Gradually add steps or complexity to these tasks as time goes on.

Of course it often is easier and more efficient to just do these things yourself, but look for what your children might be able to do more independently or how they can help. Model what you expect
and then let them do it consistently. Then build from these smaller pieces to more complete tasks. Young children like having responsibility, they are proud of showing you what they are capable of,
and it builds their independence, feelings of mastery, and sense of agency, which is their sense that they can influence their environment.

Obviously, developmental appropriateness is the key. You wouldn’t ask a PK child to load the dishwasher after dinner every evening. But you might ask him or her to do the basic setting of the table (at least of non-breakable or non-sharp things), or you might ask them to put their dirty clothes in the hamper, or to place their shoes in the right place so they can be found easily the next day.

A book written over a decade ago by Los Angeles psychologist Wendy Mogel called The Blessing of a Skinned Knee has emerged as a classic on making sure we are leading our children to become responsible, resilient, and independent. Mogel points out that if we don’t require our children to do things for themselves, if we don’t hold them accountable, if we don’t ask them to help out with reasonable, age-appropriate chores at home, we inadvertently risk disabling them for the future. 

Similarly she points out if we consistently make things too easy for our children, if we regularly pamper, indulge, or overprotect them, if we too quickly jump in to “rescue” them, or assign blame elsewhere, their development into healthy, independent young people will become compromised.  As she wrote, too many parents of our demographic, “in their eagerness to do right by their children, overindulge them materially, spoil them emotionally, [and] inadvertently inhibit their development of responsibility.” So we have to find those small steps when they are young, when they are at the ages of Primary Day students.

Another small but a very powerful routine – one that admittedly may be difficult to ensure is in place -- is to have dinner together as a family as many times a week as you possibly can. Not too long ago, I heard a podcast from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education that interviewed a family therapist named Anne Fishel, who directs an entity called The Family Dinner Project. We all know that there are tons of reasons families don’t or can’t have dinner together. But the salubrious impacts of regularly having family dinners are nothing less than astounding. Fishel reported, “There have been more than 20 years of dozens of studies that document that family dinners are great for the body, physical health, the brain, academic performance, and mental health.” In addition to the nutritional benefits, “Kids who grow up having family dinners, later, when they're on their own, tend to eat more healthily and to have lower rates of obesity.” And then she goes on to say this: “The mental health benefits are just incredible. Regular family dinners are associated with lower rates of [childhood and adolescent] depression, anxiety, substance abuse, eating disorders, tobacco use, early teenage pregnancy, and higher rates of resilience” and feelings of self worth. All this just by making sure your family eats together regularly.

There are other simple, regular practices that also have huge pays off that I recommend and that I’ll talk about in the months and years ahead, things like developing a habit of regularly expressing gratitude; establishing an organized and consistent approach to doing homework; being on time; building intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation whenever possible; having a discipline system at home that is based on natural consequences, much like the one we have in place here at school; modeling and expecting empathy; and being certain to provide your child with predictable, consistent, age-appropriate routines.

One last seemingly small thing that leads to outsized benefits that I want to mention tonight is something you are probably already doing but that you should aim to continue for many years into the future: having a regular reading or story time with your child or whole family. This is relatively easy to put in place as part of a regular bed time routine, but it is something you should hold onto even when your child is an independent and sophisticated reader, maybe in the form of a family reading time.

The national statistics are damning. Studies find that 33% of American high school graduates never read another whole book the rest of their lives; 42% of American college graduates never read another book; and 80% of American families do not read, borrow, or purchase a book in a typical year.

When I was a kid, just about every night my father would tell me a bedtime story. For me, he created a fictional universe around Cubby Bear, a character I think he remembered from childhood bedtime stories and books. For my sister he created another character named Longnose Hufflefinger (which are evidently a type of tropical fish) but in this version was a person. For his granddaughters he created stories about a character named Pocket. Every night my father wasn’t traveling for work, I was told the latest adventure of Cubby Bear and his best friend Montmorency Percival Clarence Gopher, who when introduced was always met with the line, “My word, your name is longer than you are.”

