Another admission year is over, and our school will have next year a wonderful group of new students not unlike similar independent schools across the country. It’s time to sit back and reflect.

Every child continues to be, happily, a teenager though I am sensing more pressure from their parents than in previous years. As David Eklund, Professor of Child Development at Tufts University, once wrote, “Children have a right to a playful childhood.” But in their need to assure some undefined end to education for their child, we still have parents over-programming their children. And that concerns me.  

It concerns me that we continue to get questions from parents in our interviews that really don’t get to the heart of our school. Instead, what I continue to get are questions about what I call “stuff,” i.e., “How many/what percent get into Harvard, Yale, Stanford….or just name the celebrity college.” “What are your average test scores?” “What is your ranking among other boarding schools?” (Sorry, there is no such thing, but saying that is a losing cause.) “How many AP’s do you have?” “Can my child accelerate in mathematics?”  Yet, none of these seem to indicate any real sense of what should be the real purpose of a school. We are not a conglomerate of cookie cutter institutions and we all have our idea of what should constitute a true learning experience. There are different approaches to the classroom and what should be a holistic educational experience. That means some teenagers find just the right fit for a particular school and some do not. Drilling it all down to statistics, then, simply does not get to the heart of a school resulting in, perhaps, poor decisions on the part of the parent…or student.

So here are the 8 questions I really do wish parents would ask me as we walk the campus; questions, frankly, I never hear:

1. Will my child be known? Every child, particularly teenagers, simply wants to know that they have an identity - that their talents are recognized and that the adults on campus work hard to get to know the person inside. I believe that when children know they are valued for who they are, they will always do great things - and the right things.


2. Will the school embrace the curious? So many classrooms are about insisting students learn the way they are taught as opposed to teaching the way students learn. Curiosity needs to be encouraged and expected. Right answers are only those found through discovery.


3. Will my child be encouraged to dream? At what other time in their lives do children have the opportunity to just dream about what could be? How does a school encourage dreaming? Perhaps, as George Carlin once said, “It’s o.k. for our children to engage every day in two hours of pure, unadulterated, uninterrupted day-dreaming!” Sadly, we have them so busy that they do not learn the joy of dreaming about what could be.


4. Will thinking out loud be expected? I believe the classrooms where the best learning exists are those where one finds controlled chaos - students working together; coached not lectured to; ideas being challenged when they aren’t supported by information. Ah, now that’s the classroom where learning becomes special…and so few schools can pull this off. Hmm.


5. Are right and wrong defined? It’s not about a set of rules outside of one: “Behave.” There is a right and there is a wrong and intuitively students know exactly where the boundaries are unless the school is fuzzy about them. Schools that know who they are and know their mission know how to define boundaries and they don’t mix messages in the face of parental opposition when their child crosses those boundaries.


6. Are teachers coaches, or simply givers of information? Dr. Theodore Sizer, the late visionary educator, suggested that teachers become coaches rather than simply distributors of education. Helping students reach conclusions through Socratic dialogue and deep research requires a new breed of teachers where the answer only comes through hard work on the part of both.


7. Will mastery of subjects be expected? Another aphorism of Dr. Sizer’s takes a different approach to what should constitute true mastery of a subject. Too often grades are given simply to those who do the most prodigious amount of work, the most “extra-credit;” the most assertive student; the most attentive student.  But how does a school demand true mastery and what does that mean? Shouldn’t the grade reflect complete understanding demonstrated in a variety of ways outside fill-in-the-bubble tests?


8. Are teachers allowed to be teachers and parents allowed to be parents?  Independent schools have enrollment contracts for specific reasons. They outline the agreement to which the school promises to deliver exactly what it presents itself as during the admission/recruitment process and by enrolling in the school, parents agree that they understand this. There are certain promises every school makes but few can guarantee entrance into Yale, for example. The rules don’t change for the school or the parent once the school year opens. Teachers must have the confidence they can teach without undue pressure to guarantee A’s. Parents have a responsibility to provide the support and encouragement for their child and find the appropriate level of engagement with their school.

