Sewickley Academy: Resource Blog for Parents

The following were the closing remarks at Graduation 2015.

Thank you, Mike, for your thoughtful remarks.  Your personal story is inspirational to all of us, and I know that our graduates appreciate the food for thought you have shared with them this afternoon.

Thank you, too, to our Board of Trustees, the faculty and staff, and the administration of the school for all you have contributed to the growth and education of our students, particularly this afternoon’s graduates.

And congratulations and thank you to the parents of the Class of 2015, who have committed themselves to providing each of their daughters and sons with extraordinary opportunities to learn and grow and become who they are.  Thanks are due to them, as well, for choosing Sewickley Academy and for their extraordinary support of the school over the years.

And now for some final thoughts:

Sewickley Academy’s move to use a “Bring Your Own Device” program to support a Blended Learning environment does not mean that we are becoming a cyber school. Remember, as I indicated in a recent post on this subject, Blended Learning seeks to take the best practices from the online environment and combine them with the best practices from the on-ground classroom.

On Thursday, December 4, the Sewickley Series presented a documentary film American Promise that traces the educational journey of two black boys, from Kindergarten through their matriculation to college.  In exploring the sometimes wrenching path these boys followed at an independent school in New York City, the filmmakers (whose eldest son is one of the two boys who are the subject of the film) open their home and their lives to the scrutiny of the outside world and by doing so raise a series of important questions, questions that are important not just for independent schools like Sewickley Academy but questions that are important for us as a nation.  In the aftermath of Ferguson, MO, the Eric Garner case in New York City, and the recent conclusions of a federal investigation into the wrongful death of a 12-year-old child at the hands of police in Cleveland, OH, there is an urgency to our thinking about race and how our various points of view inform the way we see and experience the world.

During the post-film question-and-answer session, an audience member commented that she had on occasion received communications from her sons’ school about boisterous and inappropriate behavior of the kind the boys in the film were also accused of engaging in.  The mom asked, “…wasn’t it possible that, instead of the determining factor being race, it could be that the report of behavior issues was really a function of gender?”  The filmmaker, Michele Stephenson, replied that the research is very clear:  black boys are much more likely to be singled out for behavioral issues than other children and, in fact, that black boys are far more likely to be suspended from Kindergarten than other children.  These comments were affirmed by another panelist, Dr. Todd Allen, professor of communication studies and visual arts at Grove City College, who also serves on his local public school district board.

The parent in the audience, who was white, continued to press her point, to which Stephenson answered, “[sic] you have the privilege of being white, of not having to wonder whether your children are being singled out for their race.”

How wonderful to be starting a new school year with a newly renovated Oliver Building for Senior School science and Middle and Senior School robotics! 

Just before spring break, members of the Sewickley Academy faculty were each issued a brand new iPad Air thanks to an incredibly generous grant from the Home & School Association.  The iPad itself was selected for this program because the machines are light and portable, and most importantly, provide access to the largest array of educational tools of any mobile device currently on the market.  While the iPads, themselves, are cool (there is no denying that), the major thrust of this initiative is to create a “mobile mindset” among our teachers. 

On Friday, April 4, a reporter posted "My Take on the Charter School Debate" on the Observer Reporter's blog covering high school sports, The Varsity Letter. The blog is about high schools, particularly charter schools, recruiting athletes. Sewickley Academy's Head of School Kolia John O'Connor wrote the following response to the blog, setting the record straight for SA.