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L E A R N I N G AT TH E S E V E N H I LLS S C H O O L : O U R TW E N T Y - F I R S T C E N T U R Y CO M P E T I T I VE AD VA N T A G E

In my first few months as Head of School, I’ve come to appreciate more fully one aspect of Seven Hills that our entire community justly prizes: Of course, this school effectively prepares students to excel in the nation’s leading colleges and universities. But just as important, we are also arming our young people with the skills and habits of mind they need to assume positions of leadership in an increasingly competitive global economy. This is a huge advantage of the Seven Hills of today; as we move forward, we will continue to focus our energies on fulfilling this critical aspect of our mission.

Christopher P. Garten H E A D

O F

S C H O O L

You may have seen Thomas Friedman’s New York Times op-ed, “The New Untouchables.” In it, Friedman describes an incredibly prepared class of young people so well educated that he designates them as “untouchables,” immunized against the vagaries of our increasingly volatile world economy.

“Those who are waiting for this recession to end so someone can again hand them work could have a long wait. Those with the imagination to make themselves untouchables — to invent smarter ways to do old jobs, energy-saving ways to provide new services, new ways to attract old customers or new ways to combine existing technologies — will thrive. Therefore, we not only need a higher percentage of our kids graduating from high school and college — more education — but we need more of them with the right education.” 1

Por tr ait o f a Se ve n Hi lls Gr a d u a t e LIFE-LONG LEARNERS:

OUR

But what do we mean by the “right education?” Leading educational theorists offer explicit answers that

STUDENTS ARE PREPARED TO EXCEL IN COLLEGE AND B E YO N D .

can help us make the Seven Hills experience even more valuable for our students.

They enjoy learning and respect knowledge. They regard learning as

Se a rc h i n g f o r b e s t p ra c t i c e s : ideals we should model

meaningful and fulfilling.

They have confidence in themselves and in their peers and the persistence to work together to

Tony Wagner—co-director of the Change Leadership Group at Harvard—cites the increasingly bleak data

solve problems and surmount

comparing American schools with their counterparts in Asia and Western Europe in The Global Achievement

difficulties.

Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the Survival Skills Our Children Need – And What We Can Do About It. He argues that American schools have generally failed to respond to the educational revolution wrought by the Internet.

They value a healthy, balanced lifestyle, embracing a range of interests and valuing the arts, athletics, and their personal

In a world where people can access virtually everything they need to know instantly, most American schools still emphasize knowledge acquisition and memory tasks. Wagner argues that our schools need to respond more quickly to how the information revolution has transformed our economy.

He lists seven “survival skills”2 that prepare students to compete in the global landscape:

relationships as fully as academics.

They understand the components of a rewarding life.

They recognize their own strengths

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Collaboration and Leadership Agility and Adaptability Initiative and Entrepreneurialism Effective Oral and Written Communication Accessing and Analyzing Information Curiosity and Imagination

and weaknesses, and they know their own emotions.

They understand how they learn and solve problems. They can monitor their own learning.

They are well-spoken, articulate communicators.

They advocate for themselves.

They adapt easily to different

Several components of Wagner’s list dovetail nicely with the thesis of another influential book, Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind. Pink suggests that after a long era dominated by left-brained thinkers and “knowledge workers,” we’re now entering a new “conceptual age.” Success in this new age depends much more on right-brain abilities, namely creativity and empathy.

Survival today depends on being able to do something that overseas knowledge workers can’t do cheaper…

That is why high tech is no longer enough. We’ll need to supplement our high tech abilities with abilities that are high concept and high touch. 3

environments and cultures.

They know how to lead and recognize that there are many ways to do so effectively

For Pink, high concept means “the ability to create artistic or emotional beauty, detect patterns, craft narratives and combine unrelated ideas into novel inventions,” and high touch involves the ability to “empathize, understand subtleties of human interaction and pursue purpose and meaning.”

In a similar vein, Pat Bassett, the President of the National Association of Independent Schools, has recently argued that providing the “right education”—going beyond knowledge delivery to emphasize the skills and

Por tr ait o f a Se ve n Hi lls Gr a d u a t e C R E AT I V E A N D C R I T I C A L THINKERS:

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schools adopted such an approach some time ago. He suggests that schools need to reach an agreement

STUDENTS ASK WHY AND WHAT IF.

about “what well-educated students should be able to do” as opposed to “what they know.” To this end,

They have the confidence that

Bassett advises that each school develop a unique list of “essential demonstrations”—culminating activities

comes from engaging legitimately

that would validate “student readiness for the next stage of schooling or life.”

difficult questions.

habits of mind—amounts to thinking about education in a different way. Many of the nation’s strongest

4

They habitually reflect on ideas.

