The Ridge Report for February 2013

Report

The Ridge

February 2013

Forest Ridge girls will make a difference in tomorrow’s world Is it possible to be both stunned and not surprised at the same moment? I certainly experienced that blend and swirl of emotion after reading the BBC News article “Girls and women ‘hit the hardest’ by global recession” about a new report by the Plan International and the Overseas Development Institute. How can a world be so advanced in the area of Smartphones and WiFi yet remain stifled in a cultural bias toward women and young girls? Isn’t there an app for that?

Sadly, there isn’t. Wouldn’t it be great if we could simply “reboot” and know from this moment on that boys and girls would have equal access to everything the world offers, especially something as essential to economic survival, let alone overall survival, as educational opportunities.

The Plan International and Overseas Development Institute report noted that “the world is failing girls and women” as it outlined some of the economic and social challenges faced by women and girls on a global level. Among them:

• When the economy shrank, the number of baby girls who died rose five times faster than the number of baby boys who died.

• Rates of completion of primary school by girls fell 29 percent, compared with the falling rate of 22 percent for boys during the same period.

• Food shortages and malnutrition were more common among girls and women than among boys and men.

• An increase in the number of child marriages was observed during the economic downturn as impoverished families could not afford to feed girls and sent them off to marry at young ages.

The statistics in this report are a sobering reminder of the essential role we play in educating girls and young women. I say this not from the vantage point of a privileged perch, knowing our students here will be spared the stark reality of Plan International findings. Rather, it is from a place of gratitude for the education and opportunity we are able to offer our Forest Ridge girls and a sense of obligation to provide a context for the injustices we’ve seen unfold at times in the world.

I can’t wait to see the difference Forest Ridge alumnae will make in tomorrow’s world. They won’t allow another generation of women to be set aside in abysmal statistics. We’ve taught them better than that.

Let’s keep at it!

Mark Pierotti Head of School A portion of this message was excerpted from a letter of Mark Pierotti’s that appeared in the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools Feb. 1, 2013, newsletter.

The Forest Ridge

‘Margin of Excellence’ Regina Mooney, Ph.D. Director of Institutional Advancement

When I am involved in fundraising for Forest Ridge I sometimes hear the question, “If we’re such a great school, why do we need to fundraise?” Another variation on the question goes like this, “If you need money to run the school properly, why don’t you just raise the tuition and fees?”

At face value they are reasonable questions, but when you dig

received, these alumnae volunteers are talking to classmates

deep into the difference a Forest Ridge education provides for

and others about how we can work together for the school

young girls, it becomes clear: The quality difference or, as one

that gave them each so much. Their goal is to involve more of

astute trustee recently put it, “the margin of excellence,”* is

their peers in building the Forest Ridge quality of education

established and maintained only with the ongoing support of

into a sustainable future. These alumnae understand that the

the Annual Fund, corporate and foundation funding, legacy

strength of Forest Ridge lies in the active participation of

gifts and earmarks for scholarships. Our diversity depends on

alumnae in funding and bringing their gifts to bear on

it; our overall accessibility depends on it; our facilities depend

shaping the School’s future.

on it; and our signature programs depend on it.

Set in the context of the full range of human capital — This notion was driven home by our new Alumnae

financial, social, political and intellectual — that goes into

Fundraising Committee, which has set a goal of raising both

making Forest Ridge what it is, the growth of alumnae giving

the percentage of alumnae who give regularly and the actual

strengthens the institution in thoughtful and sustaining ways,

dollar amount they collectively contribute to establish and

keeping the dynamic difference that is the Forest Ridge

raise our margin of excellence. Alumnae representatives from

margin of excellence.

across the decades have come together to discuss the gifts that a Forest Ridge education has given them and to discover how

* The term “margin of excellence” was offered at a recent

Forest Ridge has affected the lives of their classmates through

board meeting by Trustee Gil Picciotto as a way of

the years.

distinguishing between tuition and additional fundraising dollars and what each does for an institution. I borrow it in

With a belief that fundraising among alums requires us to find

this context to explain the necessity of fundraising alongside

and share these stories and remind our graduates of the

other forms of contributions to account for the Forest Ridge

teaching, friendships, empowerment and care they each

difference.

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Global Awareness

on a Saturday

Dr. Carola D. Wittmann Director of the High School

During the last weekend of January, members of the faculty and administration of Forest Ridge High School meet with prospective students and their families for a formal admissions interview. Rather than being part of an interview team, I choose to meet with every family one-on-one. It is a privilege to listen to a parent voicing her dreams for her daughter; to answer an eighth-grader’s questions about high school in general and Forest Ridge School in particular. Some candidates are the daughters of alumnae, others are siblings or relatives of current students, but they all have carefully chosen to apply at Forest Ridge High School because they felt it was the right fit for them.

