From the Desk of Janet Hartwell

GFA’s culture and intellectual life are beginning to coalesce around the World Perspectives Program (WPP) in ways we hadn’t imagined would happen. In the program, classroom work is always front and center in terms of grounding the students K-12 academically, but the WPP is also bringing the community together in other ways, and several initiatives have captured the imagination of our students, thus focusing their energy on an area of special interest.

Our recent WPP symposium was an extraordinary day with global thesis students presenting studies on topics ranging from Big Cat conservation in Iran, to water shortages in China, to water conflicts between Palestine and Israel, to lifting the medical embargo in Cuba. The 20 /20 team presented their work, and our keynote speaker discussed overarching questions for American foreign policy and the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

Building on our partnership with International Education Exchange (IEE), GFA recently hosted two teacher-trainers from Rwanda, who came to learn from our teachers. They also brought their unique perspective and culture to our school and said they were inspired by our “smart, hard-working students and their confidence and ease speaking in front of crowds and asking probing questions.” Last summer a GFA English teacher traveled to Rwanda to work with IEE in government schools to help create more student-centered classrooms. This summer three GFA teachers will travel to Rwanda to continue this work.

We also have begun a partnership with Bermuda Institute of Ocean Research (BIOS), an internationally acclaimed facility where our students can be summer interns.  BIOS has an international data bank that measures data, especially on carbon levels at different water depths. Students can also do coral reef research and other ocean sciences. With this partnership, a student can begin his/her research at BIOS, continue at GFA, and then loop back to BIOS, establishing a mentor there to follow their work.

Several Upper School students were so inspired by Jacqueline Novogratz, our fall Coyle Scholar, that they began a GFA chapter of the Acumen Fund, the only high school in the country to do so. The Acumen Fund is the intersection between business and philanthropy, with a vision that one day every human being will have access to affordable healthcare, water, housing, energy, agricultural inputs and services and be able to make choices that will unleash their full human potential. Almost 20 Upper School students are involved, and they planned a fundraiser this spring, A Cappella for Acumen, which raised almost $5,000.

The Big Green Bus from Dartmouth, an old Greyhound bus powered by alternative fuel, will be on campus in June to raise awareness about alternative energy. A GFA alum at Dartmouth is working with GFA’s Eco Club to organize an event.

This summer, many GFA students and faculty will be taking trips to South Africa, Peru, and the Island School in the Bahamas. Other years, trips have gone to Senegal, UK, France, Spain and Costa Rica.

It turns out that Our World Perspectives Program is encouraging the 21^st century skills identified by Dr. Tony Wagner: collaboration, critical thinking, analysis, synthesis, imagination, curiosity, communication and entrepreneurship. And it’s not just happening in the classroom.

In the aftermath of March Madness and college basketball season, and also at the tail end of the college admissions process, I have been thinking about the scholar athlete ideal and wondering if it is a myth on the college level. There seems to be, at least in some sports, a disconnect between the two. I have been reading with interest various articles about college athletes and thinking about the messages sent to our students by the current “system.” For example, basketball players who have no interest in college are enrolling only until they turn 19 and become eligible for the professional draft; essentially these players need a “way station” until they are old enough to turn pro. Is this the scholar athlete model we talk to our high school students about? This flies in the face of everything we teach our students about exercising the physical muscles along with the intellectual muscles and glorying in the life of the mind and the body.

We talk to our high school students about the importance of the transcript, of pushing the curriculum as far as they can, and of finding an intellectual passion. At the same time, our students may be playing one, two or even three varsity sports. We certainly praise the scholar athlete ideal, and at a certain level athletics are a “hook” for college and can help in the admissions process. We like to think that this is only the case if the student has demonstrated through strength of transcript that he or she can do the level of work demanded by the college. This is the expectation, and it is hard not to feel that it is being undermined by the one-year freshman “scholar-athlete” who can’t wait to turn pro the following year.

