5 Things You Will Only Do at Hyde: Senior Evaluations

5 FIVE THINGS YOU WILL ONLY DO AT HYDE Malcolm Gauld ’72

Senior Evaluations

Five Things You Only Do at Hyde: Senior Evaluations

by Malcolm Gauld ’72, P-’08, P-‘10 Copyright 2017 Hyde Schools

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aid no Hyde head of school ever, “Congratulations! You’ve passed the required courses. You’ve amassed the requisite 18 Carnegie credits. You’re all set to graduate.”

Actually, a Hyde head of school might well open with those points, but he or she would most certainly close with the following: “… but hold off on the celebration, because now the real test begins!”

At most schools, the month of May is a breeze for high school seniors. Not so at Hyde.

It has long been said, “Hyde is a process that begins with an interview and ends with a speech.” The admissions interview, a time-honored Hyde tradition, prepares each student and family to begin the Hyde education with a purposeful entrance. The graduation speech enables each student and family to conclude their education with a profound exit.

The Hyde requirements for graduation involve concepts that can be confusing to those who are familiar with the more traditional “pass the classes/get the sheepskin” approach to high school graduation. Because Hyde School is dedicated to a curriculum of character education, we require evidence of character development as a prerequisite to a formal degree from our school.

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The year culminates in an evaluation process involving each graduate, his or her peers, and the entire faculty.

Students who have been members of the senior class with acceptable standing throughout the year are eligible to participate.

“Senior Evals” is the key to assessing, respecting, and encouraging that development.

Traditional education places its primary focus on a student’s talents and abilities. (At Hyde, we often refer to this as “The Achievement System.”) In this format, the student is expected to demonstrate a level of performance meeting an agreed upon standardized level of measurement. It’s not that we do not care about academic standards of measurement at Hyde, it’s just that we are more concerned with a student’s personal growth, character, and what we call “unique potential.” We also focus on each student’s personal best as opposed to comparisons with his or her peers.

So, Hyde’s graduation requirements consist of two parts: 1) academic mastery; and 2) character development. The year culminates in an evaluation process involving each graduate, his or her peers, and the entire faculty. Students who have been members of the senior class with acceptable standing throughout the year are eligible to participate. It is assumed that seniors are on track to fulfill all academic graduation requirements as a prerequisite to entering the evaluation process.

2 Five Things You Will Only Do at Hyde

On face value, Senior Evals is simple: The senior expresses a self-evaluation of his or her year and selects one of three graduation designations upon which others might comment and eventually vote in favor of or against. This process occurs in a seminar-like fashion. Seniors and faculty spend approximately 40 to 50 hours together in the process. As with a number of Hyde concepts, the devil is in the details. An explanation of the designations follows.

Diploma If the Senior Evals process can be said to have a “gold standard,” the Diploma is it. The Diploma signifies that “this individual is ready to conduct his or her life according to standards of personal excellence.” Throughout the evaluation process, students are reminded to assess themselves – and each other – in the light of this standard and avoid the temptation to assemble a list of accomplishments in an attempt to “sell” the group on their personal growth or character development. Each and every senior who has made it to the Senior Evals process has experienced substantive personal growth and character development. Whether one has grown to a point where they are ready to conduct their lives according to standards of personal excellence is the issue at hand.

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The intrinsic value of the entire evaluation process for all rests on the assumption that honesty will be the guiding principle for self, peers and faculty.

During the evaluation process, the student, peers, and faculty examine the extent to which the candidate has inter¬nalized the Five Words and Five Principles and applied them to his or her life.

Factors such as executive function, leadership, impact on younger Hyde students, overall effort, maturity, etc. are carefully considered. It is assumed that the student’s personal behavior has been responsible, morally upright, and in accordance with Hyde’s ethical standards. Once again, it is also assumed that all academic obligations have been met.

The intrinsic value of the entire evaluation process for all rests on the assumption that honesty will be the guiding principle for self, peers and faculty. To ensure this foundation, each senior is expected to address a myriad of issues and questions. A partial list includes: • Is truth my primary guide?

• Have I honored the obligation to make this process meaningful for all of my classmates?

• Have I pursued my best at Hyde?

• Have I honored the school ethics and set a positive example for underclassmen?

• Have I honored the Five Words and earnestly explored the Five Principles?

• Am I committed to a character-based future in college and beyond?

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• Am I open to an honest look at myself?

• Have I done my best in Hyde’s family program?

Many seniors don’t realize that most of these questions are the same ones addressed at the admissions interview. The difference is, at the graduation evaluation, the student now possesses the hindsight afforded by a curriculum oriented towards addressing these questions.

The Hyde Diploma is the goal of the Hyde senior. A worthy Diploma recipient freely enters into Senior Evals in earnest. He or she will answer most of the above questions in the affirmative to the agreement of peers and faculty. A senior who begins the year without a sincere desire to receive a Hyde Diploma in June is probably misplaced. Recipients of the Diploma speak at Commence¬ment in formal culmination of their Hyde educations. Their families stand during their speeches.

Certificate This designation is symbolic of significant growth at Hyde, but is indicative of a few “loose ends” causing the senior to fall a bit short of the Diploma standard.