The stories were simple and I believe were improvised. I am sure my father had no idea of the numerous and powerful benefits of these stories.Yes, they bonded us.Yes, they made me and my sister feel special, valued, and loved. And yes, it was a considerable investment of my father’s time. But now research shows that listening to stories or regular reading improves brain connectivity; increases vocabulary, comprehension, and memory; empowers the ability to empathize with other people; aids in sleep readiness; reduces stress; lowers blood pressure and heart rate; fights depression symptoms throughout life; and eventually prevents cognitive decline. All that from the reading habit!

Think about the impact of pairing that with the power of family dinners and giving your children meaningful responsibilities around home. In these times when there is so much uncertainty, it is reassuring as parents to know that inserting some simple practices into our routines can allow us to seize some control over some very important outcomes. Confidence and competence are indeed built through small steps, steps that have been modeled and practiced.

I am very much looking forward to meeting you in person at one of our upcoming parent coffees, but I would also welcome having an outdoor visit or a Zoom chat. Be sure to contact me if there ever is anything with which I can help you. In the meantime, know that I am looking forward to meeting you somewhere other than in the drop off or pick up line.Thank you again for joining us this evening.

Primary Thoughts
New Beginnings
Neil Mufson, Head of School

I often wonder if I were destined to be in schools for so much of my life because I carry such strong memories of my own early schooling. I can still picture walking into the classroom on my own first day of Kindergarten. Mrs. Beaulieu was at the door to greet us and seamlessly separate us from our parents. She then directed us to play on the huge locomotive and train cars that occupied half of our very large room and that she had fashioned out of very large boxes and construction paper. Soon we were playing, forming nascent friendships, and taking the first steps towards independence from our parents. It was an exhilarating new beginning, at least for most of us.

In schools we are so fortunate to have abundant new beginnings. There is the start of the new school year, the start of the new calendar year, and the start of Spring with its resplendent signs of new life. Summer also brings its own start of consolidating gains, adjusting to a less structured routine, and making the most of plentiful opportunities for fun, fresh air, and new activities, places, and people.

With young learners especially, actually every day brings the promise of a new journey. This is part of what I love about working with these ages. There are constantly new connections, new learning, new questions, new discoveries, and new skills introduced and mastered. One factor that drew me to PDS for my own new beginning is the way the school embraces all the possibility and joy of this stage of life while remaining grounded by the deepest expertise in what our young learners most need.

Your children’s days at Primary Day this school year, like the 76 prior years at PDS, will nourish their bounding intellects, their expanding sense of what it means to be a community member, and their growing practice of what it means to be a lifelong, fully engaged learner. Their days will be full, their minds engaged, their joyful spirits nurtured. Of course academics will be important, but where we will also excel will be in partnering with you to help develop good people.

I often think of that seemingly larger-than-life cardboard train of my own first day of “real” school and the journey that was ahead. At PDS we are beginning, supporting, and boosting your children’s lifetime voyage of schooling, with all its promise, all its excitement, and all its beginnings. The faculty, staff, and I are here to guide your children and you with all the twists and turns ahead. Please be sure to call on us when you have a question, concern, or idea. We will do the same. In the meantime, know that I am so grateful that you and your family are “all aboard.”

I was raised in a family of letter writers. My mother wrote prolifically to ‘the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker’! In a time before iPhones and laptops, I was taught that written communication was to be valued on an equal footing with lively, informed conversation and was even more impactful if it was rendered by hand. Of course, I protested and vowed that I would write letters in longhand as infrequently as possible, my thinking vindicated when ‘word processers’ became commonplace in the early 1980’s. Nearly forty years on, as a school head in the time of COVID, I have never written so many letters and emails as I now do each day. While the opportunities for handwritten communications have been eclipsed by the need for frequent, and often immediate, messaging each time I do pick up my pen, I channel my mother, seated at her desk writing yet another card of condolence or letter of advice.

In recent weeks, I have discovered (and re-discovered) letters of meaning, new and old, handwritten and published. Heartfelt and passionate, they resonate for me now, as I lead a school in extraordinary times. I’ve excerpted some great finds. Enjoy the urgency.