Many people feel that universities should de-emphasize athletics. And according to Joe Nocera, Op Ed columnist for The New York Times, “others have said that schools should stop accepting athletes, no matter how talented, who lack the skills to do college-level work. Recently, Bob Costas, the estimable NBC sportscaster, devoted two hours of airtime to the state of college sports. A half-dozen times, he asked whether it was right for schools to enroll athletes who couldn’t handle the academic requirements of college.”

I know the value of how winning teams can foster school spirit and student morale, but equally, so can a winning Challenge Team who can answer all the hard math and history questions, or an actor who can inhabit a character with depth and feeling, or a musician or an artist who is accomplished in his or her field. Don’t misunderstand me, I am all in favor of athletics and one hundred percent support our teams and the players, but I would like more honesty on the part of colleges and for real college scholar athletes to be better role models for our students.

One of the traditions I most love at GFA is the winter Harmony for the Homeless Concert. Upper School students have married their passion for choral work with their deep commitment to community service. Proceeds from the event help to support the various service projects and organizations our students will work with this summer on World Perspectives Program trips to Peru, China and South Africa. Service learning and giving back is deeply embedded within the culture of GFA, and is central to the mission of our school. Our students take on many projects throughout the year from working with a homeless shelter, to tutoring, to “Special Day for Special People.” By Upper School, over 40 students make up the Community Service Board, and they plan and implement over 20 projects and events during the year.

A standard feature of spring break for many GFA students is the annual Builders Beyond Boarders (B3) program. In the past 11 years, close to 200 GFA’ers have taken the March trip to a South American country, where they undertake demanding construction work, which, while physically challenging, is invariably a fulfilling and rewarding experience. The GFA seniors who are the senior advisors do a fine job, leading by example and learning the valuable lesson that leadership carries a lot of responsibility and being “in charge” is not necessarily fun.

I believe that meaningful leadership is one of the most valuable opportunities we can offer to students, not only in high school, but also at every stage of their development and education.  Our own Community Service program offers students opportunities for leadership through service learning and helps students understand their role and responsibility in moral leadership. In a materialistic, me-centered culture, students are challenged to look beyond themselves and realize that the needs of others can come before the needs of the individual. My hope is that through meaningful community service, our students will gain valuable life lessons that encompass both the intellect and the heart.

I believe that schools like GFA have a responsibility to do something to improve the world in which we live. We are a “private school with a public purpose” and through our community service program, our World Perspectives Trips, as well as B3, we can offer students opportunities to grow and learn the value of social responsibility and moral leadership.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

At this time each January, I find myself reflecting on our Martin Luther King assembly and what I hope our students will take from the celebrations. What food for thought can we offer them? Perhaps we should begin with the overarching question: living in a world still divided into the haves and the have-nots, where religious intolerance is still the basis for most wars, what can we do to further Dr. King’s dream?

We must certainly look beyond our own borders, take on the identity of a global citizen and raise our voices against atrocities across the globe. We must take as active a role as possible to combat poverty, religious intolerance, AIDS and other health-related issues, but we also have to examine our consciences to be sure we are making our immediate environment safe and equal for all. Do we really take the time to understand people directly around us who might be different from us? So often it is misunderstanding or not taking the time to know someone who is different that leads to intolerance and even hatred.

I would suggest a series of questions to ask ourselves so we can continue working toward being a school community where everyone feels equally valued and safe.

• Are there students or faculty who feel they don’t fit in? If so, do I do everything I can to reach out, to be inclusive and welcoming?
• Is my identity dependent on hanging out with people like me? Do I take the time to sit down and talk with people who hold different views from mine; do I try to get to know people who might look or dress differently from the way I and my friends dress? Do I accept or reject people on the basis of looks, or the way they speak or where they come from? Am I open to being friends with someone who is different from me when my friends might make fun of me for hanging out with this person? Can I stand up to that kind of pressure?
• Do I allow myself to be influenced by stereotypes, perhaps without even realizing it? Does my present group of friends, both here at school and outside, represent a variety of thoughts, interests, races, cultures, ideas and abilities? Am I proud of how exclusive my group of friends is, or are we open and accepting of differences and diverse experiences?

