Acting Generously: Reflections on NCCS’s Mission in Action

This is a continuation of the Mission Focus series. Links to prior reflections may be found below.

NCCS Mission:

“We create an active, joyful learning environment where children are challenged to think deeply, question confidently, and act generously so that they may lead lives of impact and purpose.”

Intellectual capacity and student voice are only as meaningful as the impact they have on others. At NCCS, the principle of acting generously underscores our commitment to nurturing a mindset focused on collective well-being rather than individual interests. This ethos extends beyond mere academic achievement; it encompasses fostering empathy, understanding, and compassion among our students.

Throughout the past week, a series of events highlighted our community’s dedication to this principle.

Thank you to all who helped us celebrate the success of our Horizons program’s 60th anniversary. Thanks to the dedication and support of many, since 1964, this pioneering organization has provided academic and enrichment programming (and swimming lessons!) for literally thousands of students from underserved or less well represented populations in the neighboring area.

Thank you also to those who contributed to the Kyle A. Markes (KAM) Day of Service last Saturday. With over 100 NCCS and Horizons students, parents, faculty and staff working together in support of a dozen non-profit partner organizations and the school itself, it was a wonderful display of selflessness.

In addition to the impressive array of KAM Day of Service activities, our 8th graders volunteered at a variety of local service organizations including the Community Foodbank, New Canaan Nature Center and Rising Starr Horse Rescue and our 9th graders worked on their Community Action Projects (CAP). Each CAP represents a problem the student sees in the community, either here at NCCS or in our neighboring towns and their plan to make positive change. For example, last weekend, 9th grader Will was here in support of pet rescue organizations while Grace supported beach cleanup. Over the course of the next several weeks, all of our 9th graders will be involved in taking similar action in support of the larger community.

The practice of acting generously can also begin on a small scale. I had the chance last week to meet with six Lower School students in our Plus Program’s “Emerging Leaders” club to discuss ideas they have for improving the NCCS community. These ideas included creating inspirational rock messages for our Wellness Garden and constructing a “Good News” drop box to collect and share upbeat happenings on campus.

It was so refreshing to see so many adults modeling and students of all ages practicing this embodiment of our mission and demonstrating generosity for the greater good.

Our Mission: Respect for Childhood, A Focus on Children (Feb. 19)

Our Mission: The Role of “Challenge” (Feb. 25)

Our Mission: Nurturing Critical Thinkers (Mar. 31)

Our Mission: Amplifying Student Voice (Apr. 21)

Amplifying Student Voice: NCCS Mission in Action

This week, I will be continuing the Mission Focus series. Links to prior reflections may be found below.

NCCS Mission:

“We create an active, joyful learning environment where children are challenged to think deeply, question confidently, and act generously so that they may lead lives of impact and purpose.”

A major component of the phrase question confidently is student voice. In a dynamic world, being able to question norms, current understandings and practices, and others’ perspectives is integral to success. How can one do that without having confidence in one’s voice or being skilled in using it?

At NCCS, students practice using their voice through hundreds of formal presentations and informal classroom moments. From the earliest days, as Beginners share around the Morning Meeting circle, to the final days, as 9th graders lead student government, deliver their This I Believe speeches and present their Community Action Projects, students move on to high school knowing how to make a speech, how to share a perspective, and how to present to an audience.

While knowing how to use one’s voice is important, it is not meaningful until one knows the value of one’s voice. At NCCS, student’s voices matter. People listen – the Lower School assembly audience remains rapt; the auditorium thoughtfully takes in the messages of the 6th grade speeches and 8th grade American Forum presentations; and the teachers explicitly ask students’ opinions often.  

Finally, a feeling of belonging in the community is a necessary ingredient to knowing one’s voice matters. That is why we focus on developing a culture where every person is valued for every part of themselves – their identity, their perspectives, and their background. The more comfortable someone feels, the more they will share of themselves, thus further developing their voice here and becoming better equipped to thrive in the future, regardless of their industry or role within it.