While the conversations have always been interesting and I have begun to note a gradual awareness of global issues on the part of these eighth-grade students’ conversations, on this particular January day in 2013, the theme is clearly present and occupying center stage. Each of the candidates is in her own unique way resilient and a risk taker; she is passionate and eager to tackle big problems. And that is why she is finds herself sitting in my office.

These families have done careful research; they have perused our website, attended tours and open houses and spent at least one, in many cases more than one, day visiting the high school. They have not only heard about but they understand what Women as Global Leaders signifies. They have been in enough Forest Ridge classrooms to experience how we teach to a wider understanding, an understanding that is rooted in the passion of St. Madeleine Sophie and her desire to see young girls educated. These candidates are telling me they expect Forest Ridge to give them their voice, and they share their very clear vision of what that voice will accomplish during the next four years and beyond.

If global education is defined as opening “people’s eyes and minds,” (Maastricht Congress on Global Education Statement, 2002) then the students who I met this January day are well aware and speak eloquently of policies, politics and social justice. In the course of several hours I learn about global studies at a local independent middle school and the applicant’s passion for clean water access around the world. I meet a young risk taker who stepped outside her comfort zone as a learner and as an athlete and who explained to me how she connects these lessons to her understanding of peace and reconciliation. Toward the end of the day I welcome a resilient 8-grader whose smile lights up my office and whose passion for sustainability was trumped only by her exuberant “I’m so ready for high school” statement.

Every one of these students has other high school options, but they choose to spend their Saturday interviewing at Forest Ridge because of our commitment to global education and the strategic way in which we pursue it, such as curricular options, service, Sacred Heart Network opportunities, Exchange and in-country experiences. These discerning families are making sure that the next four years will truly meet their daughter’s needs and support her passion, and they are looking to the high school at Forest Ridge and its global focus for that partnership. What a rewarding way to spend a Saturday!

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Keeping Our Children Safe in the Virtual World Jenny McGovern Middle School Curriculum Coordinator

“Are we preparing the road for our kids or our kids for the road?”

—Julie Metzger

In January, Stefanie Thomas, victim advocate for the Seattle Police Department, met and spoke with middle school parents about Internet safety. Her message was clear: Children need close supervision and coaching to learn how to use the Internet safely.

It can be tempting to want to shelter our children from technology or to want to keep them off the Internet. However, this would not be preparing them for the world they live in. Technology is a part of our world, and it is one more environment we want our children to learn to navigate safely and use wisely. The good news is that parenting our children in the virtual world directly correlates to how we parent our children in the real world.

First, it is important to be clear about your family values and to make rules or set limits about screen time, bed times and Internet uses that support those values. Talk with your daughter about which Internet sites you are comfortable with her visiting and what the consequence is for going to sites you don’t want her on. Use a filter, or even turn off your Internet after a certain hour to enforce those rules. Limit screen time to an amount that won’t conflict with family time, homework or other activities. Keep electronic devices out of bedrooms to allow for easy monitoring and to avoid late-night texting. Ask yourself if your daughter sees you modeling those same values, taking time to be unplugged during family time, for instance.

Children need adults to help them make the realities of virtual world clear. Teach your daughter that there is no privacy or anonymity on the Internet. Kids have always tested boundaries; the difference today is that the Internet is always accessible, and kids often feel buffered from repercussions or consequences when they are engaged in an online interaction. This requires attentive parenting and monitoring. Visit your daughter’s Internet history and social networking sites, and do occasional text checks. You don’t want to be the last to know what your daughter is doing on the Internet. We see that students can drift into a situation, go too far, then not know how to get out if they are worried about getting in trouble. Assure your children that they can come to you if they are troubled about something they see on the Internet.

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Without a doubt, it can be a real challenge to keep current on the websites and software programs your daughter is using. It seems there is always a new draw for students and a new challenge for parents. We all have different comfort levels with integrating new technology. Identify resources such as websites, blogs, another tech-savvy parent, older nieces or nephews or babysitters to help you stay current with trends and current technology uses. Take the time to gain a surface-level familiarity with a social networking site in the same way you would take the time to learn more before you would send your child to a new friend’s house or enroll her in an afterschool activity. Two popular online resources for parents are www.commonsensemedia.org and www.netsmartz.org. Additional resources have been mentioned in POST IT since Ms. Thomas’ visit.

