What makes Webb so special? What can a school really do to produce leaders, students of morals and integrity, and young people with strength? Besides outstanding coursework, an excellent advising and residential life program, and a strong ASB, Webb accomplishes these goals through athletics.

I believe that one of the most unique and valuable parts of a Webb education is our requirement for all students to participate in a minimum of one interscholastic sports team per year. For those of you fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to compete on a high school athletic team, you are well aware that there are some things you learn on the athletic field that cannot be taught the same way in the classroom. Something about the adrenaline, the high stakes, your teammates relying on you, and the excitement of competition teaches lessons in leadership, communication, adversity and success in ways that cannot easily be replicated outside of the athletic arena.

However, what maximizes these opportunities on the field? In a word, the coach. Good coaching teaches students skills to be more competitive, keeps the morale high, and makes playing enjoyable. But great coaching does all that and more. Great coaching takes every opportunity through adversity and failure, victory and defeat, to teach integrity, morals, strength, and character.

Over the years I have seen the entire gamut of coaching theories put into practice. I have seen coaches teach players to purposefully take advantage of opportunities when officials were not looking, coaches who encourage their players to cheat in the little things, and coaching that cares about winning at any cost.  At the same time I have known coaches who teach their players how to play with respect: respect for the game, respect for their opponents, and respect for the officials.  I have seen these same coaches be willing to uphold high standards of sportsmanship and discipline even when it puts their own team at a competitive disadvantage. And I have watched their athletes give 100%, play with passion and pride, and love every minute of their experience in both wins and losses.

Some people will ask, is it really possible to have a highly competitive, winning team if winning isn’t the single most important goal? Absolutely. The Positive Coaching Alliance, an organization backed by successful coaches such as Phil Jackson and to whose philosophy Webb ascribes, is an organization that strongly advocates for coaches who are passionate about winning, but are constantly looking beyond the scoreboard and understand that there are successes to be had and lessons to be learned in both victory and defeat. Such coaches are known as “double goal coaches.” These coaches always have athletes striving for achievable goals, playing with sportsmanship, and focusing on aspects of the game that are within their control. In sports, there are always factors you can’t control: bad weather, the quality of your opponent, the judgment of the officials. Double goal coaches teach their players to take their focus off of these uncontrollable aspects and instead concentrate on things like effort, attitude, preparation, and on focus itself. Such coaching creates players who are constantly improving their technique, find fulfillment in the game, and are growing in character. It’s a tall order, but these are the qualities that Webb looks for when hiring coaches, and these are the terms on which they are evaluated.

Hiring coaches with this mindset has in no way hampered our competitive ability. Webb has made a concerted effort not only to hire coaches who have tremendous experience in their respective sports, but who also understand and value our mission and believe that the “student” part of “student athlete” comes first for a reason.  We compete with and defeat schools many times our size, and all of this is done without sacrificing our core values. Instead, we embrace them.

At the end of their high school careers, our athletes will have all experienced success and failure, exhilaration and heartbreak. These are experiences they will encounter again and again throughout their lives in many different contexts. But through the lessons learned on our fields, in our pool, and in our gymnasium, they will have learned to handle these experiences with character and honor, with composure and aplomb. In short, they will have developed the core values of their alma mater as a Webb graduate.

GO GAULS!

Last spring, we learned that the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) office in Hollister, California, was seeking a museum to work an excellent mid-Miocene (15 million year old) vertebrate bone bed in the Temblor Formation of Fresno County, California. The site was discovered in 2004 during construction of a power line paralleling Interstate 5. Subsequent excavations yielded 1,200 fossil specimens which are now housed at UC Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology. A number of rare fossils were unearthed, ranging from three-toed horses to giant tortoises. For the last five years, the site has lain dormant while awaiting the next round of work. The BLM agreed that the Alf Museum could excavate the site, and we are excited as it's an excellent place to bring our students. Bone beds are rare, and they are fun to collect because they are so full of fossils. Webb students get to learn how to quarry, and the specimens recovered will strengthen our collection of Cenozoic vertebrates. It's a good thing for everybody involved.

Thus, the Honors Advanced Study in Paleontology class went to the site on October 24-26 to reopen the bone bed quarry. The bone bed was reburied after the initial excavations in 2004, but photos helped us to relocate the bone bed after a couple of hours of digging. Bone preservation at the site is exceptional and it wasn't long before we were removing horse teeth, camel toe bones, chunks of tortoise shell, and other vertebrate bones. We worked the site for about 12 hours over two days and collected about 100 specimens. We plan to return to the site soon to continue our excavations.