There are, perhaps, a few more I would add to this list but engaging parents in these types of questions, frankly, energizes me as an educator - which we admission directors are first and foremost. If I could not answer these questions, I would have to think about my ability to represent the school. And if I did spend more time with parents on these types of questions, I would learn more about their aspirations for their child and could help them make an informed decision about attending our school.

Twenty-two of my thirty-two years in independent schools were spent in day schools, some very good and some fairly mediocre, but all of them had good students with dedicated teachers. Their debate teams did well; the football teams reigned supreme. Most went on to colleges and parents were fairly pleased with their investment. However, it wasn’t until I went to my first boarding school as an assistant headmaster that I realized that these are schools that take education to another level. And by that, I don’t mean that boarding schools are repositories for more advanced placement or honors classes, nor am I suggesting that the college placement was any better. All of those are features of schools that can be found anywhere. Where a school defines itself is where its soul is, and the soul of a boarding school lies in its development of a unique community of adults and students all living together; sharing a common purpose as defined by the mission of that school. Such schools are places that are not defined by the culture of the immediate surrounding community but by the multitude of experiences of their students, many of whom come from regions of the country and the world unknown to the average independent day or public school student. Boarding schools are places where students develop an appropriate sense of independence that all parents inherently wish for our children. Boarding schools, by their very nature, encourage and guide their students to learn to develop those emotional intelligence skills we often find so elusive in a seventeen year-old. 

How these schools do this is something that can only be discerned by walking the campus and spending time listening and observing. Doing so, one will find, for the most part, motivated students with a common purpose happily engaged in the lives of each other. Artificial barriers to understanding and acceptance tend to disappear; social cliques can be rare; and intellectual risks can be taken without fear. The possibilities for expanding the education of a child beyond the classroom are enormous. As an example, I often think of a boy who came to us some years back as a sophomore from a local public school. We soon found that he had an extraordinary voice, but his talent had been unrecognized by his school. Freshmen rarely get recognition for their talents in large schools, often because they are too fearful to even attempt to share their talent. Yet, he was auditioning for our school musical and, yes, he had an extraordinary voice. He went on to become the highlight of our entire theater program and is now on a full scholarship studying opera at a conservatory back East. I do not believe this would have happened had he not transferred to a boarding school like ours.

Imagine a place where your son or daughter rooms with a student from Malawi or Kiev. Imagine students with a range of religious backgrounds living in the same hall together. If we have learned anything of the events of this new century, it is that the days of cultural isolation are over - we are all so interconnected.  It is inevitable that our children, when they become adults, will be faced with a completely different kind of world - a world that requires a different sort of individual. I am not certain children can learn that worldview without venturing beyond the block they live on. Boarding school students experience the world through classmates and teachers who come from cultures and places different from their own. They are poised for success in the new, global environment. Experience a boarding school and you will understand.

As an independent school educator of some thirty-plus years and a director of admission at a number of highly-selective independent schools for twenty-two of those years, I must admit that I am becoming increasing concerned about the overuse of the term “gifted child.” Now, as a disclaimer, I believe profoundly that every child has a gift for something and that those gifts are often overlooked in large or small schools. And no, I am not talking about that hard-working A’s-all-the-time, terrific test taker. We all have them; we all identify them easily; and, of course, we love them as much as we love all our students. But, I am seeing so many applicants whose resumes list Gifted and Talent Education (GATE) programs or participation in the one of the many programs designed for the “high-performing student” that I am beginning to wonder who is not “gifted.” Many of these students are happily spending their summers studying forensics, psychology, writing, economics and I applaud those interests.  It sure has to be better than spending the summer locked in front of the newest version of World of Warcraft. But there are so many of these programs and the vast majority use your typical battery of standardized tests to identify such students; the result of which is that now we have seventh graders taking some version of the SAT and that is implicitly encouraging parents to prepare sixth grade students for the SAT. Oh, to be in the SAT prep business today! And how very sad this is all becoming. Just the other day, I had a young parent ask me if I would accept her child’s SAT results in place of our typical standardized assessment test for admission. “And what grade is she in, may I ask?” “Well, she’s gifted, you know, and she took the SAT in grade 7.” “How do you know she’s ‘gifted’?” “Well, look at her test scores.”