Goal V of Sacred Heart education calls us to educate to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom. How we educate about technology is largely driven by this goal. We see the value of technology and its place in the future of our students’ lives, but we care that they learn to use it in a healthy and safe way. While we understand that in our community we may hold a wide range of opinions on the role of technology in our lives, as a school we have a responsibility to continue to ask ourselves what’s in the best interest of our students.

For these reasons, we have established tech-free lunches for fifthand sixth-graders Monday–Thursday as a way to practice balance and to emphasize the importance of real, face-to-face interactions.

Although we do have a filtered Internet on campus, we don’t filter some sites, like YouTube, that have both educational and entertainment purposes. Ms. Thomas also visits students annually to help raise student awareness of how to be safe on the Internet. These lessons, in addition to digital citizenship lessons, are taught in technology classes. Most importantly, we are in partnership with you. If you have concerns or questions, don’t hesitate to bring them to the school. It takes a village to raise a child, to prepare them for the road ahead.

Women as Global Leaders –

Year Three of Peace and Reconciliation As members of the Peace and Reconciliation team prepare for our journey to the Holy Land, we ask ourselves the essential questions: What does peace look like? Can there be peace without reconciliation? Are they mutually exclusive? What needs to be in place in order to work with both elements? And lastly, are they even necessary?

Kisha Palmer Director, Women As Global Leaders

Tanya Lange, David Fierce, Inga Aesoph and Connor Geraghty have worked together to prepare the students to engage with these essential questions as we immerse ourselves in the culture of the Holy Land. This year we will meet new friends in Efrat and reunite with our friends from St. Joseph’s school in Bethlehem. Although we will spend only seven days in Israel, each day will be filled with an exploration of a new point of view, a new cultural experience, a new moment of spiritual reflection.

In keeping with our commitment to listen to stories and share perspectives, the students will honor their daily experiences by engaging in dialogue and active reflection in informal discussion groups facilitated by the student leaders: Ellen Jacobus , Menbere Kebede, and Nikki Lazarus. The work these three student leaders have invested in this year’s experience is sure to support the learning of the team. They will be in charge of blogging daily. You can follow our story from February 15 to 22 on the Women as Global Leaders pages on the Forest Ridge website.

When we return on Saturday, Feb. 23, it will be exactly two weeks until our first annual TEDx Conference — here at Forest Ridge. In celebration of International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8, Forest Ridge will host a series of live speakers and streamed TED talks highlighting innovation through science, technology, engineering, arts/humanities and mathematics. This will be an exciting time for Forest Ridge to share with the global community our active engagement in themes relevant to personal endeavor and global leadership. Our audience will be our own students, with streaming available for the larger community.

S tay tuned in Post IT and upcoming push-page emails for speaker bios and the schedule.

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Get Involved with the Parent Association!

Beat those midwinter blues, and get involved! The Forest Ridge Parent Association (PA) has something for everyone this time of year.

On Feb. 9, the PA hosted the High School Father/ Special Guest and Daughter Laser Tag event. Our thanks to Dave Riley for chairing this event. The PA is also hosting Love Your Library Week Feb. 11–15 with lunchtime activities for middle school students all week long in the library. Thank you to Melissa Hoff and MJ Leventhal for chairing this student-favorite event. In March, we will have the Middle School Mother/Special Guest-Daughter event. This year, the event will be a cooking experience titled Farm to Fork: Joy of Food, held in the gym on Saturday, March 2, from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Thank you to Lora Plaskon for chairing this event. Please refer to the weekly POST IT for more details.

This month, the Forest Ridge HS and MS Ski buses will be making a few more trips to the pass. Don’t let your daughter(s) miss this wonderful opportunity to get outside and spend time with friends.

It’s not too late to join a Forest Ridge social club!

The Book Club will meet on the following dates: • Feb. 28, to discuss The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot • March 3 (a Sunday afternoon), for a Mother/Daughter book club to discuss Running out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix

• M arch 28, to discuss Loving Frank by Nancy Horan Forest Ridge’s Reflection Club meets in the Sacred Heart Chapel 8:30–8:30 a.m. on the first and third Wednesdays of the month.

The club offers a wonderful opportunity to meet and pray with other parents.

Details regarding social clubs are available in POST IT or on the Forest Ridge website.

We look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming events! Once again, many thanks to all of our generous parent volunteers who lend their time and energy to organize these wonderful events for our community, all of which reinforce Sacred Heart Goal IV, the building of community. Thank you!

Ann Rillera and Luann Desautel Parent Association Co-Presidents