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Perhaps there is an area of the curriculum that has been avoided or completed in a less than exemplary fashion. Perhaps the senior has not thoroughly engaged in the evaluation process or has been unwilling to approach it with an open mind. Usually the individual simply doesn’t feel prepared to accept the Diploma. Those receiving the Certificate participate in graduation and speak at the ceremony just as Diploma winners do. (The distinction is not publicly noted. Only the class is aware of the difference.)

There is one fundamental difference between Diploma and Certificate recipients: In accepting a Certificate, the individual accepts a commitment to return to Hyde some day in the future and deliver a Diploma speech. The Hyde Alumni Association provides a ceremony that offers the opportunity for Hyde alumni to return and receive Diplomas. Each year, such speeches are inspirational highlights. For example, at my Hyde 40th reunion, a classmate returned with his wife to make his moving Diploma speech. This unique tradition is regarded with pride throughout our community as one of those things that makes Hyde Hyde.

Document The Document signifies that this individual might have fulfilled the academic requireÂŹments for a Hyde graduation, but might not 6 Five Things You Will Only Do at Hyde

have experienced a level of growth sufficient for participation in a Hyde graduation. Here are some typical reasons for the Document: • The student did not have senior standing for a large part of the year; • The student exhibited an unacceptable level of effort in one or more aspects of the curriculum (e.g., academics, athletics, performing arts); • The student was unwilling to examine him/herself during the evaluation process and/or refused to take an honest personal inventory of strengths and weaknesses; • The student might have had numerous ethical and behavioral violations during the first two trimesters but wrapped up the year with a strong third trimester.

Once the Document has been determined, there is additional

The Hyde Alumni Association provides a ceremony that offers the opportunity for Hyde alumni to return and receive Diplomas. Each year, such speeches are inspirational highlights. discussion to determine whether the individual will make a speech at graduation. This determination is made on a case-by-case basis.

It is easy to understand how a family might be puzzled, perhaps embittered, by the scenario of a son or daughter passing the academic requirements for a senior year and then being prohibited from participating in the graduation exercises. For this reason, the evaluation for the Document is a painstaking one. In Senior Evaluations 7

some years, the class and the faculty have held meetings right up until the eve of Commencement with the student’s family already on campus looking forward to the next day’s graduation and the formal programs for the ceremony already printed. Regardless, it is a time-honored tradition to do everything possible to honor the integrity of the Senior Evals process. In any case, the decision for a Document is one that is not taken lightly. The final decision on this designation rests with the head of the school.

While families might be concerned that the Document designation might negatively impact college admissions prospects, remember that Senior Evals is a confidential process. Not only are the final graduation designations not shared with colleges, they are not shared with anyone beyond the class and faculty.

Simply put, the Document signifies that this individual has completed the academic require¬ments for a high school equivalency diploma but not the character requirements for a Hyde degree. Again, academic proficiency was not the primary factor considered when the student was admitted to Hyde in the first place. That admission was based on a commitment to personal best made by the individual and the family at the interview. Therefore, it stands to reason that the student’s graduation would hinge on an evaluation of this same commitment. Senior Evals is that evaluation.

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...it is a time-honored tradition to do everything possible to honor the integrity of the Senior Evals process.

In any case, the decision for a Document is one that is not taken lightly.

Graduation w/ Honors It sometimes occurs to the class and the faculty that a Diploma does not adequately speak to the quality of a year that an individual has had. Sometimes an individual will meet the standards for a Diploma “above and beyond the call of duty,” giving rise to a sentiment that there ought to be some form of formal recognition for this extra, higher level of effort and personal growth.

The designation of Honors serves this purpose, and it is discussed after the Diploma designation has been determined. To provide perspective, at Hyde’s last two graduations, there were a total of 90 graduates and a total of four Honors recipients. In some years, there are no Honors recipients.

For all we know, character development may not be measurable.

That idea has been debated since Hyde’s founding and long before. Then again, the purpose of neither Hyde nor Senior Evals is to measure character. What we’re trying to do is perhaps captured in the story of a prominent educator who visited campus several years ago. After a day spent visiting classes, observing activities, and engaging in multiple conversations, he enthusiastically burst into my office with an observation I had never heard before: “Do you know that your kids are walking around this campus wondering if they’re living up to those words you’ve got on that shield?!?”

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Sensing my puzzlement, he went on: “You never see that! At most schools, they might have a shield, probably in Latin, but the kids might not even know what the words are, much less give them a second thought after new student orientation. But here, you’ve got them actively and earnestly thinking about how they relate to those words in their daily lives. It’s a beautiful thing.”

This story may best capture what we’re trying to do with kids and families at Hyde. Senior Evals helps facilitate the efforts of our students, parents, and faculty to honor the words on our school shield: Courage – Integrity – Leadership – Curiosity – Concern.

Hyde is an emotionally charged environment. There are few moments more demonstrative of this than a student’s graduation speech. The senior places both hands on each side of the podium and scans the Saturday morning assemblage in the Sunken Garden.

Initial nervousness gives way to a savoring of the experience once the individual realizes that everyone present — family, class¬mates, faculty, students, alumni, and friends — is pulling for him/her. The graduate carries this support and the fruits of self-discovery into the next phase of life. n

10 Five Things You Will Only Do at Hyde