7 minute read
Looking newly at an old concern
From the Head of School
In December of 1990, a letter from founding Headmaster Dr. Alan Larson was sent out broadly. It was addressed to “Friends of Delphi.”
It opened:
“When we talk to parents about what they want for their children, the main things on their minds are generally either self-confidence or the ability to plan (or cause) their lives. In pursuing the subject of self-confidence, it of course never means misplaced confidence, but rather self-confidence based on reality, based on certainty of ability.
Thus both of these parental desires come down to wanting competence for the child–the ability to cause things.”
As Head of School thirty-five years later, I believe this remains true today. The letter continued with a concern:
“It has recently become clearer to us the degree to which TV, taken as a whole phenomenon, is working against us in the above described endeavor. We see many cases of students having remarkable losses of their educational gains as they sit in front of the TV when they are out of class. Taken off of TV, we have observed dramatic resurgences….”
At the time of this letter, I was a student at the school. There was one TV available to all of the school’s boarding students. It resided in the “TV lounge.” With no quality antenna or cable, it played one or two fuzzy channels. Fortunately, it was connected to a video cassette player—later a DVD player. Students were allowed to access it Friday and Saturday evenings, if they were not restricted or behind target. Disputes over which movie students would watch were not infrequent.
The school’s very clearly stated rule at that time was that there was to be “little to no” TV watching happening on the hill. Because all of this predated computers, laptops, tablets and cell phones, and there was no other accessible TV, the rule was not difficult to enforce for boarding students. For day students, and to some degree staff students, like myself, it was another matter. But staying on topic, I continue from Dr. Larson’s letter:
“Imagine a situation for a child where, when he runs out of things to do, an ‘entertainment screen’ pops up in front of his face to fill the vacuum. This way the moments of beginning boredom that the child would otherwise have to create his way out of are filled. The cycle of action of getting creative things going, which we are working hard to develop, then tends to get short-circuited.”
Fast-forward to 2025. One recent study done by Project Reboot founder Dino Ambrosi estimates that the average American teen is on track to spend 93% of their free time on (as Dr. Larson described) “an ‘entertainment screen’ [that] pops up in front of his face.”
In past years, I have occasionally wondered if the founding fathers of this country would survive the shock of modern life, were they somehow transported through time to experience the country today without the inuring effect of having experienced the intervening decades of gradual change. More recently, I have come to wonder the same about our founding staff on this topic of screens. How inured to this cause-for-concern have I myself become?
Returning to the letter:
“It may seem obvious to say that one of the key factors of causativeness has to do with outflow–the individual’s own created communications, projects, activities, and products. However, this is exactly the zone that heavy or chronic TV watching hits at.”
When the Delphian program was first created in the late 70s and early 80s, great care was taken to ensure it would provide a workable balance of what one might call inflow and outflow, of effect/cause, receive/create, introversion/extroversion, etc. Over time, the program has evolved with these balances in mind.
In the last decade, however, societal change has outpaced our own. I think it’s quite safe to say that we have not succeeded in increasing the outflow, create, causation and extroversion elements of the Delphian experience as quickly as other factors have increased the inflow, receive, effect and introversion elements that are now part of virtually every student’s experience in life.
And yet I still feel confident that Delphian students, even in the face of this change, remain among the brightest, the most creative, causative and extroverted students in the country. But one can ask, and I believe one must ask, “How much brighter and more creative could they be?”
This fall, the school’s staff and faculty decided it was time to act. We began with a study of key elements of the educational philosophy that provides the underpinnings for our success. The senior class, not to be left out, did the same. I’m now asking you, as Delphian friends and family, to join us.
Yes, I’m asking you to do a little homework. Why?
The effect of this cultural shift on our endeavor is significant enough, pervasive enough, that I feel each Delphian, whether here or elsewhere, needs to spend time as an individual looking at this area of mutual concern to our goals as a group.
The assignment starts with reading (or reading newly, in this context) the following sections of the book Education: Fostering Reason and Self-determinism in Students, derived from the works of Mr. Hubbard and published by Heron Books. If you don’t have your own copy, you can get it at heronbooks.com.
“Self-Determinism Defined”“Self-Determinism and Reason”“Knowledge–Cause and Effect”“Create and Receive”“Extroversion and Learning”“Summary”“Movies and Television”
Here at the school we have used the words of wisdom contained in these sections as conversation starters, sharing with each other our thoughts, observations, experiences and ideas about what we might change. The goal here is to get a conversation happening—a conversation that helps us honestly and effectively confront what is a fairly complex issue concerning the well-being and growth of our students and children, as well as ourselves.
Some final excerpts from the letter to Friends of Delphi in 1990:
“We want students who can and normally do fill their own vacuums, who outflow more than they inflow, who are, in balance, creating their lives.”
“I urge you to take this subject seriously. Help your children overcome any tendency to fall into chronic inflow. Help create patterns in life where ‘create’ is more highly valued than ‘being entertained’. After all, the word entertain comes from ‘holding (attention) in between’. We don’t really want our children’s attention to be ‘held in between’. We would rather it be out involved in some creative activity.”
I invite, even urge, your participation. It may be the only “homework” assignment that will ever be issued in the Delphian magazine! I hope you agree it is warranted.
And I welcome your thoughts.
Trevor Ott
few photos taken around when the “Friends of Delphi” letter from Alan Larson was sent.