Our Mission: Respect for Childhood, A Focus on Children (Feb. 19)

Our Mission: The Role of “Challenge” (Feb. 25)

Our Mission: Nurturing Critical Thinkers (Mar. 31)

Connection with the Natural World Affords Us the Chance to Learn

I enjoyed marveling at last week’s eclipse along with several hundred other community members. Between our middle and upper school students watching during their arts and sports classes, our faculty and staff scattered around campus, and a huge gathering of parents and lower school/early childhood students on the Thacher lawn, campus was buzzing as the moon and Earth orbits slowly aligned into the path of the sun’s light.  

As I stood with a group of 6th graders, and the subject arose of the next solar eclipse in the US two decades from now, the students commented that they will be 32 at that time – and “that is so old.” How nice it would be, I thought, to be 32 years “old” again!

As we planned for the eclipse over the past several weeks, the conversations often understandably began with worry (“how do we make sure no one damages their eyes!”) and then moved on toward logistics (“should we change our dismissal time or bus schedule or cancel sports contests?”) Thankfully, with those questions answered, the discourse led to the proper priorities – education. A solar eclipse is an amazing event. It provides the opportunity to learn about how gravity and orbits work, what the sun’s composition is and how that affects our eyes, the ways animals react to an eclipse, and so on.

We take a similar approach with phenomena large and small such as the previous week’s earthquake (and the logarithmic nature of the Richter Scale) and the cicadas expected this summer (the 13 and 17 year broods are both hatching this year, the first time in 221 years – because 221 is the lowest common multiple of 13 and 17).  Likewise, we also take a similar approach with predictable things like the ramps growing in the NCCS woods in spring, the changing of the leaves in the fall, and the flowing of the sugar maple sap in the late winter.    Connection with the natural world affords us the chance to learn at every turn; how fortunate we are to have a campus like this in a community that values nature, as ours does.  

If the large turnout to witness the eclipse together is any indicator, we are all lifelong learners; marveling at such phenomena. This is something I particularly value about our community. So is knowing that our students will take these lessons with them to have forever, even when they are old – like 32!

Guiding Success: Reflections on the Secondary School Admissions Journey

Later this week, all of our soon-to-be-graduates will know their high school plans for next year.  This marks the end of a process that began last spring and included orientation meetings, panels of admissions officers, a secondary school fair, school visits, admissions tests, interviews, essays, and more. Fortunately, they do not go through all that alone. Our incredible secondary school counseling team, currently led by co-directors Alison Marcell and Lauren Romeo and supported by assistant director Brenda Siegel, shepherd, advise, and cajole families and students along each step of the process.  

All of that is in support of helping each of our students find the right high school environment that best helps them thrive. Every year, I love hearing about the conversations that families and their children have throughout this process, discussing what learning environment and other factors would be best for their growth. Such a conversation requires no small amount of self-awareness and reflection, and it is a rare treat indeed for parents of fourteen or fifteen-year-olds to hear such reflection from their child. I know I had no idea about my own learning style/priorities when I was that age, and I had even less interest in sharing that with my parents! And yet, our students reflect capably and (relatively) willingly as they navigate the high school admissions process.

And the results, like this year, are most often tremendous. Our students resonate with admissions offices because they speak well, they can share of themselves readily, they are involved community members with demonstrated leadership experience, and they are talented students. It is no wonder that they are in very high demand from some of the best schools in the region and the country.  

As is typical, some interesting trends have emerged in this year’s process. Secondary schools, not unlike colleges, are reviewing the role that standardized testing plays in the process. Some schools changed to optional testing during covid while others retained mandatory testing. Some of the schools that are optional are reconsidering that decision, and I imagine we will see continued change in this area in the coming years. NCCS students have markedly high test scores, as reported by the high schools, and this is particularly notable since we do not explicitly prepare students for the tests beyond an optional Plus Program test prep class.  

Another trend is that throughout the educational landscape, in colleges, high schools, and other elementary/middle schools, grade inflation has been a constant characteristic over the last decade or more. At NCCS, we have largely avoided this phenomenon. Our adherence to more stringent/traditional grading standards can be concerning as it is not uncommon for our students to have several ‘B’s’ or even ‘C’s’ on their transcript. And yet, due to the long track record of success our graduates have at many schools, their strong test scores, and the tremendous work of our guidance department in cultivating and maintaining strong relationships with these schools, admissions offices remain most impressed with our students. Notably, schools often remark that they like NCCS’s standards because they know that an ‘A’ student will be a “real” ‘A’ student and not a grade-inflated one as is so common these days.  

