#smallschools

[cwinstitute-blog]

By JOE BROOKS, Community Works Institute (CWI) Over the past several decades small school consolidation and regionalization of schools has rolled on and rolled out in so many communities. Our colle…

[justsayun]

Don’t smack talk my school.

My kids are like most and think they know it all.  My daughter made the comment the other day how I had no idea the pressures kids deal with in high school.  Since I went to a very small school she considers my education very similar to that of the school in the old tv series Little House on the Prairie.  For example,  my school only had one foreign language you could take, that was German.  Of course, we had a few girls who did tutor on the side French Kissing.   I decided to sit my youngest daughter down and run through some of the volatile moments from my High School years.  She made a smart remark how she already knew how bread was a nickel when I was a child.  I said; “ Be quiet, know it all and listen”.  I explained to her how my football team in school took the State to court to allow 3 girls to play on our varsity team.  I mentioned how I even had to testify during the trial. (Spent most of the day at the County Courthouse.) Most kids don’t do that in high school.  I then mentioned how we had a lot of friction between the sexes in my school one year when the girl's basketball team wanted equal time in the gym.  Yes, we had tense moments with all the women in our little school.  I still remember during one of our heated back and forths with the girl's team my best friend Mike said, “I’ve watched you girls play, I didn’t think you even practiced.”  Oh did they get upset with that comment?  Gosh did I laugh?  They did end up receiving equal rights to the gym and honestly, they were a good.  They even won the league that year?  I noticed my daughter didn’t have quite the smirk on her face as earlier.  I believe with a small school you have drama.  The size of the school doesn’t mean the drama level is more or less.  I then told my know it all offspring that I was a member of the school paper.  I usually wrote the sports stories but Mrs. Bingham liked me and I asked if I could write an article about how poorly I thought the girls in school dressed?  For some reason she let me.  Today a student would never be allowed to publicly comment on how fellow kids dressed.  I remember I had a line in my editorial about how I wish the girls in our school would pay more attention to their appearance.  I mentioned how many of them came to school looking like they had just rolled out of bed and grabbed whatever clothes they found on the floor to put on. (Yes I was brave and very stupid.)The school paper usually came out near the end of the school day.  I recall some of the girls tracking me down and then yelling at me loudly.  I can still remember thinking to myself “Wow girls can really be scary.”  This was one instance where going to a small school saved me.  If I’d have written that in a big school someone would have beaten me up.  Probably one of those mean girl gangs Lindsey Lohan was in.  Did I give my child a new appreciation of my high school years?  I hope so.   She asked what I most appreciated learning in my small school?  I told her "You can never be too careful about pushing your luck.  Especially when females are involved."

[naz-comm205]

Positives and negatives to life on a small campus

Similar to many other private independent colleges, Nazareth is not only a small college but it is a small community. While there are perks to this sort of atmosphere, such a small community also comes with limitations. Here are some positives and negatives to a small school community like Nazareth.

Positives

1. Everyone knows everyone. This can be both a good and a bad thing, but in the positive sense, you will rarely have a conversation in which someone who you do not know is referenced. It’s not that everyone is your buddy or best friend, but you will at least be able to visualize their face when they are referred to.

2. Everything is within walking distance. At Nazareth, especially,there is not anywhere on campus that cannot be walked to. Obviously in the middle of winter some days are worse walks than others, but the distance between everything remains close. Small school students also have the perk of being able to walk to all of their classes. Unlike larger universities, where students may have to bike or take a bus in between classes, small school students simply need a few minutes to walk to and from class buildings.

3. Faculty are extremely willing to help. With small class sizes comes an increase in attention from professors, both inside and outside of class. Not only are teachers helpful in class, but they also work hard to make themselves accessible outside of the classroom. The faculty’s commitment and hard work helps build a strong relationship with students, ultimately making our learning experience more enjoyable.

