Dear Blake Families:
Hopefully the long weekend was a restful and relaxing one for all of you and that you were able to find some 'down time' with your family. We had a nice, low-key weekend in the Vaughn abode -- catching up on our ever-growing 'to do lists', watching football with friends, and we are looking forward to the 'Day of Service' activities today at Blake.
As you all know the idea of 'balance' is one that I feel is critical in all of our endeavors - academics, athletics, interests, health, etc. It is often a challenge to achieve a real sense of balance, but it is a worthy goal at all times for our students and ourselves. In last week's blog update, I shared that I had been doing some readings to highlight Dr. Martin Luther King's work. In the January-February issue of The Maroon Tiger, Morehouse college's campus newspaper, Dr. King wrote a piece entitled 'The Purpose of Education', expressing his belief that education had two functions - one of 'utility' and one of 'culture'. I believe that this balanced approach is one that we should continue to work towards here at Blake: "The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically...Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." As we think about our work at Blake, I hope we can continue to embrace a spirit of experimentation, fostering opportunities for our students to, as Dr. King espouses, 'think intensively and critically', while understanding the importance and value of a sound moral compass. I have posted an article (located on the Articles tab of this blog) I came across last October, 'Why Learning Should be Messy', that you may find of interest as the author, Nikhil Goyal, encourages a 'messy environment' for our work to take place.
In the spirit of 'balance' and the overarching goals of our work, I have also posted two articles (located on the Articles tab of this blog) you may have already seen that I found to be thought-provoking, as both a parent and an educator. One of my goals for our community is that we continue to 'break down the walls of our school', engaging our parents in a thoughtful and productive manner as to how we can best work to meet the needs of our students. In this week's blog posting I will be sharing these with our parents and community as well. The first article, 'The Dicey Parent-Teacher Duet', is an op-ed piece written by Sara Mosle in The New York Times. In this article, Mosle shares her thoughts about some guidelines for parents' communication with their children's teachers. The second article, 'Mom to Parents at Park: Please Don't Help My Kids', was sent to me by Erik Ormberg (MHS guidance counselor and former Blake counselor, for those of you who do not know him) this past week. In this posting the author, Kate Bassford Baker, asks her peers to help allow her daughters to experience struggles so that they understand the value of challenge and obstacles. As with most op-ed pieces I do not fully agree with all aspects of either article, but I found them both to resonate with me on different levels for different reasons. And, maybe more importantly, I also found that the articles prompted some more questions within, as I thought about my work as a parent, teacher, and leader in our community. I hope they may do the same for you as well.
Please click here for Important Dates and Announcements.
Please click here for Thursday Packet Information.
Take care.
Nat Vaughn