So, as our graduates and their families can breathe easily knowing their plans for next year, our secondary school counseling department is deep in preparation to begin next year’s process at the end of this month. There sure is no rest for the weary for them!

Our Mission: Nurturing Critical Thinkers

This week, I will be continuing the Mission Focus series that I initiated earlier this winter. Links to prior reflections may be found below.

NCCS Mission:

“We create an active, joyful learning environment where children are challenged to think deeply, question confidently, and act generously so that they may lead lives of impact and purpose.”

The notion of challenging our students immediately begs the question, ‘to do what?’ The next three phrases answer this question.

The first one, ‘to think deeply,’ speaks to the value that NCCS places on intellectual development. It is a salient responsibility of educators to teach children how to think. In a dynamic world where the context, the tools, and the opportunities are ever changing, the most valuable component of learning how to think is being able to intuit and/or react to new situations.  When I was a child, only the most forward thinking of science fiction writers could have imagined that we would have devices in our pockets that contained all the world’s information or that a small flying object could deliver a package to our house.

The same is certainly true of our students today – what will exist or may impact their lives that is not currently contemplated? I do not know what that will be, but I am certain that there will be much that is different from today. People’s ability to thrive in that context is at least partially dependent on their ability to access the opportunities that such a world exposes, to make connections between the existing and the new, to see opportunities where others do not, and to create something.  

So, what does it mean and look like to teach students how to think in this way? It looks like play, exploration, wonder, asking questions, making connections, and solving problems. That is the reason our students design and build furniture, try to make robots do interesting things, think about what a passage of a text might mean, wonder what shape an equation’s graph might take or how they can arrange the blocks to build the tallest tower or the one that will best hold a toy cow. Basic skills are not the primary focus for us, but rather are in service of intellectual growth. By repeatedly being asked to think and to solve, students develop the ability to address a wide variety of situations and to realize that their opinions and strategies matter. Those skills are timeless and can be applied to any situation. They will help set our students up for success, just as the same approach did decades ago for our alumni who are thriving in today’s very different world.

Our Mission: Respect for Childhood, A Focus on Children (Feb. 19)

Our Mission: The Role of “Challenge” (Feb. 25)

NCCS & Horizons @ NCCS – A 60 Year Partnership

Last week, I had the great honor of accepting the Andrew Clarkson Award on behalf of NCCS at the Horizons National Conference. The award, which honors an individual or institution for their longevity of commitment, embodiment of the Horizons mission, and work that has been leveraged across the entire Network, was presented to NCCS and Horizons @ NCCS in recognition of the 60th anniversary of the program. Symmetrically, it is also the 30th anniversary of Horizons National, and it was wonderful to hear the transformational impact that NCCS has had on so many other Horizons affiliates and the network as a whole. There were nearly 200 attendees there, and it all started at NCCS, both Horizons in general and Horizons National. 

In the near future, you will all receive a letter I wrote inviting you to the upcoming “Horizons Greatest Hits” biennial benefit on April 27. Our Horizons program is thriving. As was made clear at the Horizons National conference, we continue to lead the way in providing innovative and impactful programming for underserved students from Norwalk and Stamford. Each summer, our campus is bustling with more than 300 students in Kindergarten through Grade 9. In addition to a robust summer program, our Horizons students enjoy year-round academic support and enrichment programming. While the “Horizons Greatest Hits” Benefit promises to be a fun community event with dinner, dancing, and a live auction here on campus, it also provides critical financial support for our Horizons year-round and summer programming. I encourage you to come join me for an inspiring night and a chance to learn more about an organization that is very much at the heart of our mission as a school.

In accepting the award, I had the opportunity to share some remarks, and I pasted a small excerpt of them below. I hope to see you on April 27.