The trip was part of a lesson in the Honors Paleo class where students learn to map a site, take field notes, collect a sample of specimens, and then prepare and curate them back at the museum so they can be placed into the permanent collections of the Alf Museum. On this trip they worked as professional paleontologists--a unique learning experience for our students.

“Sit on your hands,” I once told a parent who called to let me know that she had started filling out her son’s college applications online. She told me she was simply “helping him to get started,” and added, “I’m really only doing the name and address and personal information sections.” She really thought that she was just playing the “helpful parent” role she was so accustomed to doing for the past 17 years. Why is this a bad thing?  After all, if there were ever a time to really help your children with something important, wouldn’t assisting them with college applications be it?  If I weren’t a father myself (and possessing the same tendencies as this well-meaning parent), I probably wouldn’t have believed my own ears. The fact, however, is that as parents we have been “helping” our children get through their first 17 years of life with as much success as possible, and we sometimes forget when it’s time to step aside and let our children handle things that are their responsibility. While it may seem obvious to most that applying to college should be led by the student that is actually going to go to college, I am always amazed by how many parents take on the task and turn it into a “we are applying to college,” instead of “my child is applying and I’m just here for support.”

It’s hard, I know. I have two sons of my own, and while they are still in elementary school, I can’t tell you how many times I find myself wanting to “correct” their homework before it’s handed in, or “help” them with a project by taking charge of it as if it were mine. I hate it when I catch myself doing it (or my wife catches me), and I try really hard to step away and let them each figure it out as best they can. Even if it means struggling or (God forbid) failing at it. As an educated parent, and one that does what I do for a living, for goodness sake, you would think that I would never be guilty of enabling my own children in school. But, I suffer from the same illness that so many of us “Generation X” parents seem to be guilty of today—getting overly involved in our children’s school work (and lives) to the point that we enable them. They need to solve their own problems and clean up after their own mishaps. I don’t want my children to fail (no parent does), but I also don’t want my children to grow up to be ill-equipped to deal with important tasks, like applying to college on their own.

The role of the parent in college admissions is a delicate one. How much is too much help?  How removed should you be from the task?  How do you offer support without telling your children how to do it all?  Or worse, you end up doing it for them because you think you know how to do it better. These questions seem to haunt even the best of us—yes, even the perfect parent that “would never do such a thing.”   Why?  Because we love our children more than anything else in the world, and we want the best for them. That’s only natural. But loving your children and wanting the best for them can really be achieved in a much healthier manner by knowing when you need to step back and let your child take the reins. As amazing as it may be, your child will surprise you in most cases and know exactly how to take care of the business of applying to college with little or even no help from you. After all, they attend The Webb Schools, and if there is one thing we are really good at around here it is making sure all of our students are not only ready for college, but know how to best present themselves to the colleges. I seldom, if ever, find myself hunting down a senior who refuses to see me or deal with college plans in the most responsible and sensible way. In fact, it is almost the complete opposite. I have to tell students to calm down and stop obsessing about the most ridiculous details (like where is the best spot for the 44 cent stamp to be placed on an envelope that is going to a college? True story!). Why?  Because they care about their futures, and they’ve invested an enormous amount of time and energy to make it this far at a place like Webb. They also care a great deal about making you, the parent, proud. Yes, even the kids that have spent the last 17 years being constantly pushed and prodded to get out of bed each morning, to find their shoes, not to forget their back-packs, and reminded to brush their hair and teeth are extra careful with the task of applying to college. They all know firsthand the importance of this major milestone, and they have waited a long time to get to this momentous place in their young lives. They are not going to do anything to jeopardize their chances of getting into a good college if they can help it. This gives me great hope for my own two boys, whom I recently lectured about the fact that they will be brushing their teeth every day, at least twice a day, for the rest of their lives, only to get looks of utter surprise and astonishment at such an outrageous rule.

As the “watcher” instead of the “doer,” your job is to simply give your parental encouragement each and every day. “Do your best,” “I know you can do it,”  “have faith in yourself,” and “don’t stress out” are all things you should say to your child - all the time - even when things don’t look as promising as they could be. I would also add, “Are you getting enough sleep?” “Did you eat something tasty but healthy today,” or “Did you brush your teeth?” (Okay, maybe that one you don’t have to remind them of anymore). All you have to do is watch them do it in their own style and with their own hands. They will surprise you, and they will succeed. I’ve seen it happen for the past 23 years - and that’s a lot of teenagers to say the least. You’ve done your job as a good parent and you’ve earned the right to enjoy the first big thing your “almost adult” child will endeavor to do next - go to college. It’s a beautiful thing to experience, and it never gets old. No matter if your child is at the top of the class or at the bottom, he/she will manage the task of applying to college with great independence and thoughtfulness. Traits we have instilled your child with during their time at Webb.