Traveling is something that has helped me become more open-minded. In Syria a few years ago, my husband and I met a Bedouin family living in tents with their sheep and goats near the ruins of an ancient city near Aleppo, itself an ancient city on an important trading route.  We took tea with the family, and I wondered about one of the children, a girl, maybe ten-years-old who wore, even by Bedouin standards, the most ill matched and somewhat bizarre clothing, and was unusually clumsy, almost surly, and so different from the open and welcoming hospitality of the rest of the family. Beginning to frame a judgment about why she might be this way–lack of education, resentment, rebellion–I suddenly realized, as she turned to face me, that she was blind. It was a moment of shock, followed by profound shame. How could I have rushed to judgment about this girl? What unconscious stereotype did I harbor? I often think of her and her family and what life is like for her, especially now, when the current situation in Syria is so dire. I certainly learned a huge lesson that day, and was humbled by the grace and beauty of that family and by the resilience of that young girl, living her life against great odds. My original impression had been so mistaken. Indeed food for thought.

Have things really changed in Egypt after the Arab Spring? Is life appreciably different from when Mubarak was still in power? As I write, the media are reporting more unrest and demonstrations in Cairo, specifically in Tahrir Square and downtown, as the people flex their political muscles, showing their deeply-felt dissatisfaction with continued military rule. My daughter lives and works in Cairo, and I asked her how life around her in the city has changed.  Following are her observations from the “street level”:

Cairo - Young Egyptians demonstrating as part of Moving Planet, an international day of climate action.

For the most part, things seem to be the same, but there is an intangible undercurrent of electricity in Cairo that is hard to define. The recent explosion of protestors is a good example. It’s like people know that they have power now. Every time I turn around, there seems to be a new group striking: the staff at the JW Marriott (one of the nicest hotels in Egypt) for better pay, the mid-level police officers for better pay and working conditions (this created some havoc in the city because there was a clear lack of police on the streets and at intersections to direct traffic), the lawyers syndicate protesting against reforms the judges are trying to enact (such as judgeships being passed from father to son and the ability of judges to have prosecutors arrested if they basically “get out of line,” although obviously that’s extremely subjective). These strikes and protests COULD NEVER have happened before – people were too afraid of losing their jobs, or that the police would be brought in, or even if they actually had a right to define their working conditions and what their labor is worth, and the right to ensure their own legal protection at work. 

Another thing I have found very interesting is the explosion of symbols of wealth.  In certain wealthy areas, like Zamalek, everyone is wearing Burberry and carrying Chanel bags. There were always some people at American University of Cairo who had these things, but the number of people wearing them now is very interesting.  Also, specifically in Zamalek, there are suddenly lots of new expensive cafes and high end boutiques (not name brand, but Egyptian-owned with imported artsy-type goods) and cupcake shops – and they’re all packed.  Places where I used to go that would be a quarter full on average, now have no seats, and people are literally standing around in groups hanging out.  I’m not sure where all this money is coming from. 

The other main change is that traffic has become unbearable.  Apparently in the past few years, banks loosened credit requirements, and there has been an influx of cheap, mostly Chinese made cars; so now great numbers of the population who couldn’t have dreamed of affording a car, suddenly have access.  Cars used to be paid for in full in cash. Now with financing, it seems everyone has a car.  Drives that used to take 40 minutes now take one and a half hours. In addition, during the revolution, as the police began to get called to other parts of the city, there was no longer anyone monitoring speed on the highways. Since the revolution, the police have not returned to monitor traffic, so there are lots of cars going very fast. Traffic accidents and road safety are more of a problem than ever.