“We stand on the shoulders of giants. Sixty years ago, some NCCS teachers had a dream that Head of School George Stevens enthusiastically embraced – to develop a program, starting in the summer, that provided academic enrichment and swimming lessons to students from underserved or less well represented populations in the neighboring area. Part of the dream was to help NCCS become a more diverse school and part was to expand the vantage point, or dare I say, the Horizons of the students it served. This was in 1964, early days for the Civil Rights movement and before even the National Association of Independent Schools itself named a diverse learning environment as a tenet of best practice. With Lyn McNaught at the helm and the unwavering support of the NCCS community, Horizons @ NCCS flourished, and then with Lyn’s vision, Horizons National soon followed. And now I have the pleasure of looking out at all of you here, furthering this original purpose and these principles. This honor is well deserved by the people who had the vision, passion, support, and talent to bring Horizons to life sixty years ago and to help it spread as it has. My hope at New Canaan Country School is that Nancy [von Euler, Executive Director of Horizons @ NCCS] and I, as stewards of this vision, can perpetuate it, solidify it, and nurture it to even greater impact.”

Our Mission: The Role of “Challenge”

This is a continuation of the Mission Focus series. Links to a prior reflection may be found below.

NCCS Mission:

“We create an active, joyful learning environment where children are challenged to think deeply, question confidently, and act generously so that they may lead lives of impact and purpose.”

Nearly every Education 101 class studies a concept called the “Zone of Proximal Development” introduced in the 1930’s by the psychologist Lev Vygotsky. It refers to the distance between what a child can learn independently and what they can learn with assistance from a “more knowledgeable other.” But what factors contribute to a student growing at the outer, most advanced edge of that zone? Good teaching, obviously. Engaging materials and curricular elements, certainly. And internal motivation to learn.   

Beyond these, there is one other component – the right amount of stress. That is one way we think today of the Zone of Proximal Development – achieving the optimal level of challenge to encourage the most growth. The brain science behind the concept makes intuitive sense  – too much stress, and the brain shuts down and does not grow; too little, and it cruises and does not grow.  

So, our aim at NCCS is to challenge each student in the best way for them every day in every part of their development. While that is clearly not possible given the dynamic nature of child development, the closer we get to accomplishing that goal, the better for our students. So, how do we do that?  Put simply, by ensuring that every child is known and loved. The relationships between students and teachers that are at the heart of the NCCS community are critical to our students’ growth.  

There are several planes of child development our teachers monitor – intellectual, social, emotional, and physical. Within these four primary areas, there are additional components. For example, within intellectual development are the categories of literacy and numeracy, among others. The more our teachers know our students enough to understand their learning style, personality, and preferences, the better they can assess their development. And the more they care about each student’s growth, the more they tailor classroom experiences to meet their needs and challenge them as we aim to.  

Our Mission: Respect for Childhood, A Focus on Children (Feb. 19)

Our Mission: Respect for Childhood, A Focus on Children

Today marks the beginning of a new series for these letters – Mission Focus. Thus far, I have reflected on the ways small moments exemplify our mission in action.  For the next several weeks, I will focus on the mission statement itself and what it means to us and how it takes root in action in our students’ lives. Hopefully, this Mission Focus series will contextualize the vignettes I share in other weeks as well as those that you see and experience from your children every day. I also hope it will provide a clearer, more complete picture of the way we approach educating our students in every part of their learning.

NCCS Mission:

“We create an active, joyful learning environment where children are challenged to think deeply, question confidently, and act generously so that they may lead lives of impact and purpose.”

The most important place to start is in the middle, with the people we serve – the children. In 1938, Henry Welles, who had recently consolidated what had been three separate schools into one institution – New Canaan Country School – articulated the school’s very first “purpose statement.” A phrase in that statement continues to live within our current foundational beliefs: “Childhood is in itself an integral time in life to be lived fully and happily.”  

This simple phrase is also profound. It recognizes that childhood is not merely a preparation for the future but also important itself – and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, that focusing on these years for themselves is actually the best way to prepare children to thrive in the future.

It also reflects a core trait of NCCS – we intentionally and solely serve the entire arc of childhood, from children one step out of toddlerhood to those in full-blown adolescence and about to step into early adulthood. Brains develop more during ages 0-5 and the years of adolescence (roughly 10-15) than any other time in life, and that is a large reason why we focus so specifically on these years – our students, at these critical developmental stages, have full institutional attention, full access to all our facilities, materials, and faculty resources, and a program of study, physical plant, and schedule specifically designed for them. In short, our focus on children encompasses every aspect of our school and our students’ experience so that we can provide the very best for them during this “integral time in life.”

