Christian Brothers High School • Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve
Falcon Family News A Message From the Principal
lmost everyone wants schools to be better, but almost no one wants them to be different.” This quote from educational leader Ray McNulty sums up the conundrum facing us as we strive to be 21stcentury teachers and learners. Stability is a necessary anchor in our lives. If change were all that we ever experienced, we would probably go mad. Given our human nature to seek stability, it doesn’t seem like we would be wired to accept or adapt to change. Most people I know do everything they can to keep things predictable—thinking that if we can predict things, we can deal with them, never minding that things are not perfect, and content with knowing at least we can cope with the known. This is a universal concept—Shakespeare wrestled with the natural tension between predictability and the unknown some 400 years ago when he wrote these lines from Hamlet: “That dread of something…undiscovered…makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others we know not of” (Hamlet III.i.78-82). Or, as Henry Ford said, “If I had asked the public what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” We do all we can to maintain stability; we share the proverbial “fear of the unknown.” However, while keeping things as they are may be comfortable, it also prevents needed growth and improvement. As a school, it is especially important to realize this human tendency. Clinging to traditional practices often stifles required growth and improvement. “That’s the way we’ve always done it” is the opposite of necessary adaptation to changing times in a changing world. One of our core principles as a Catholic, Lasallian school is providing a “Quality Education.” What does that look like in 2014? Well, to begin with, our children live in a completely different world than the one we grew up in. Information is at their fingertips – and the devices they hold in their hands each day connect them to over 1 billion websites. Today education is moving from teaching students content to teaching students how to learn and discern among the millions of choices of content available to them. While we still value stability, control, and standardization, it must be mixed with uncertainty, ambiguity and disruptive thinking in order to be effective.
APRIL 2014 Christian Brothers High School Monthly Newsletter
www.cbhs-sacramento.org
The three R’s must work in concert. College preparatory schools often promote increasing levels of rigor but at times neglect the very important need of relevance—relevance to the student in the context of the real world. Relevance makes rigor possible. Our new Pathway to Engineering program that will begin in August is an example of making learning relevant to our students, since studies show STEM careers to be the fastest growing - jobs that require deep educational qualifications and specific skills in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. And as for the third R, though we have known this intuitively for a long time, brain research increasingly indicates that positive relationships are a crucial component of learning. St. John Baptist de la Salle recognized this need, which has been a vital element of the Lasallian charism from its beginnings in the 17th century. Innovative learning models today must prepare students to be both college and career ready. In order to accomplish both goals, learning must combine rigor and relevance in an environment of positive relationships. This is just a brief snapshot of where we are headed in terms of teaching and learning at Christian Brothers. Creativity and Innovation, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Communication and Collaboration, all in the context of Caring and Accountability, are the order of the day. As scholar John Schaar said, “The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination.” Here’s to the future!
Live Jesus in our hearts!
Mary Hesser Principal
INSIDE
Making a better 20th Century School is not the answer – it is not about overlaying digitalization on old practices We here at CB are in the business of transforming lives – and that means not only looking holistically at each individual student entrusted to our care to provide academic excellence, opportunities for moral and faith formation, and addressing adolescent developmental issues – it also means using the best available resources to meet their needs in understanding and succeeding in a very different landscape and future when it comes to college and careers. It is about becoming different not just better.
While initiatives such as our iPad program may seem like the new ‘different,’ the devices are only the beginning of a much more profound approach to empowering and equipping our students. Using researched-based best practices is important, but for true transformation a mixture of BEST and NEXT practices is needed. This concept, which is reflective of the direction needed in modern education, is a reconsideration of the old 3 R’s: readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmatic, which have given way to the new 3 R’s—Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships. Rigor, relevance, and relationships are not only key words on the forefront of most educational initiatives; they also ring true from the perspective of our faculty, who are embracing change in order to transform lives.
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APRIL ‘14
Dear Parents: