Headmaster's Thoughts Detail
Headmaster's Thoughts: January 2020
Since it is now 2020 (Happy New Year!) and Jayme and I started York Prep in 1969, I was pondering on what has changed in education over these last 50 plus years. The answer is that so much has altered the way education is delivered today to high school students, along with changing attitudes about the value of such education, that any attempt to go into detail requires a book (which I do not have the qualifications or attention span to write). The other factor inhibiting a full study is that we are in the middle rather than the end of the effects of the changes that have occurred. Trying to make a statement about a process that is in the act of evolving, is not the most sensible. So, historically, some changes that have happened will have a permanent effect, while other changes that have happened may disappear and, in hindsight, be recognized as a temporary fad.
But clearly, technology is not a fad. The development of computer hardware and software, still in comparative infancy, has had a major impact on what we do in schools. It has highlighted the reality (which I firmly believe) that facts, in themselves, are less crucial than ideas. I have said before that if what I teach in ethics could be learned from Google, then it is a bad class. Teaching is creating questions, examining ideas, and pushing students to think original thoughts. It is challenging students to be curious about the world around them. There are, of course, facts involved. It would be impossible to discuss the themes in King Lear without first reading King Lear. But, having read it, a good teacher guides a class to go beneath the narrative, and study the themes and appreciate the wonder of this work of genius. Yes, one should know when Shakespeare lived, and knowing that Lear was written around the time of the Gunpowder Plot in the Reign of James the First (of England, James the sixth of Scotland…same man), is helpful although not crucial. But these facts can be looked up. Knowing them does not make anyone a Shakespearean scholar, any more than knowing the distance between the Earth and the Moon would make one an astronomer. The computer has lessened the importance of simple factual knowledge because facts can be looked up on demand. So the computer has brought the idea of the concept of a subject into the foreground. As I write this piece, I can spell check it. I appreciate good spelling, but that alone does not make one a writer.
Technology has, of course, seriously impacted the students at school. They have increasingly retreated from direct human interaction to texting (or using Snapchat or Instagram) on their phones and computers. I find this sad but almost inevitable. The loneliness of adolescence is replaced by a virtual reality of many “friends”. Certainly children are more able to receive directions from their parents via their phones (the plus side); sadly these directions may be sent in the middle of an English class (the minus side). I fear that students are too easily manipulated by the selling component of the internet, whether it is sex or a product. Adolescents are the ideal consumer. On the positive side of the wonder of technological improvements, are the majestic scenes of nature on television, and, let us face it, the opportunity to write a blog like this which some people actually read. A mixed bag at the moment.
Moving on, since technology would take up so much space that you would deservedly be bored (if not already), the other major change in the last half-century is that we all now accept that children learn in different ways. In my view, the old concept of intelligence is a word that has lost most of its meaning because of the different talents of young people, and the multitude of ways those abilities can be tested. So a child, who grew up when I was young, was quickly dismissed as having little academic potential if they needed extra time to complete a test. How wrong that was! Some of the most talented minds need extra time to complete these “timed” tests. Given that time, they can produce all the right answers. And for extra time, you could substitute the accommodations of a calculator, a spell checker, an oral exam, and so on. In fact, there is a good argument that students with learning differences are more creative than others since they have been forced to compensate. One thing we now know for sure (and did not in 1969) is that the old concept of intelligence has nothing to do with the real talent of students with learning differences. Everyone learns differently. I cannot write this essay with music or virtually any background noise, whereas other people can only write an essay with some background noise. I suffer from hyper-focusing. This served me in good stead in formal exams when silence was the rule. Whether it works in real-life decision-making is highly debatable. We are struggling for better methods of seeing how bright each child is, but we may be chasing a chimera, and there may not be a “best” way.
What else has changed since 1969? Well, educators have been put in their place. No longer on any pedestal at all, they are seen, correctly, as specialist service providers. That means they are in the cohort of plumbers, doctors, electricians, and lawyers. We are primarily a service industry country and education neatly fits into the paradigm. Less respect is the simplest way to describe this attitudinal change. Selfishly I may want to return to those days when teachers were trusted more, but that is not going to come back any more than politicians, doctors, lawyers, police, and accountants are going to regain our total confidence.
Finally, because trust me I could ramble on, the role of schools has changed. In 1969 we did not have social workers or school psychologists. School nurses were rare, and learning specialists did not exist. When the New York Legislature decided that students should be inoculated, schools were charged with enforcing this law and punished if they did not. We were similarly responsible for reporting parental or sibling abuse. The obvious reason why was because we could be relied on. We were there! Schools have become more holistic, or, in a different version of the same scenario, we are now functioning as assistant life coaches, practitioners of urgent (or sometimes not so urgent) care, homework helpers, learning diagnosticians, and generally even parents’ assistants. We just do more, and this is a positive role in a society where the pressures for both parents to work is so strong. Did Ozzie and Harriet’s world ever exist? I doubt it. But there was a television show where the mother (who was the homemaker) waited with cookies and milk for their children to come home from school. The father came home in a jovial mood and spent his time focusing on his children’s lives, and popping in was always an avuncular relative who dished out family wisdom whenever needed. The family lived in a nice house surrounded by a white picket fence in a…this is getting ridiculous. That world was a make-believe world, but school is not make-believe. Your child is upset. We are there. Your child feels ill. We are there. Your child has problems with issues that I do not want to list. We are there (or, we should be there). School is a community in a much more real sense than it ever was 50 years ago.