Study of Native Americans Provides a Culminating Experience for Our Fourth Graders

Tonight, Kansas City and San Francisco prepare to face off in the Super Bowl, the culmination for players of years of preparation and work across a number of disciplines in the weight room, in the film room, on the practice field, in meetings, and in games leading up to this one. Albeit with somewhat fewer spectators present and somewhat lower stakes, our students regularly experience similar culminating moments when they present their work following curricular units (though, since most of those present are family members, it is likely that their spectators care more about the outcome than those watching tonight!)

One such culminating moment occurred recently for our fourth graders, as they performed and presented their work following weeks of study of Native Americans. Throughout the unit they experienced many aspects of Native American life. They played games and learned songs and dances popular with Native Americans. They performed plays sharing the legends of Native Americans. They learned about the Native Americans who lived in this area, including receiving a lesson from school archivist Mark Macrides about the collection of Arrowheads discovered on NCCS property (those are displayed in the Carver Commons, and I recommend you taking a moment to stop by the impressive exhibit when you are next in Grace House.) They visited the Institute of American Indian Studies, with whom our teachers partnered in designing this unit, so that they can touch, feel, and experience what they are learning – for example, they sat in a longhouse after learning about longhouses. And, over and over, they read and researched and wrote poetry and essays about their learning.  

Then, at the beginning of February, they demonstrated their learning through a performance involving three short plays, narration of the background of the Native Americans who lived here, examples of their art work and the games they played, and time back in the classrooms for family and friends to experience each part of their child’s work.

Think about all that went into this unit of study. It covered subject areas such as language arts, social studies, visual arts, performing arts, physical education, science, and more. Several specialist teachers partnered with the fourth grade homeroom teachers to bring this unit to life. As Head of Early Childhood and Lower School Meaghan Mallin remarked in introducing the performances, many schools would simply have asked children to read something and then write a report about it; at NCCS, we always look for a more integrated, more active experience that is inherently challenging, enjoyable and memorable for our students. It might not quite feel like winning the Super Bowl (I am not sure any of our students exclaimed that they were going to Disney World after showing off their work!), but I know our students were proud and excited at the results of their earnest, diligent engagement over the course of the unit, just as they should be.  

Math Olympiad Challenges Students and Teachers Alike

When you were fourteen, how did you spend the 30-45 minutes before school started on a Friday morning? Well, for more than thirty of our Upper School students, they choose to come into school every other Friday morning to practice and compete in a contest called the Math Olympiad. This contest, consisting of several rounds of problem sets involving five problems each, has been in existence for decades. Nevertheless, other than some small medals for students scoring over a certain threshold, there is no tangible prize for students who choose to attend. They don’t get credit for their math grade or bonus points on a recent test; no, the students choose to attend for the enjoyment of challenging themselves, of thinking mathematically, and of being together. They also like the opportunity to beat their teacher; several adults, including me, take the contests for fun – and yes, we have been tied or beaten by students on occasion! In between the contests, the two teachers who oversee the club review recent problems and offer other practice questions so the students may practice different types of mathematical thinking than they may typically experience.

One sample problem from last month’s contest asked: A subtraction game begins with a pile of 2024 pennies. Two players alternate turns removing from 1 to 23 pennies on each move. The player who removes the last penny wins. To guarantee a win, how many pennies should the first player remove on their first turn?

Can you get it? On this one, though it took some time for me to conceive of the problem, I was fortunate enough to get the answer. Please feel free to email me your guess, and I will share the correct solution.  

So, you may be wondering, what did I do before school on a Friday morning when I was fourteen years old? Unlike our students, I was not lucky enough to have teachers eager to invest extra time in showing me enjoyable math problems. Nor did I have classmates whose enthusiasm might have sparked a greater interest in me. No, I was probably still in bed, hoping to catch a few extra zzzz’s before sprinting to my bus stop. How lucky are our students that they have a better choice?