So, have things changed? Yes, on some deep level.  However, with this week’s violence in Tahrir Square, it is apparent that change is also coming at a high price, and real democracy is not yet alive and well.

In the midst of constantly thinking about what our students need for success and happiness in a rapidly changing world, I find something almost reassuring about seeing one of Shakespeare’s plays. He reminds us that even though the priorities and mores of an age may change–along with fashion, technology and taste–human nature itself really does not change.

I recently saw the Westport Country Playhouse production of Twelfth Night, one of my favorite plays. I love it because humanity in all its “infinite variety” is captured within the magical and enclosed realm of Illyria, a world of comedy and romance laced with a strong dose of realism.

The characters in Twelfth Night exhibit abiding and universal human traits, the good and the bad, almost in binary opposition to each other: self-awareness and lack of self-awareness; self-deception, deception; love, self-love; generosity, meanness of spirit; kindness, intolerance; and always mischief. However, it is Feste the clown in the Elizabethan tradition of jesters as the truth tellers as well as the “corrupter of words”, who perhaps supplies Shakespeare’s own comment on the story. Feste possesses the wit required by his profession, along with intellectual agility and insights into character that give us Shakespeare’s unerring feel for the universalities of human conduct as well as the frailties of the particular age.

I think the play has an almost perfect ending, with Feste’s song that unites the disparate elements. The song at once bids farewell to the magical world of Illyria, the revelers and the romance, and reminds us of the workaday world of reality against whose wind and rain, whether in the 1600’s or the 21st century, we must constantly be fortified.

There has been a lot of “media energy” recently about morality and character and how schools can teach them. David Brooks writing in The NY Times cites the Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith who led interviews with 230 young adults from across America about their moral lives. The results are depressing, concludes Brooks. Researchers found an atmosphere of extreme moral individualism, relativism and non-judgmentalism. This doesn’t mean that America’s young people are immoral. Far from it. Smith and company emphasize that young people have not been given the resources by schools, institutions and families to cultivate their moral intuitions or to check behaviors that may be degrading. Brooks asserts that the study says more about adult America thanyouthful America.

Aristotle, holding a copy of his signature work on ethics, "Nicomachean Ethics."

In thinking about character, I always go to Aristotle and his work on Ethics as well as to Robert Coles, child psychiatrist, professor and moral visionary. Coles writes that over 150 years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson gave a lecture at Harvard and ended with the terse assertion: “Character is higher than intellect.” Even then Emerson was worried about the limits of knowledge and the mission of educational institutions. For example, a student’s intellect can increase, but that student might be smug, ungenerous, even cruel or dishonest. Hence, intellect without character can be dangerous. About morality, Coles says that it “defines not only how we get along with the world and one another and the rules of life; it characterizes our very nature. Morality has to do with human connection. It has to do with the kind of connection that responds to others, and in turn earns the caring response of others. If we are deprived of our morality, we’re deprived of an essential part of ourselves.”

It is interesting that even more media energy has come recently from a NY Times Magazine article entitled Character Test about what Riverdale and the KIPP schools are doing to teach and even measure character. Interesting points emerged, but my take away was that instead of looking for answers, schools should begin with asking the right questions, two of which must surely be: What are the character traits we want to develop in our students? And, What does our school’s mission say about character, values, ethics or spirit?  The real key for a school lies in the intersection of these two questions. My work in schools persuades me that we do indeed need to ensure the building of intellectual and personal resilience along with grit, independence, self-discipline, perseverance and honesty, which are the underpinnings of character.

At GFA, we pride ourselves on developing intellect, habits of mind, strong academics and preparation for college and beyond. We want to prepare our students in every possible way for the realities of life and work, and we deeply desire for them to have the capability and imagination to approach their futures with “a sense of inspiration and noble aspiration.”  In the end, as important as the life of the mind is, it is equally important to focus on building character and preparing our students to be responsible, ethical citizens and human beings.