To help encourage dialogue and reflection about what matters most in our lives, our question of the week is: What matters most to you in your life? Why? What Matters Most (Week of 5/9/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey
While the warmer spring weather seemed to be evading us on Saturday, I hope that the weekend provided a nice break for all and that everyone is/was able to enjoy the sunshine that returned on Sunday! Ours felt ‘steady busy’ (is that a term?!?) with spring baseball for the boys, errands, some gardening, and doing our best to fit in some relaxation time! A highlight was seeing Blake Theater in action on Saturday morning - kudos to all of our actors, actresses, and set/stage crew! And, of course, a big thanks to Tracy, Nancy M., Joe, and Maureen for their leadership and dedication to provide a meaningful experience for our students - thank you! After Owen’s afternoon game on Sunday afternoon, we gathered with my parents and Katie’s mom to celebrate Mother’s Day. For all of the mothers in our community, I hope you had a Happy Mother's Day - and I also want to again convey full recognition and understanding that this day can be hard for some/many and ‘create the space’ for support.
A quote from William Faulkner that I have shared before - it was given to me by an educator I hold in the highest regard and it speaks to the importance of holding on to vision, conviction, values, inspiration, and hope (#willfulhope #willfulaction)...
Teenagers Are Struggling, and It’s Not Just Lockdown
by Emily Esfahani Smith in The New York Times
While many experts believe that the reason adolescents are struggling today is that they’re away from friends and school, a closer look at the research reveals a more complicated picture. According to psychologists who study adolescent resilience, one of the biggest threats to the well-being of today’s teenagers is not social isolation but something else — the pressure to achieve, which has intensified over the past year.
...In a paper published in 2020 in the academic journal American Psychologist, Dr. Luthar and her colleagues — the psychological researchers Nina Kumar and Nicole Zillmer — reviewed three decades’ worth of research findings showing that adolescents at high-achieving schools suffer from symptoms of clinical depression and anxiety at rates three to seven times higher than national norms for children their age.
What’s driving their misery, the research shows, is the pressure to excel in multiple academic and extracurricular pursuits. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation suggest children living in an achievement-oriented culture are at risk for adjustment problems, like those facing more predictable forms of adversity, such as poverty and trauma.
In a nationally representative study conducted by NBC News and Challenge Success, a nonprofit affiliated with Stanford’s education school, researchers studied over 10,000 high school students in the fall of 2020. Comparing the experience of these students with about 65,000 adolescents surveyed between 2018 and February 2020, these researchers, too, found that many students reported feeling more stressed about school during the fall of 2020 than before the pandemic. A chief cause of their stress: the pressure to achieve.
Nearly half of all students reported that the pressure to do well in school had increased since 2019, and over half said their school-related stress over all had risen. Grades, workload, time management, lack of sleep and college fears were the most commonly cited sources of stress. These findings held across socioeconomically diverse schools.
...Fifty-seven percent of students said that their parents’ expectations for their performance stayed the same during the pandemic, while 34 percent said their expectations increased. The stereotype of the adolescent aloof from parental influence doesn’t seem to apply to these students, who report feeling more stressed about family pressure than peer pressure.
When Dr. Pope asks parents to define success, they inevitably say that they want their children to be happy and healthy, have loving relationships and give back to society. But when she asks children how they define success, many describe a narrow path: getting good grades, going to college and securing a high-paying job.
Dr. Pope believes the gap is due in part to how parents praise their kids. Many parents reward their children when they perform well, which sends a signal to the kids that the approval and love of their parents depends on how much they’re achieving. So inevitably, if they believe they are falling short of their parents’ expectations, their sense of worth and well-being suffers.
If we want more-resilient kids coming out of the pandemic, then we need to heed a lesson of this past year — that the pressure to achieve is crushing the spirits of many young people and should be dialed back. Parents can play a vital role here. They can help ease their children’s anxiety by reminding them that where they attend college will not make or break them — and that getting Bs does not equal failure.
They can encourage them to prioritize their health and well-being by getting enough sleep and making time for play and leisure. And above all, they can teach their children that loss is an inevitable part of life by speaking to them about the grief of the past year. This doesn’t mean parents should necessarily lower their standards. But they might emphasize different benchmarks for achievement, like those they themselves claim to most value for their children — happiness, health and love.
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What path/route/direction would you choose - the one that is simple (less challenging and requires no change) and incorrect, or the one that is complex (more challenging and requires changes) and correct? Why did you choose this path? Does it depend on the situation? Can you share an example?
- I would choose the second because it is correct. It doesn't matter if it is long, hard, or requires changes as long as it's correct
- I would choose the more complex path, the reason being my dream job is to work at NASA, that's challenging
- The answer is simplified since each choice already identifies what is incorrect / correct. However, many minds have offered that the best path forward is often the one that offers simplified complexity, meaning that the path is not so simple that it is too easy and not so complex that it is unattainable. The best path offers challenges that are attainable with effort. Using an analogy of base camps on the path up Mount Everest, a challenge needs to be taken on, achieved, reflected on, and then the path to the next base camp needs to be assessed, strategized for and taken on.
- I choose the path that is complex because it will be worth the while and will feel more accomplished after.
- I would choose the path that is more complex in order to make it easier for others to eventually follow. Thinking through a complex system (e.g. grading) can be quite adventurous, and trailblazing for the benefit of others feels fulfilling!
- I would choose the more complex one so I will feel more accomplished when I’m done.
- I would turn around and not go to any path. I would choose this so I don’t have to worry about making the wrong decision. No it doesn’t depend on the situation.
- 40 thousand foot view...always the complex path. Sometimes I would select the simple path at the 40 foot view if I need to let something go for the greater good.
- Example/ work...usually the complex path when helping students learn, but I will take a simple path to get the student started in a task
- I would choose the more challenging path because when I finish I will feel more accomplished.
- I chose the path that my mind wants me to go down.
- I would choose the one if available that is hard. If I didn’t have the necessary tools to do it, I would choose the easy path.
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Take care.
Nat