Negatives

1. Rumors spread quickly. Whether the rumors are true or false, similar to a high school, at a small school rumors spread extremely quickly. This relates to a negative aspect of how everyone knows everyone, and how it can be hard for people to escape their reputations on campus.

2. You can’t miss class. Similar to my last post about attendance policies, at a small school professors take the time to learn everyone’s name, which therefore alerts them if you were to miss class. Unlike a large university lecture, small school teachers have relationships with their students which may help them learn, but it also makes it very difficult to miss class.

3. Small group work. Unfortunately, the majority of the professors that I have had at Nazareth love to do small group work. This is something that personally I can’t stand, and I know many of my classmates have felt the same way as there is always that group member who struggles to do their share of the work.

Words by Packy Jones 

Photo by Nazareth College

[estebanchiaro]

House divided. #SmallSchools #NobodyCares #RoarTyges

[smallschoolscoalition-blog]

by Dr. Stuart Grauer on April 30, 2014

The Buddhist concept of mudita, “sympathetic joy” or “happiness in another’s good fortune,” has no English-language equivalent.

A 2009 study indicates that the hormone oxytocin may be involved in the feeling of schadenfreude[1]. Schadenfreude is the feeling of joy some people get from the suffering of others—a great many of us human animals derive feelings of success when others fail. Let’s be aware of this risk—you know you are capable of this. Admit it. But who gets a chemical buzz, that little dopamine shot in the brain, from the success of others? Can it be taught? Is it social?

As discovered by Zak and Theodoridou, oxytocin motivates a variety of pro-social behaviors such as generosity, compassion, and forgiveness. In other words, its presence in the brain helps us to trust and bond with strangers. A hug, slap on the back, sincere smile and look in the eye bring out this physiological response, not just “pain of others”[2].

Further research shows that, as we become accustomed to giving or receiving hugs and genuine affirmations, we increasingly begin to seek thoseout. Success feeds upon itself. The takeaway from this is that the more we practice gratitude, the greater our mudita becomes. I don’t really know why some people are chronically mean, but I feel pretty sure we can increase either our schadenfreude and greed or our gratitude and generosity through practice. I even think we can pick which of these two paths we will practice. As we now know, either positive or negative behaviors can be come addictive. Which do you choose? How can we use this understanding?

It’s not always within our comfort zone to just hug someone, but with practice and commitment, we can get there. The following YouTube is a great example of something awkward turning into something that makes sense. In fact, it makes so incredibly much sense that this YouTube now has 75 million views. 75 million. That has to mean something! Want to change your day? Watch this video.

Is this important for educators, or is it just a lot of happy talk? Consider this fascinating finding: research by Guastella and colleagues has shown that when our brains release oxytocin, our recall actually increases[3]. What a study tip! When students “feel the love,” feel connected and valued, they become confident, and this belief in self is a key driver in seeking high achievement. This is clearly one reason we seem to do better in a class where we have high regard and even an emotional connection to the teacher. As parents, teachers, and fellow students, our mudita is the best way to give others a big high towards success and happiness. Here’s the bottom line: Give a genuine hug to someone you care about. They’ll do better. You’ll do better.

At left: Original Grauer School site groundbreaking. From left to right: Dr. Grauer, Audrey Grauer, Cody Beyster.

[1] Simone G. Shamay-Tsoorya, et al. (1 November 2009). “Intranasal Administration of Oxytocin Increases Envy and Schadenfreude (Gloating)”.Biological Psychiatry 66 (9): 864–870. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.06.009.PMID 19640508.

[2] Barraza, J. A., McCullough, M. E., Ahmadi, S. & Zak, P. J. (2011). Oxytocin infusion increases charitable donations regardless of monetary resources. Hormones and Behavior, 60(2), 148-151. DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2011.04.008

[3] Guastella, A. J., Mitchell, P. B. & Mathews, F. (2008) Oxytocin Enhances the Encoding of Positive Social Memories in Humans. Biological Psychiatry, 64(3), 256–258. Abstract.