Some years back, I had the privilege of working as the director of admission for a school whose entire focus was the truly exceptional (we call them “highly capable”) learner. I was simply captivated by these remarkable students, for how one captures their attention and imagination goes well beyond what I am seeing in many a school’s classrooms. These are the children that learn in a completely different way from most children. Their minds are working in overdrive and everything seems a world of wonder.  Placed in your standard “I teach you; you learn” environment, they either explicitly rebel or check out. They might see solutions to math problems completely outside the norm. Some have extraordinary individual talents (I am thinking of the boy I took to the National Geographic Geography Bee finals in 2001. He won.); some have extraordinary verbal skills. What they have in common is that they are such uncommon learners and I believe they are among the most misunderstood and poorly served in educational institutions where standardized tests, SAT results, and registration in AP courses are used to determine what many believe defines a “gifted” student.   It is not so.

During my interviews I can pick out the child of which I am writing. I am thinking of a boy - let’s call him Joseph - who sat in my office and could talk about whatever esoteric subject came to mind. During those thirty minutes we explored black holes and the possibility that if the Big Bang means the universe started from nothing, then nothing must be something. We analyzed the meaning of the word “should” and engaged in solving a physics problem of motion. He was a talented animator and designer of computer games but he never played them. His head was full of ideas; his room full of books. On paper?  A “B” student. He didn’t turn in his work as, for many of these children, the homework we demand is pretty much mindless and I would agree. This is not the kind of student who can sit quietly solving the odd-number problems in the back of the algebra text. Most likely, he knows the material without expending much intellectual energy. Answer the questions in the back of chapter four of A Survey of World Literature? I don’t think so. The result? Well, instead of attempting to discern what this student really knows or can demonstrate mastery of, he gets a “C” since 40% of his grade is mindless homework. So, he disappears to the middle of the classroom, unnoticed and certainly forgotten in big schools. He doesn’t bother anyone and is never encouraged except for the rare instance that a special teacher opens her eyes and reaches out. She notes the student who confounds her with his questions that seem to come out of nowhere and whose verbal dexterity can only be matched by his remarkable insights no matter how seemingly inane. I know because I worked with such students like Bert, all of 10 years old, who assisted me on a tour of the school with a father, an engineer. Upon viewing a class where algebraic solutions were scattered across the board (this was fifth grade), the engineer suggested an alternative solution to the problem. “No”, remarked Bert. “That would be wrong. Let me show you why.” He was right. I can still see that father’s eyes. Bert and all his classmates used to call all teachers and administrators by their first name. “Hi, Leo.” It would only work there. I just loved the place because everything was so very different from what I was used to. And we had waiting lists. 

I always worried for these children because after they graduated from grade 8, there really were no schools for them. Yes, of course, there were the schools hyping IB programs or their lists of AP courses and, horror of horrors, universities that purported to “accelerate” these children bypassing any notion that developmentally they were still only fourteen years old. What’s the rush? I wonder. But IB/AP does not necessarily address the needs of the truly exceptional, highly capable learner. There are few schools that are addressing their needs and certainly not in the public sector. The task is left typically to that special teacher of whom I remark; and given the size of their classes and the independence from state mandated standards, I believe many independent schools, particularly boarding schools, are well-suited to address the needs of such students.