“Prejudice saves us a painful trouble, the trouble of thinking. We are part of a world whose unity has been almost completely shattered….there can be a happy world and there will be once again, when men create a strong bond towards one another, a bond unbreakable by a studied prejudice or a passing circumstance.” – Ruth Bader, (grade 8), The Bulletin of the East Midwood Jewish Center, June 21, 1946.

“During this pandemic, a lot has changed but one thing that never will is my strong family-like bond with everyone in the school…” – Violet Klasko, Our Lady Star of the Sea School, The Catholic Standard, January 21, 2021.

 “You may be tempted to find solace in the diversity of opinion that is American democracy. You should resist any such temptation. Diversity ought not to be confused with division. Nor should you underestimate, as others have before you, America’s will.” – George H.W. Bush to Saddam Hussein, January 13, 1991.

“If Joe Biden called me, first thing I would say is ‘hello’. Then: we should have a doctor on every block and you wouldn’t have to pay money to see them. And I would like for all the schools to be open. We’d have to spend money on more teachers, pencils, desks and chairs - kid-sized chairs.” – Prudence Lipkin,- ‘if Joe Biden called you…’ –  New York Times, January 3, 2021.

“..what we want is the certainty that the one spark of original genius shall not be extinguished, that is better than average excellent, that is what will survive, what is essential to foster…” – Mary Cassatt to John Wesley Beatty, September 5, 1905.

“Don’t be afraid of failing. It’s the way you learn to do things right.  It doesn’t matter how many times you fall down. What matters is how many times you get up. And don’t wait for everybody else before you to do something. It’s always a few people who get things done and keep things going.  This country needs more wise and courageous shepherds and fewer sheep.” – Marian Wright Edelman, a letter to her sons, January 12, 1993.

“Dear God: I am Amearican [sic], what are you?” – Robert, Children’s Letters to God, 1991.

“Each and every one of us, regardless, have our trials and tribulations and in my lifetime I have had very many and sometimes they have been difficult to overcome….living takes courage and fortitude for all of us, and I am sure you have this in full measure.” – Marjorie Merriweather Post to unknown Texas correspondent, 1965.

“Have a told you that you are strong? A woman named Helen Keller fought her way through long, silent darkness. Though she could not see or hear, she taught us to look at and listen to each other. Never waiting for life to get easier, she gave others courage to face their challenges.” – Barack Obama, a letter to my daughters, 2010.

epiphany - (n). 1. a sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something; 2. a comprehension of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization; 3. an intuitive grasp of reality through something simple or striking.

 It happened. Labor Day weekend. I experienced an epiphany. A sudden intuitive realization. And my new reality is ‘holding steady’.

For nearly four decades, Labor Day has signaled for me a new beginning – another chance to pursue my life’s work with passion, to make a difference and to serve with joy. Having spent my career with young children, their teachers and their parents, I have always subscribed to the wisdom of the British educator Janet Erskine Stuart, who once said, “we bring up children for the future, not the present. Therefore, we must have to do with things raw and unfinished and unpolished….we must remember that it is better to begin a great work than to finish a small one.” Writing of teaching and learning a century ago in the midst of another pandemic, she believed, as I do, in the realities of childhood and in the nobility of this profession.

As the 2019-2020 school year came to a close, and faced with an uncertain future, I was both anxious and apprehensive about my own abilities to lead, to listen and to ‘steer the ship’ with confidence. Our children and their schooling had been caught in the cross-hairs of the coronavirus, national civil unrest and the politicization of seemingly every aspect of our lives as Americans. Our complacency was shattered by the lack of trust in our democracy which, paradoxically, brought out the worst in some and the level best in others.  

This was a summer like no other and indeed a very personal one. A close relative passed away unexpectedly and I was left to manage a large, complicated estate. I learned I was to be a grandfather for the second time (JOY!) but, as an educator, I was in a funk. I doubted my competence, my energy and had lost my way. By the end of August, the uncertainties had mounted and the days seemed endless and unproductive.

Labor Day dawned, and as the sun rose that Monday morning, I realized that I had a choice – a clear one. It was time to be the best I could be for myself and for my leadership of this special school. Moreover, it was apparent that the truth in my epiphany lay in my deep belief in the Primary Day mission and in the partnerships that empower life lived here on River Road. This intuitive realization was just the reminder that I needed, at just the right time, and my psyche was re-calibrated. I am lucky to serve this community – unfinished and unpolished work notwithstanding.