[smallschoolscoalition-blog]

by Dr. Stuart Grauer on May 7, 2014

Collaborative leadership entails cultivating positive relationships as our essential work. Through healthy collaborative leadership, we find that people we work (and play) with are naturally organizing themselves. When we find ourselves fulfilled and engaged in a shared mission and vision, we “self-organize.”

This year alone, four schools have travelled to Encinitas to study The Grauer School, and I have received many requests to present our model all over the world. What is it that people want to learn from us? What’s the secret sauce? Could it be collaboration?

To us, an organization is great when it enhances collaboration. For instance, at The Grauer School, departments are scattered all across the campus. Going down the rows of classrooms and wrapping around our quad, we can find English, social studies, math, English, multiple subjects, art, science … etc. Departments are not clustered. In the course of a day, it’s routine for a physics teacher to bounce ideas off an art teacher or a sixth grader. Everyone plays multiple roles, too. The development office leader is the volleyball coach. Mixing is everywhere.

Our administration is not siloed in our collaborative model, and our permanent campus ensures that it never will be. The dean is on the southeast 5-6 completed campus signcorner, the principal on the west side, and the head of school is at the entryway (soon to be called “The Tolerance Gateway). You don’t even need to work your way past gatekeepers and deep into the bowels of an administration building to get to any of us, either. Our administration is out of the chair, part of the flow. In order to get work done at Grauer, administrators need to wander about.

For my part, when I walk a letter over to the development office, I always—always—end up in some serendipitous encounter of the fascinating kind: a gathering of seniors working on a leadership project, a group of economics students planning something, a teacher I haven’t seen much all week, a student who I saw on stage the week before, etcetera. Visitors from a neighboring charter school could easily see what I get to enjoy daily: “It’s so focused and peaceful here,” they noted of our campus. “There are so many pockets of space where kids are engaged.”

Another good example of a collaborative organization is found at Stanford University. Stanford’s d.School uses “radical collaboration” as their way of bringing together as diverse a group from as many areas of expertise as possible. Here is their rationale: “Students and faculty in engineering, medicine, business, law, the humanities, sciences, and education find their way here to take on the world’s messy problems together. Human values are at the heart of our collaborative approach.” Imagine a school that gathers around values rather than test scores … or wait—if you are a Grauer family, you already did!

The Stanford model shown here illustrates what a typical design project team might look like at d.School, but it’s pretty close to the original d.schoolsketches for The Grauer School’s completed campus, due for completion in a short few months. At last! The diversity you see in the Stanford graph enables teams “to trust themselves to find their own way forward.” At Grauer, radical collaboration is the outcome we get from our focus on the core value of “resourcefulness,” and this is the original, founding value of the school.

Likewise, students at Grauer engage in routine age-mixing, so that they can be on teams that would be, in large schools, unlikely to form. Radical collaboration across groups of all kinds at the Grauer School means a relative absence of cliques and clique behavior. What a joy!

Grauer parents are involved in many of these collaborations, as well—permeable organizational boundaries (rather than siloing) means a sense of connection, ownership, and belongingness. Everyone’s on the team. (Our upcoming Gala is a collaboration engaging an astonishing assortment of school stakeholders, all building the school together.)

Radical collaboration means that working together as a team is as natural as breathing. Today’s schools can do more to foster radical collaboration by encouraging cross discipline and grade level teams and classes, by student expeditions, by inviting student and teacher entrepreneurship, and by bringing local partners and experts into our classes and programs. At Grauer, even our school architectural design was a collaboration of students, parents, teachers and many others.

Our unique, constantly evolving mash-up of subject areas, expedition themes, project learning opportunities, and impromptu meetings and projects creates an environment where design thinking, creativity, fun, and high energy prevail and it is the key to our constant evolution. Thanks for reading.

