When my children were young, I thought to myself “Okay, these are the toughest, most demanding years. If we can just get them into Kindergarten, then things will be much more calm and manageable.” But, alas, this wasn’t the case. With primary and middle school years brought a whole new list of demands, priorities, and worries. So then I thought, “Okay, once I get them to high school, then it will be smooth sailing.” Well, not so much. The issues change, but the intensity and emotionality of our work as parents is only heightened. College is no longer that theoretical concept we discussed years ago with a financial planner. It’s really going to happen. And all of the social growth and issues with which these kids need to contend amid this pressure cooker scenario makes my head spin. It’s a wonderful time, but let’s be honest: being a parent is tough business. 

During our opening weekend at school, we heard from Ms. Jenifer Lippincott, a human development professional who focuses her work on teenagers. Ms. Lippincott is the author of 7 Things Your Teenagers Won’t Tell You (And How to Talk About Them Anyway) and has been quoted in numerous national publications. I think her main points are worth repeating. 

1. Anxious parents create anxious kids. Now, as parents, we all know that a certain amount of anxiousness is inevitable. Being anxious for them only sends them the message that you have no faith in their being able to manage their issues and accomplish their goals. 

2. Teenagers' brains really are different from ours. They are not fully developed until about 25 years old (depending on many factors, or course). They often distort things that seem completely obvious to us as parents, and they dramatize everything, in part, to compensate for this distortion. This explains why we often end up scratching our heads after having them restate what we just explained to them. 

3. Controlling them should not be the goal. When tweens become teens, their fundamental relationship with their parents changes. Teens need their parents every bit as much, but less as “coach” and more as a “consultant.” It’s less about controlling a teen’s every action, and more about guiding them through their high school journey, and ever so slowly, putting more and more responsibility in their hands. 

4. Friends don’t matter as much as you might think. This one surprised me, but I am finding it true as a parent. We as parents remain the most influential people in our kids’ lives. 

5. Taking risks gives them power. In a recent survey of private school students, their number one priority was to be at a school where, in essence, they could assume adult-like roles and responsibility. So the stage, the athletic field, the debate team, the chapel talk – all of these endeavors allow students to grow in some of the most important ways. Kids are hungry to take risks, and we must embrace them, as long as those risks are healthy and productive. 

These are just a few of my notes on what Ms. Lippincott presented during student orientation last week. I encourage you to post some of your own thoughts about these points in the “Comments” section below. I’m interested to hear from you.

Parenting: It’s tough, it’s wonderful, and it’s the most important role any one of us will ever play.

Welcoming students back to The Webb Schools after summer break has always been one of my favorite roles as Head of Schools. Watching our student leaders open the academic year is a very tangible realization of our schools’ mission; not merely words and fine-sounding ideas, but real doing. It’s easy to say we’re about developing leaders who are people of character, but it’s not an easy task, and elsewhere it isn’t always backed up by action. But this summer, my many glimpses of our students in action reassured me that Webb really does provide students real-life opportunities to step up, be self-directed and to lead.

For example, the Junior Fellows who helped staff the Summer Programs at Webb were an integral part of the success of those programs. Mrs. Wishek, the director of summer programs, couldn’t say enough about the work ethic, the intelligence, the independence, the caring that every single one gave every day. “I tell them, these jobs are yours,” she explained to me. “If you don’t perform them, they won’t get done. You are needed here, and everything you do here matters – people are relying on you.”

The same is also true of our Vivian Webb student teachers in the G.I.R.L.S. Camp. With Mrs. Kingsbury’s support, the student leaders themselves designed and implemented an exciting, week-long curriculum in the sciences for middle school girls, which included organizing outings, teaching, and encouraging the girls to create their own experiments. They may very well have changed those girls’ lives by encouraging their budding interest in the sciences and supporting their emerging sense of themselves as real-life scientists.  

Our two faculty paleontologists, Dr. Don Lofgren and Dr. Andy Farke, worked with student leaders this summer in Montana and South Dakota in support of their research project, which will be presented at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Conference in Pittsburgh later this fall. More than 20 of our students accompanied Dr. Farke to the Grand Staircase Escalante Monument to prospect for new localities and to continue the collection of a nearly complete plant-eating dinosaur skeleton that was found by one of our students at the end of last year’s expedition. Amazingly, on the last day of this year’s expedition, what may be a very important find was made by one of our juniors – building up even more excitement for what the next trip will uncover.