I wish you your own epiphany. 

‘tis a gift to be simple, ‘tis a gift to be free, ‘tis a gift to come down where we want to be…’
      -Shaker traditional

These are complex times. This I know. After a weekend of long walks, the Sunday Times and the television pundits, I have never been more certain of anything in my life. Global warming is a concern, our world is consumed by geopolitical unrest, a worldwide health emergency is upon us, and as a nation, we are faced with a societal partisanship unlike anything in recent memory.

While no one path, however well-conceived, will ever disentangle us entirely from the issues we face together, it seems to me that we still must do something! I believe the place to begin is with ourselves. It is a matter of conscience. We need to hold firm to this simple truth if we are to “come down where we want to be.” It is our conscience, together with our moral compass, that is the foundation of a life of purpose and re-discover it we must. It’s that simple.

 At Primary Day, simplicity is as much a part of our conscious life as is the Phonovisual Method and Beako. Virtuous yes, but simplicity is also valuable. It enjoins us to live to the point, to clear the way to the best and to keep first things first. Our founders had grit. They had a conscience and they had confidence in a simple mission from the very start. They believed in professional inquiry, had faith in childhood and persevered in the face of real adversity. They were truthful and clear and they are the role models we need here and now. Their simplicity gave extraordinary meaning to their work and we are indebted to them for their courage to act.

Robert Lawrence Smith, the Quaker scholar and former Head of Sidwell Friends School once wrote: “…listening to and acting on our conscience is a scary and lonely enterprise...” Don’t be deterred, instead be courageous. Start simply. Listen and act, in spite of your fear. Together our small acts will make a difference. For the next generation of learners here on River Road, this is a must do.

For me, the weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break have always been a time for reflection. Time to prepare for the winter greys. Time to re-read old favorites and think about a new year. And it was in the pages of Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World by Tony Wagner, that my wonderings about the transactional thinking of millennial consumers relative to the choice of independent education were satiated at last. It is clear that it is less about whether we communicate via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or offer tuition payment options that include Venmo, and more about where the skills and habits of mind relative to true innovation are taught and learned.

As both a Head of School and the ‘baby-boomer’ parent of two millennials, I have spent the better part of the last decade trying to understand why this generation is the most ‘written about’ of any in our history. Often described as diverse and connected, this inimitable group will make up a majority of the workforce within a decade. Millennials are innovators in real time and they want the same for their children. Our founders were like-minded pacesetters; they were curious, collaborative and dedicated to experimentation. For 75 years we have followed their lead and worked diligently to balance invention with tradition.

Millennial thinking is innovative thinking. It is balanced thinking, guided by a differently calibrated emotional compass that those of us boomers have used to steady our personal ships throughout our lives. It is the action of ‘creative problem solving’, of tackling real problems as a bridge to twenty-first century thinking that renders a PDS education relevant in ‘real-time’!

Schooling is only a year-to-year, result-oriented enterprise when crucial constructs are not actualized as they are at Primary Day. Our learners are engaged as a matter of course. Here on River Road, the underpinnings of innovative thinking include:  

• Curiosity, which is a habit of asking good questions and a desire to understand more deeply
• Collaboration, which begins with listening to, and learning from, others
• Associative or integrative thinking
• A bias toward action and experimentation

In this reflective season, my gift to innovators young and old are lines from a piece entitled Desiderata, written by Max Ehrmann, nearly a century ago before we named generations. Believe!

‘Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence…Be yourself….you are a child of the universe…you have a right to be here.  And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe in unfolding as it should…strive to be happy [in the face of innovation]’

Last July, in the heat of a Washington summer, we mounted some permanent trellises to enhance the aesthetics of our distinctive outdoor classroom. In due course, the landscapers arrived to install the plantings at the base of each screen, including those beside the entrance drive. Expressing surprise at how small the sprouts were, I was assured of their hardiness. “Just trust us, you’ll be amazed. With the proper care, they’ll grow like wildfire, and cover the screens entirely.”