Teenagers want to be known, and once known they do remarkable things. Imagine then if that highly capable child who possibly does not understand his talents or gifts – they seem too natural – is identified in a caring community such as we have in boarding schools. The possibilities for that child are enormous. I love seeing these students on my campus and I can tell stories about every one of them. And I can do so because they seem to thrive in the intellectual freedom provided by schools like ours. When you sit around a table with fifteen students and engage in a Socratic dialogue about Robert Frost’s take on the American Dream, or take your students on a field trip to the Utah wilderness to search for a newly identified miniature T. Rex, you open the possibility for such students to reveal themselves.  It is when you let them stretch their minds without the burden of meeting arbitrary rubrics for success that the highly capable child begins to see that the world has meaning for him or her. And when we teachers hear them think, it is something to behold.

When fielding questions from a caller inquiring about our school, it is inevitable that I get, “So, where can I find your ranking among other boarding schools?” Happens all the time. Much to their dismay, I have to tell them that there is no such thing, and happily so. Yes, there have been multiple attempts by various publications hoping to score readers a la U.S News and World Reports College Rankings by getting our independent schools to participate in such studies; but, guided by such organizations as the National Association of Independent Schools, we have rigorously resisted the temptation to jump in.

And why, do you say? What do you all have to hide? Well, of course, nothing. You can learn all about us by visiting our websites, walking our campuses and drawing your own comparisons. But the notion that you can lump all our schools into one pot and then ascribe what are never exacting standards supposedly vetted by the most rigorous research misses the whole point of why our schools exist in the first place. Every independent school was founded on a vision of what education can be or should be for children. Founders of various boarding schools, like our own Thompson Webb, did so because they developed a belief system about the appropriate ends of education and founded a school to put those ideas into place. They did not do so to “compete” with the other boarding or public school down the road. They did not do so to see if their students could get that elusive edge in the college admission process. In the case of The Webb Schools, Mr. Webb was firm in his belief about developing “young men of honor” and that alone has guided our ideas about education for both our boys and girls (Webb, founded in 1922, added a girls’ school in 1981). 

The basic problem with rankings, besides their questionable methodology for collecting data (e.g., College Rankings still depends on colleges self-reporting), is that they create for the less discerning parent a seemingly easy way to make what may be the most important decision of parenthood. Why do the hard work of research when I can open a book, look at a list, find #1 or 2, and apply my child to that school? In addition, they often propose that a particular characteristic of education is most important in defining whether it’s a quality school or not.  My favorite such survey is the one used by a prominent magazine that ranks public schools by taking the number of AP/IB exams written and dividing by the number of graduates.  Supposedly, such data tells us that these are schools with the best programs, but the survey does not report the average test AP/IB test results from these programs because the researcher was afraid the reporting schools would artificially inflate those grades by allowing only the top students to take the tests. O.K., I get his point, but then, what does it matter if the school jams forty students into an AP U.S. History class?  The fact that forty students simply write the exam makes it a quality program?  In defense of the researcher, he admits that evaluating other aspects of a school (e.g. quality of extra-curricular programs – vital to a child’s education) defies statistical analysis.   Ah….that’s my point!

Schools are not a population of automatons who take challenging courses and write exacting exams. Schools should be places where learning transcends standardization; where each child is inspired to learn today and wants to learn more tomorrow. They have classrooms where students ask questions and ponder new ideas and where teachers are coaches, not just givers of knowledge. They are places where every child finds his/her place in the sun; where they are encouraged to stretch; and where as Brown’s Theodore Sizer once wrote, students become “informed skeptics.”  In short, every child has a school in his heart and mind. The joy of independent schools, then, is their essence. They are “independent” and are designed not to appeal to every child’s learning needs, but to have a place for every child who believes it’s the right school for them. And this is where the hard work of searching for schools begins for parents.