Colleges are always on the “look-out” for that infamous “helicopter parent” – the one that hovers over their children like a stealth bomber, waiting to attack at any given moment should their children be challenged by an important task and in need of rescuing. Your child does not need you to rescue him. She isn’t going to drown, or be hit by a bus. Or even get a bloody knee. Will they get everything they ever wanted?  NO, nor should they!  After all, only Charlie Bucket from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory got everything he ever wanted – but even he had to suffer with poverty first. Colleges want to see the “real” student—not the “polished” applicant that had a professional publisher proof his college essay or a “life coach” hired to hold her hand every step of the way. The more “genuine” the applicant comes across, the better the outcome— the more a “grown up” takes over things, the more likely the student is going to be denied by colleges by virtue of simply not being themselves.

So, next time you are tempted to “help out” just ask yourself, “is this something my child is capable of handling on his own?” If the answer is “yes,” then let him. If the answer is “no” or “I’m not sure,” then call me. Chances are I will tell you to “sit on your hands” (just like my wife tells me to do with my own two sons).

In last week's Washington Post a teacher wrote a letter to the editor that began, "We've been in session for the new school year for five weeks now, but we've only taught for a little over two of those weeks. The rest of the time has been spent testing."  Like a lot of people, I've read about the proliferation of high stakes testing in the US. I've even heard the first-hand horror stories from my own sister who is a New York public school teacher, but somehow that simple opening sentence in that teacher's letter floored me.

The teacher went on to say, "Of course, there is content we want to be sure our students learn, but I want my students to learn how to think, how to be creative, and how to be good citizens. And, that's not what we're doing because that's not what we're testing." The adage, "what's measured is what gets done" could not be more painfully true than it is in classrooms all across our country. Similarly, in The Washingtonian, the cover feature was "The School You Love to Hate," a Fairfax county school that many students will commute for over two hours each morning in order to attend. The problem, of course, isn't that this particular school is good, but that the nearby schools are so weak that families feel compelled to have their sons and daughters travel great distances every day just to get a halfway decent education.

Our recent commitment to "high stakes" testing is deeply troubling, especially because standardized tests measure such a narrow segment of intelligence. It has been firmly established that intelligence is far more complex than what we choose to measure on a standardized test - largely reading comprehension and quantitative skills. These tests of ours reward children who have a knack for language and math and who can regurgitate information. They reveal little about a student's desire to learn, intellectual depth and scope, and they are poor predictors of future success or happiness. What about creative problem solving and innovation? critical thinking? mental agility? observation and self reflection? perseverance? Those skills and habits of mind are far more difficult to quantify, but they are eminently teachable and far more influential in a person's success and happiness. When it comes to what educators are being asked required to test and measure, I'm reminded of one of Einstein's more famous pieces of wisdom: "Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted." The irony can't be lost on anyone.

It is perplexing to me that recent educational reform in the US is mired in standardized testing and high content levels in instruction. This is precisely the kind of education that other leading nations are abandoning. These matters should be of grave concern to parents and employers as well as to educators for they have enormous national and global societal implications. In his book, The Global Achievement Gap, Tony Wagner posits several brutal facts about American education, among them that we have on a 70% high school graduation rate while Denmark has 96%, Japan 93%, and Poland 79%. Furthermore, only one-third of our high school graduates are prepared for college, and 40% of our students who enter college must take remedial courses. It is clear that not enough young American citizens are being taught how to think, how to solve problems, and how to be creative and, as a result, they will not be hired for the best jobs and will be at a great competitive disadvantage as, ultimately, will be our nation as well.

When a teacher guides her students through a problem by using a set of questions designed, researched and analyzed by the students and made tangible in a real life project designed by students working in small groups and presented publicly to peers and adults, that teacher is earning her pay - meager as it may be - and her students are being taught the real skills they need to be educated adults. But when we require that same teacher to devote more than half her time to monitor students who are sitting at their desks filling in bubbles on an answer sheet, not only do she and her students lose, we all lose.