Among my greatest joys as Head of School are the interactions I have with your children. Each morning as I greet them at drop-off, when they visit my office to deliver birthday treats or at morning meetings when they share their lives with each other, I am reminded of how special they are and how thankful I am to be a part of this community. Joy puts the world and life into perspective, I think. Trust represents our faith and confidence in our reciprocal life with the world. Trust and joy sustain life at this extraordinary place we call Primary Day. 

Still, trust and joy are just part of our story. There is specialness here, a distinctive care for each and every learner. Carefully cultivated, this uniqueness has grown like wildfire for decades, embodies all of who we are and inspires our plans for the future. A uniqueness that is nothing short of remarkable. But what of the how? How do we capitalize on the hardiness in our children so as to assure their future success? How does a small, sturdy school continue to thrive? The answers are in the story.

I enjoy the great privilege of serving this thriving school as best I can. Over the course of my career as a school leader, I have thought myself a teacher, a manager, a coach, a listening ear, a chief mourner amid angst and a cheerleader in the best of times – and yes, a storyteller. A recent article authored by a fellow independent school administrator rendered a powerful definition of ‘chief storyteller’ that I fully embrace.

“I tell the story of my school, and I help people find their place in that story.  I think about what the story of the school is today, as well as what it might be tomorrow. I try to find new ways to connect this story to people at each stage of the school’s life cycle.”

 It is the life lived in tandem with joy and with trust that is the story at Primary Day – and I am proud to ‘tell it’! With that said, nothing tells the tale like our recently adopted Portrait of a Graduate. The growth is like wildfire! Enjoy.

 A Portrait of a Graduate

Our alumni are curious, self-reliant and accomplished. An education at Primary Day assures lifelong success by endowing our graduates with an inspired academic foundation and the intellectual resourcefulness to actively engage as young learners. Well-prepared, thoughtful and kind, they are courageous risk-takers and compassionate friends. Equipped with a confident resilience, our children are sought after applicants to independent schools throughout greater Washington.

Aptly named Beako’s Learning Nest, the plans for our outdoor classroom were unveiled in 2018 at our spring gala – Never Grow Up at Badlands. The funds raised that evening were augmented by an anonymous gift and construction began in earnest last September. An outdoor learning space equipped with easels, musical instruments, outlast blocks, dramatic play equipment, a refurbished garden and greenhouse as well as a small amphitheater for teacher-led lessons, the concept of the Learning Nest was predicated on the fact that in the early years, many learning activities that can be done indoors, can be done out-of-doors. In fact there are some that occur best out-of-doors and others that can only be done in an outdoor classroom!

Notwithstanding the addition of living “grow walls” and auxiliary fencing, our progress has been slower than we might have imagined – with some of our custom-made pieces detained at the border! Committed to the very best for our children, the search for distinctive, high quality equipment led us to vendors in both the United States and Canada. In particular, our large acrylic easels, the custom musical instruments and the acoustic pipe fence were designed and produced by Canadian firms. While the easels were delivered and mounted last fall, the other items were not due to be shipped until after the spring recess when, armed with hard hats and shovels, our children could assist with their installation.  Unfortunately, an administrative issue has arisen with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and our marimbas and drums have been detained! As we negotiate the release of our tuneful contraband, we’re moving forward with new box gardens, stadium seats, the installation of both an additional storage shed and the greenscapes.

Throughout our history, we have faced any number of challenges and overcome them with aplomb. In this seventy-fifth year, here in this special place, we will not be detained! We must “practice what we preach” and demonstrate the patience, resourcefulness and resilience we expect of our students! While it is likely that the entire project will not be completed until mid-summer, this inimitable outdoor learning space will represent all the best of the learning life at Primary Day.

Beako’s Learning Nest is coming together – one expat “twig” at a time!

for Best Picture: Green Book
for Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron – Roma
for Best Actress: Olivia Colman – the Favourite

The truth is, in spite of having thoroughly enjoyed both Roma and the Favourite, I was still championing the cause of fellow New Englander, Glenn Close, in her bid to win for her role in The Wife, a film I have yet to see. Curious? No, just paradoxical decision-making at its finest!