It requires thinking through the goals that parents have for their child’s education. Hopefully, this goes deeper than simply getting their child into the celebrity college of their choice (My favorite comment to parents by our head of school recently was, “Remember, there are over 3,000 universities out there, not ten.”). It requires them to research a number of schools, to visit their campuses, and to ask tough questions about the school’s philosophy for classroom teaching or the “why” of its curriculum.  Why does the school embrace the Advanced Courses it does, for example? Is it because the school believes that teaching AP European History is the best way to present that discipline or is it because the school’s parents have demanded more AP’s from the school? And what about the whole issue of character development? What does the school think about the development of emotional intelligence? All of these can be tough questions that every school must be able to answer. From all of this, parents can begin to envision – or not – their child at that school.  

Yes, by all means, collect the hard data: test scores, college placement, student-teacher ratio; but, in the end, it’s all about inspiration. An inspired child turns the world on its head. Cold data tells us nothing about how the school expects to achieve that goal; but so many independent schools can do just that, and they don’t need every child to take an Advanced Placement course or receive an International Baccalaureate degree to accomplish that goal. 

I spent 20 years of my 32+ yrs. in education coaching 12-18 yr old students in cross country and track and field.  I still believe it was the happiest time of my life as there is nothing more satisfying than to see youngsters challenge themselves in sport and learn the enormous lessons that can be derived from that experience - provided, of course, the experience isn’t marred by poor coaching, unruly parents, or schools that see sport as a means to an end - the aggrandizement of that school.  I do not believe a school’s success in a sport automatically confers on that school the crown of an exemplary learning institute but I do believe a sound athletic program that is fully integrated with the mission of the school is critical for any child’s development whether talented in athletics or not.

Our school has a fine athletic program, one that is guided by the mission of the school and we do have significant success in sports; but we also understand that success in athletics is transitory at best.  We are dealing with teenagers – not Olympic athletes – and I learned long ago that no coach should weigh his ego on the athletic success of adolescent athletes.  These are still children, after all.   What we then are ethically required to support in our athletic program is hard work towards an achievable goal, responsibility, an appreciation for the lessons learned from crossing the line first or last, and pride in just getting to the starting line in the first place.  It is the way I always approached coaching and, happily, my athletes did find real success.

As an admission director, I do experience parents who seem to place sports before academics, parents whose interests lie in securing a school that will ensure their student-athlete will be noticed by the celebrity college of their choice.  What admission officers have the benefit of knowing, however, is how few of these youngsters really do go on to achieve at the level of a Michael Phelps or even to secure what are fairly elusive athletic scholarships.   Of course, we want to fill our teams with strong athletes, but our first interest is admitting students of high character who do not see sports as a means to an end but, instead,  as an opportunity to participate in an activity that requires real effort and collaboration, one that offers a life lesson.  Not surprisingly, those kinds of students do shine in a sport and are likely the key for that team’s success. 

My advice, then, to parents seeking a school like ours is simple:  If the student has a talent for athletics, of course, encourage and support them. But when looking at a school’s athletic program, ask first about its philosophy regarding the training and encouragement of its athletes.   Ask if the school encourages an athlete not to focus solely on one sport.  There is significant research out there supporting the notion that athletes who do not “specialize” in a sport tend to have a happier experience in athletics and do excel in their chosen sport years down the road.  Schools that encourage students to diversify their athletic interests are schools that have athletics in perspective.    

I would also ask the school if there are entry-level teams, i.e. teams for the beginners.  Not every incoming high school student may have had the opportunity to play a sport in middle school; but I am convinced that in every student there is potential for participating in athletics and there is a team that matches that student’s talents.  However, I would then ask how the coach of these beginner teams encourages and nurtures that youngster.  This may be the most important coach the school chooses.  How many students build enormous confidence from learning they have that hidden talent and how many have been discouraged by the win-at-all- cost coach? 

Finally, to the surprise of not a few parents with aspirations in athletics for their son/daughter, there is no such thing as an athletic scholarship in schools like ours.  Students are selected for their academic and personal achievements and financial assistance is available but limited to deserving students who otherwise could not afford our school. 

Leo Marshall
Director of Admission