So, in the end, I like to think that we know our students better than educators did in the past. We see them more as individuals. It is easier to improve a child’s life if you know as much as you can about them. In that sense, education today is far superior than it ever was, but that is only my opinion. One thing has never changed and never will; you cannot do this job if you are not an optimist.
Happy New Year!
Ronald. P. Stewart Headmaster York Prep
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List of 20 news stories.
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Headmaster's Thoughts: May 2023
Read MoreThis month I am cheating by reproducing a presentation I made to an educational conference, this April, on the teaching of Ethics to high school students. Last month’s “Thoughts” were hopefully amusing. The same cannot be said for this presentation:
Good Morning. My name is Ronnie Stewart and I started York Prep School in 1969 with my wife and have been Head of School for the 54 years it has served its students in New York City. For most of those years, I have taught Ethics to all members of the Senior Class. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: April 2023
There are tea ceremonies all over the world, but nothing quite like the English tea ceremony. Since it may become a fading institution, I want to give it a review before it goes away with the steam locomotive. You can find this odd ceremony practiced in the better English hotels and a few department stores in London.Read More -
Headmaster's Thoughts: March 2023
Read MoreI love going to the opera, and drag Jayme along about five times a year. When I was a young man, I would sit somewhere near the roof but now we are fortunate to be closer to the stage. We saw Fedora very recently. It is not a great opera. The story is absurd, and it has not been performed at the Met for over 20 years. Whenever the Metropolitan Opera returns a rarely-heard opera back into its repertoire, they bring out the superstars to perform it. And so it was with this revival, which starred Sonya Yoncheva and Piotr Bezcala. The music was fair, but the singing was superb. Going to the Met, one often sees great performances, sometimes only good ones, and, rarely, average ones. But the experience of sitting in a vast hall covered mainly in red velvet, the visual spectacle of the sets, the professional excellence of the orchestra and chorus (and occasionally dancers), still makes each performance (regardless of the opera itself) a special New York evening. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: February 2023
Read MoreWelcome to February. As a second child, until now I never thought of myself as a “Spare”. Of course, I am not the son of a King either. I married a second child and have no idea, or much interest, if this is a sociological factor or just chance. Currently, I have noticed a tendency to find deep psychological reasons for simpler issues. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: January 2023
Welcome to February. As a second child, until now I never thought of myself as a “Spare”. Of course, I am not the son of a King either. I married a second child and have no idea, or much interest, if this is a sociological factor or just chance. Currently, I have noticed a tendency to find deep psychological reasons for simpler issues.Read More -
Headmaster's Thoughts: December 2022
Read MoreAs we approach the winter holidays, let me wish all of my readers, few as you may be, a very joyful New Year.I started writing these thoughts in December 2004. So, this month, to celebrate the beginning of my 19thyear of producing the pieces known as “Headmaster’s Thoughts”, I thought I would leave the essay format and indulge myself in making up a list. I really like lists. Good bibliographies have helped direct me to reading great works that I otherwise might not have read. Recommendations by friends have led me to places that I greatly enjoyed, and also to watch productions that I probably would have missed. I do know that every list is very personal, and, arguably, a self-indulgence on the part of the list maker, but this is a case of hoping that if I share my list with you, that you might share your list with me. I would certainly appreciate that. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: November 2022
Dreams are interesting. In mine, I am always a young man dealing with absurd situations in my former body. I think of myself as a young man in an old body, but dreams do not work that way, at least not for me. I youthfully run, duck, advance, and do all the things that I would have great difficulty (which is a euphemistic phrase for “impossible”) doing with my current creaky limbs. There is something reassuring in that dream world, even though when I wake, I realize it is completely non-realistic.Read More -
Headmaster's Thoughts: October 2022
Read MoreA ball is thrown into a room. The baby looks at the room’s entrance, curious as to how the ball arrived. A dog jumps for the ball. The difference is curiosity, and we are discovering that even two-month-old babies have an inherent sense of the laws of physics. They look for reasons. A ball is bounced and stays suspended in the air; babies are puzzled and look for reasons for this suspension of the law of gravity. The dog leaps up to grab the ball, indifferent as to how it got there. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: September 2022
Read MoreWe were once teenagers too. And got into trouble.It probably is difficult for present day adolescents to appreciate that all of their school administrators were once as young as they are, and although the avenues of “troubles” were very different, nonetheless all of us got into trouble in our own way. Teenagers have always tested limits, and we all went through that challenging period of our lives. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: August 2022
Read MoreDear Incoming York Prep Student: This month’s essay is primarily addressed to you. Often my monthly essays are deliberately not serious (I even attempt humor), and written for the enjoyment of the reader and myself. But not this month. I want to give you concrete advice on being successful at York, and, indeed, at any school you attend. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: July 2022