Indeed, this is the season of decisions, of questions and of reflective thinking. In spite of the late winter wind, the sun is shining and I am thinking of our children. As Head of School, my commitment to our community and to the education of your children is clarified, and perhaps rendered less paradoxical, by the hard thinking and the intentional self-questioning that real reflection affords. How lucky I am to have thought partners like colleagues, committed parents and our imaginative, hopeful young learners!

Why Primary Day? One of the most important decisions we undertake each winter is the selection of new children and families to join our community. Primary Day enjoys an enviable position in greater Washington and we have multiple applicants to consider for openings at each grade level. In my conversations with visiting families, I always pose the question Why Primary Day? and in a variety of ways, they ask a similar question of me, “Why is PDS the ‘best’ place for my child”? As I describe the unique aspects of our curriculum, I listen with passion and I hope they hear mine. I listen for joy and I hope they hear my joy. Together, we work to ascertain fit. Be assured that our enrollment decisions are grounded in both a deep understanding of our mission and a generosity of spirit. Our current families understand deeply why they selected Primary Day and why the fit was, and continues to be, right for them. Later this week, we will offer admission to a number of qualified candidates and our school family will expand in exponential ways!

Similarly, our second grade families are imagining life outside Primary Day. For those who have made application to independent schools, admission offers will be extended by week’s end. Whatever options our families have available, and whatever their selection, their children are well-prepared, highly regarded applicants and their success is assured.

Next-School Placement is a year-long, collaborative process at Primary Day. Beginning with conversations in the spring of grade one and concluding this month, with each of our families making definitive grade three enrollment decisions, this important process is an integral part of our commitment to families as they join our community – this is enrollment management in action!

In every way, this is a season for decisions. In every way, we labor to arrive at the ‘right’ one. In every category, our children are winners.

The Venn of Teaching

Winter has arrived with an irrefutable earnestness! Nevertheless, I am determined that we resist the commotion caused by unavoidable inclement weather and focus on our work with your children which is, by every measure, important work.

Great teaching, the heart and soul of a great school, has long been a hallmark of a Primary Day education. It is how our mission is realized every day. As teachers and co-learners, we are committed to both the academic and social growth of our children as they experience, first-hand, the uniqueness that is schooling on River Road. Our teachers are among the most capable, the most competent and the most compassionate of any team with whom I have ever served. Their dedication to their students is second to none. Teaching at Primary Day is a multi-faceted enterprise. Our faculty are actively engaged in planning and implementing a comprehensive program, inspired by growth and manifest the courage to teach. But what of this profession? How do educators live out their passion to be the best? What sustains them in their work?

Nearly a century ago, the preeminent educator, John Dewey, styled teaching as neither an art nor a science, but rather a fluid combination of the two – in essence, a craft. Visually speaking, this characterization could be illustrated by a Venn diagram with the professional craft of teaching symbolized as the intersection of the art and the science. As the child-centered spirit empowered by best practices and solid pedagogical knowledge, this is who we are. This rubric has been debated for decades amongst our colleagues and in the professional literature. How can it be that we are nothing more than respectable craftsmen? Undeniably, in cultures throughout our world, the master craftsman is held in the highest esteem, above all other professions, and opportunities for apprenticeships are highly prized. Our craft is our passion.

Why write of the Venn of Teaching on this grey winter morning? For the simple reason that in the days ahead I will enjoy the pleasure of reviewing the report cards that our teachers have prepared for every learner documenting their growth during fall term. I will come to know the progress of your children in new and different ways and I will be inspired again and again by the love and devotion the faculty have for the students in their care. I know, that when you read of your child’s accomplishments, you will see what I see and you will know of our craftsmanship.

Let it snow!

Among the most frequent questions asked by both prospective and newly enrolled families are those about our World Language program. Why do students learn three languages simultaneously? Wouldn’t it be better to teach one language more frequently and more in depth? My child is bilingual and speaks French fluently, how will he be challenged? Don’t the children become confused?

The answers to these important questions lie, quite simply, in the research. By every measure, language study at an early age creates a firm foundation for children to become lifelong language learners. While introducing them to other languages and cultures, it encourages open-mindedness by promoting curiosity about the world and other ways of life. Early exposure to other languages empowers children to become both confident risk-takers and critical thinkers. Most importantly however, early study of multiple languages assures the brain FLEXibility necessary for young children to succeed in related academic pursuits. As twentieth-first century educators, we recognize the importance of action research and from neuroscience we know that the brain is elastic, not fixed. Early language learning programs akin to our approach use the brain’s natural inclination to seek out, recognize and create patterns – every day and with startling frequency.