[smallschoolscoalition-blog]

Students at a Berkeley charter school are building their own school library!

[smallschoolscoalition-blog]

By Leo Babauta

One of the best changes I’ve made to help me be happier is learning to see judging other people as a red flag.

Now, I’m not going to pretend I don’t ever judge other people — I think it’s either a built-in method all humans have, or something we develop because of built-in methods. We all judge people, and I’m not an exception.

But I’ve gotten better at noticing when it happens. And recognizing that it’s a sign of something harmful.

The judging itself isn’t bad. It’s what the judging is a symptom of that’s harmful. I say “harmful” instead of “bad” because instead of judging I’d rather observe that it causes harm.

What underlying harmful causes/situations are indicated by my judging people? Well, here are a few:

I am very ignorant of what the person is going through. I don’t understand the situation. I have unrealistic expectations of people. I think I’m superior to other people. I’m not grateful. I’m being self-centered. I’m not being curious, but instead I close off all learning. I can’t really help the situation from a place of judgment.

How That Happens

Let’s take a fake but typical example so I can show you what I mean (I’m going to bold the symptoms, so forgive the overemphasis):

I see a relative who is actively harming her health, who is overweight and diabetic and yet smokes and eats junk food all the time and does other bad things. I know she can make her health better by changing her habits. I judge her for what she’s doing, think badly of her, get frustrated with her, dismiss her because she’s not worthy of my frustration. This kind of thing happens with me and lots of other people all the time — just change the details to spouse, co-worker, kid, friend and instead of unhealthy things, they’re doing something else you don’t like.

What’s going on in this example? Well, first, I’m ignorant of what she’s going through and I don’t understand the situation. She’s been depressed because of her health problems, feeling guilty, feeling stuck, feeling scared, untrusting of herself. Because of these bad feelings, she doesn’t like to think about health, and makes herself feel better through smoking and comfort food. She’s just trying to be happy. And in fact, I do the same kinds of things all the time — I fail. I feel bad. I comfort myself. So I’m not superior, even if I think I am.

What’s more, I’m not being grateful for the great person she is, despite her health problems. She’s wonderful. By focusing on judging her, I’m not appreciating that. Instead, I’m being self-centered by focusing on how much better I am, how she’s frustrating me, how my frustration is more important than any pain she’s feeling. I’m not being curious about who she is, what she’s going through and why … instead I have made a judgment and that stops all inquiry. And from this place of judgment, I can’t help because I have closed off dialog, and have written her off.

You can see how all of these things are harmful. They make me frustrated and unhappy, they harm my relationship with this lovely person, they stop communication and learning, they don’t allow me to help alleviate suffering, they close me off to what she has to offer me. Among other harms. How to Let Go of Judging

First be aware that you’re doing it, and see it as a red flag. It’s not horrible to judge, but it’s a good sign that other things are going on that are harming you and others.

This takes practice. But there are symptoms that tell you you’re judging — if you feel angry or frustrated or dismissive of someone. If you’re complaining about someone, or gossiping about them. These are signs you’re judging. Recognize what’s going on.

After you notice the red flag, pause and be curious. Don’t get mad at yourself, but be curious:

Why are you judging? What expectations do you have that are unrealistic? What can you guess about what the other person is really going through? Can you find out more? (This isn’t always realistic but sometimes you can.) What about the other person can you appreciate? Can you get out of your self-centeredness and put yourself in the other person’s shoes? Can you imagine a time when you were going through something similar?

Once you’ve done that, ask yourself: How can you help? What does this person need? Sometimes they just need someone to listen, someone to be a friend, someone to not judge, someone to accept them. Sometimes they need more — advice, a guide, a hug.

But you can’t help them from a place of judgment. Only when you let go of the judgment that has arisen, and come to a place of acceptance and curiosity and empathy, can you really help. And incidentally, you’ll be a lot happier in the process.

Posted: Monday, January 27, 2014