Read MoreIn many lists of top international undergraduate universities, my university, Oxford, ranks in the top three. This includes rankings by American based institutions. In the QS World university rankings (who is “QS”?), Oxford ranks second to MIT. In the U.S. News and World Report, it is number three after Stanford, and then UC Berkeley. In the Times Higher Education ranking, Oxford is number one. The reason I am giving you this statistic is not just for pride in a place I attended but, primarily, to note that virtually all of Oxford’s undergraduate degrees take only three years. Apart from the Classic Greats; a hallowed if slightly dated course, Oxford undergraduate degrees are only three years long. So why do American degrees, apparently considered lower on these rankings (and you may note that Harvard and Yale did not appear) take four years to complete? Since Oxford is the only university to come in all three rankings as one of the top three, that indicates excellence. Hooray! Why be modest? -
Headmaster's Thoughts: June 2022
Read MoreAs in all previous years, June’s “Headmaster’s Thoughts” is the speech made by the Head at the 2022 Commencement Exercises.Congratulations to the graduating Senior Class of 2022, and your families who helped get you here. This is a great group of young people, and all of us applaud your success. You have contributed to so many parts of our school academically, socially, in the performing arts and athletically. I note that over 10% of your class brought home our first Basketball State Championship since 1992. That is just a sign of the spirit of this group. In all arenas, I give you my congratulations. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: May 2022
The day before I started writing this piece, I watched our first League Boys Varsity Volleyball game of the Spring Season. They won! And they beat a school that is three times our size. What is happening? Are we becoming a sports powerhouse without knowing it? Since we won the State Basketball Championships this year, we have had a few applications from basketball players eager to join our program. I should also proudly state that both our Girls Varsity Basketball and Boys Junior Varsity Basketball teams won their League Championships. Hooray, I say. But, without disappointing the applicants, I should also add that we are not the University of Kansas. The last time we won the State Tournament was 30 years ago. 1992! Not exactly a dynasty.Read More -
Headmaster's Thoughts: April 2022
Read MoreI have two numbers on our home phone. Whenever a call comes into the second number (without anyone being on the first line), I always answer, “F.B.I.”. This seems to work. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: March 2022
Read MoreI want to tell you a story about my life. Sorry to be self-absorbed, but maybe you can learn a general lesson from my particular circumstance. Back in 1969, I was a very young and, surprisingly, successful barrister. I was in the right Chambers (what you might call a sort of partnership) at the right time, and I had been chosen as the Junior (what you might call “second chair” ) to defend Charles Kray in the Kray case, which turned out to be the longest criminal murder trial in English history. In the middle of that trial, on October 6th 1968 to be precise, I married Jayme. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: February 2022
Let me categorically say that we all need fun in our lives. COVID, unfortunately, has robbed us of our opportunities for silliness. I remember having a family Thanksgiving dinner party with friends and extended family, and providing them all with clown’s noses. The wearing of those red squeaky sponges added to the event. Now, we do not have those parties. I remember blowing up balloons on a plane and making animals (some of which popped), which I gave to other passengers, to the extreme embarrassment of my son. Now we do not take planes anymore. I remember…no, I will not bore you further. I think most of you know what I mean. Our whole way of life has been affected by the pandemic. And I know that I have been lucky. No one in my family has been hospitalized yet. Some have had COVID, but only mildly. I am still untouched but waiting.Read More -
Headmaster's Thoughts: January 2022
Read MoreAnother spin around the Sun. Another year.Is it the eternal optimistic nature of our species that we expect next year to be better? Because I think most of us do. We really look forward to getting over the pandemic, seeing each other’s faces without covering, socializing together. And if we adults have had a hard time of it over the past two years, how much worse has it been for our children? The time spent in school is the most critical time to develop the skills of understanding how to get on with peers, how to share, how to be a member of a community. For too many children, that avenue of progress had a major break. They were homebound. Should they have been in school? I think so. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: December 2021
Read MoreAs we all look back over the year of 2021, it would be nice if we could compare it to previous years. How comforting to give a detailed analysis of growth, and achievement. Sadly, 2021 will go down as a year marked by extraordinary events. We have had a pandemic such as we have never seen in our lifetimes. Thankfully, due to the miracle of vaccines, we are now seeing a slow recovery. Yet the statistics for inflation, employment, and climate control, are uniformly sad. And no one can say that the quality of life in our great city is yet back to normal. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: December 2021
Read MoreAs we all look back over the year of 2021, it would be nice if we could compare it to previous years. How comforting to give a detailed analysis of growth, and achievement. Sadly, 2021 will go down as a year marked by extraordinary events. We have had a pandemic such as we have never seen in our lifetimes. Thankfully, due to the miracle of vaccines, we are now seeing a slow recovery. Yet the statistics for inflation, employment, and climate control, are uniformly sad. And no one can say that the quality of life in our great city is yet back to normal. -
Headmaster's Thoughts: November 2021
Can I be the only person who does not carry a cell phone? It seems that modern society is run on the basis that one will always have a cell phone at hand.Read More