At PDS, our FLEX (Foreign Language Exploratory) program emphasizes receptive language, with students expected to do more listening than speaking, as they are in the input phase of learning. The idea is to replicate, as practicably as possibly, the way one’s native language is acquired. Pedagogically, the program is delivered in short classes over the course of an academic year or years. Neither oral nor written fluency of the target languages is expected. Taught in multi-modal contexts where both the visual and the textual reinforce conceptual content, the modalities of the brain work together, in a FLEXible manner, not in isolation. A tangential goal is to give students a foundation for future language study, introduce basic phrases in a number of languages in order to sharpen listening skills and familiarize students with the notion that ideas can be expressed in a language other than English.

FLEX programs could be described as ‘language potpourri’ or ‘sampler courses’ which allocate a limited number of classes to each of several languages. Not so here on River Road. We are not a smorgasbord lot – we sample nothing, but embrace our work with gusto, strive to remain FLEXible in our approach and joyous in our lives lived with your children.

“We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give.”

                                                                                    -Winston Churchill

An essential part of a Primary Day education is a commitment to teaching our children to care – for themselves, for their classmates, for their families and for those in need. The importance of social action grounded in selfless giving cannot be overstated. While our community service programs offer opportunities for all of us to engage and contribute, it is in our conversations, and yours at home, that our children learn about their responsibility to care for others and for our collective future together.

As we work to shape the service thinking and future practices of our children, we must emphasize that philanthropy is a critical part of a democratic society. Broadly defined, philanthropy represents a collective responsibility for humankind as it is through our giving that we can provide opportunities for growth and change. Yes, our lives are made richer by our giving and we must do all that we can to cultivate this truism for our children’s sake.

What is also true is that philanthropy represents giving and sharing on many levels. Volunteerism is, at its core, a philanthropic enterprise and represents a contribution of the purest sort. With that said, generous financial support for charities, programs and schools represent another, equally impactful, type of giving.

At Primary Day, we look to every member of our school family to support our philanthropic efforts to the most ambitious extent possible. While contributions to The Primary Circle: The Annual Fund for PDS impact our small community in ‘real time’ it is this, and other, philanthropic endeavors that we need to consistently model for our children. If we make a point each and every day to throw something back our community will grow together in exponential ways – and together we’ll nurture the next generation of a philanthropic society.

“I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.”

            - Maya Angelou

The most successful schools recognize the generational value of families and students—from the first inquiry to the planned gift of a proud alumnus. As families traverse the route of admission to enrollment and next-school placement and as their children emerge as alumni who will refer others to the School and engage with the community for a lifetime, the power of a Primary Day education is affirmed.

As an independent school, we have always enjoyed the freedom to explore innovative advancement approaches, respond to community needs with precision and design flexible learning environments to respond to changing demographics. We work hard to keep the thinking nimble and the focus sharp.

Our mission is distinct and our vision for the future, impassioned. To insure a forward trajectory, we have spent considerable time in recent months researching best practices relative to a new concept in independent schools, that of Mission Integration. Enabled by the professional gifts and talents of existing staff and inspired by the true collaboration that characterizes our work together, we have reconfigured both our Advancement and Enrollment teams to sustain our strong culture and brand supported by shared decision making. Traditional job descriptions have been replaced with a more strategic leadership of mission-based initiatives. We have fashioned a Mission Integration team at Primary Day.

In collaboration with the Board of Trustees and the faculty, the team will employ a cohesive approach to advancing the School’s mission. By implementing best practices and, in anticipation of a board-adopted Strategic Plan, the stage will be set for our vibrant future.  Members of the Mission Integration team include the following colleagues: the Assistant to the Head of School, the Assistant Director of Enrollment Management, the Business Manager, the Director of Advancement and the Director of Enrollment Management. Agile thinkers all!

As always, I welcome your thoughts and your questions about our thinking.