In this spirit, the Seven Hills faculty has spent much of the autumn crafting our own “Portrait of a Graduate,” a statement that defines the skills and habits of mind we seek to produce in our young people.

They know how to problem solve: how to approach problems critically and creatively, and how to ask

Pu t t i n g t h eor y i nto practice: wh a t I’ve se en so far

probing questions.

They have the confidence to challenge received wisdom and to explore their own novel solutions.

Already, I have observed a great deal of teaching on both our campuses entirely consistent with the goals set forth by these leading thinkers. Indeed, I would maintain that the “meaningful difference” between Seven Hills and many other schools equates to how we teach rather than what we teach. Here are a few specific examples:

1.

At Seven Hills, we make learning discovery-based, participatory, and highly interactive. Students talk a great deal more than their teachers. And we foster critical thinking by encouraging students to challenge their teachers and each other in respectful ways.

2.

Teachers expect more than individual mastery of information. Seven Hills students work a great deal in teams, collaborating on experiments, investigations, and problem solving.

3.

Students use technology for meaningful purposes: for research, data gathering and analysis, presentation, and communication.

4.

Seven Hills emphasizes global awareness across the curriculum, particularly in history, social studies, foreign language, and literature classes.

As a demanding academic environment, Seven Hills doesn’t primarily call on students to complete more work. Instead, the very nature of the work differentiates our school. We expect students to demonstrate creativity, critical thinking, judgment, and originality. Our teachers not only evaluate what students know; they also evaluate how students can apply what they know to new situations.

They possess a healthy skepticism and the skill to identify fallacious reasoning.

They can analyze, synthesize and evaluate the credibility of data gathered from a variety of sources.

They are comfortable using technology to collect, analyze, and present information.

They seek and find solutions.

HARD WORKERS:

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STUDENTS DISPLAY TENACITY AND PERSISTENCE. They take initiative.

They display the will to persist in the active pursuit of creative solutions.

They know how to work hard now for rewards that will come later.

They know how to manage their time and how to cope with the challenging pace and complexity of the modern world.

This, in turn, has implications for the relationships between teachers and students here. In many schools, teachers act as distant authority figures who stand in the front of a classroom and pass on what they know to their students.

Por tr ait o f a Se ve n Hi lls Gr a d u a t e

But at Seven Hills, teachers see themselves as collaborators and facilitators. They respect their students’

GLOBAL CITIZENS:

independence and intelligence. They see their job as educating students to think and solve problems in

OUR

True to our tradition of continuous improvement, we do not intend to rest on our laurels. At our in-service

STUDENTS EMBRACE CULTURES OTHER THAN THEIR OWN.

day in October, we began a year-long process of examining our classroom practice in the context of our

They are open-minded and

new “Portrait of a Graduate.” Going forward, we must act as intentionally as possible in designing our

collaborative.

instructional practices to produce these habits of mind. As we continue to refine our curriculum and adjust

They enjoy interacting both socially

our instructional methods, our focus remains steadfast: to fully prepare our graduates to excel in an

and professionally with people of

creative, original ways. They give students tasks that demand focus and persistence and self-governance, and then work alongside them to help students develop the skills they need to attain mastery.

increasingly competitive global community, equipping them with the discerning skills and habits of mind they’ll carry with them all their lives.

different backgrounds.

They believe that working together with others can engender clearer understanding.

Notes 1. “The New Untouchables,” Thomas F. Friedman, New York Times, October 20, 2009.

They understand the importance of developing relationships and of understanding other cultural

2. Tony, Wagner, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the Survival Skills Our Children Need – And What We Can Do About It, Chapter 1

3. Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind, p. 51-52.

perspectives.

They affirm their individuality and celebrate the unique gifts of others.

They have the courage to explore

4. “Demonstrations of Learning for 21st Century Schools,” Patrick F. Bassett, Independent School, Fall, 2009.

other points of view and the willingness to build bridges that connect them with others.

E T H I C A L I N D I V I D UA L S :

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S T U D E N T S L I VE W I T H I N T E G R I T Y. They recognize a moral dimension to their lives and their learning.

They seek out strong communities and participate responsibly in their world, demonstrating empathy through service to others near and far.

They appreciate their own good fortune in the gifts life has given them.

They are courteous to and respectful of others.

They are good sports on and off the playing field.