These are only a few examples of the many leadership opportunities our students undertook off-campus this summer. Altogether, it is a testament to how they as young adults are defining who they are, what they really want and care about – what they value – and how they lead. It’s not hard to be proud of them and of our school. 

"Hey, this is kind of interesting."

Mr. Kevin Quick, a science department faculty member and assistant on our summer Peccary Trip, handed me a fist-sized rock cobble with a piece of fossil bone poking out of the side.

"Where did you find that?!" I exclaimed. Seeing a distinctive dimpled texture on the bone's surface, I was definitely intrigued. Not only was it from a crocodile, it was a piece of crocodile skull! A very rare find, indeed.

This is just one snapshot of a day collecting fossils in southern Utah. Every summer, Alf Museum staff, Webb faculty, students, and volunteers make the trek from Claremont to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. As one of the last, great, unexplored dinosaur deposits in the continental United States, a major find could turn up at any time. In 2004, a museum volunteer found the skull of a new species of dinosaur. In 2005, a Webb student discovered the partial skeleton of a previously unknown tyrannosaur. And just a few weeks ago, this non-descript piece of rock added another important dimension to our knowledge of Earth's past.

Although our primary purpose is scientific, these summer Peccary Trips (named after a peccary, or pig, skull found on an early expedition) also offer important life lessons for our Webb students. We have to hike several miles across some of Utah's most remote and rugged terrain just to get to the edge of the fossil beds. This effort isn't purely physical - it also takes a mental toughness to push through to the end. Even the students who have never camped or hiked in such conditions before quickly rise to the challenge. In the pursuit of discovering fossils, students learn perseverance and the importance of teamwork, and this new crocodile find would prove to be a great challenge.

The cobble of rock had a relatively fresh broken surface, so more bone had to be out there somewhere. One of the most basic rules of fossil collecting is to always follow the bone uphill. In this case, the task was daunting. The original find was found at the bottom of a steep 100-foot high slope covered in brush, loose rock, and mud from a recent rainstorm. The fossil could have come from nearly anywhere!

Recruiting a half-dozen students, Mr. Quick started the arduous task of locating the original bone layer. Literally leaving no stone unturned, they spent nearly two hours on that slope. Searching on the last day of the trip, we didn't have a lot of time, so this could be our only chance to find the rest of the specimen.

Finally, Sam Woodward ’12 found it. A thin lens of sandstone, nearly entirely obscured by loose debris, hosted a big chunk of crocodile skull. Sam and Mr. Quick did a fantastic job of carefully exposing the fossil, using small hand tools and special glues to preserve the delicate bone. I let out a brief exclamation of extreme happiness - this could be a major find!

We only had a few hours left before we had to leave the field, not nearly enough time to properly collect the specimen. Furthermore, I could see that the find was potentially large enough that we would need an excavation permit to continue. Sadly, we will have to endure another long lesson in patience as it won’t be until next year when find out just how much of that crocodile is in the hillside. Somewhat reluctantly, we stabilized the specimen and covered the site for the coming winter.

Mr. Quick, the students, and I are all abuzz about our latest find.  How much of the crocodile skull is there? What kind of crocodile is it? Is it a species new to science? After 75 million years, we'll just have to wait one more year to find out.

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.

For my last blog of the year, I thought I would simply share with you some excerpts from the presentation I made at our annual Roll Call Assembly. I am very proud of our graduating class and wish them well in college and in life… 

Wow!! Even though The Webb Schools enjoy excellent college placements each year, not since the Class of 1999 have I seen such a stellar performance in terms of how well the senior class did with their college admissions!

Some notable accomplishments:

-We finally broke the dry spell with the almighty MIT! Thank you, Charles!

-Not one, not two, but three to Harvard – the hardest school in the world to be admitted to this year!

-Multiple admits to the other Ivies, Stanford, and other super-selective schools in a year when admit rates to top tier* colleges were at an all time low!

*Top tier is defined as the top 50 National Universities and top 50 National Liberal Arts Colleges as ranked by U.S. News & World Report for 2010

"It's a miracle!" I heard some lower classmen say one day as they were hearing the news of acceptances coming in for the seniors this past April. Looking at the results this year, and knowing the incredible selectivity this class was faced with, it may have felt that only a miracle could produce so many acceptances to such outstanding colleges. The fact is, however, that the seniors accomplished this the old fashion way, through hard work, dedication, and amazing attention to details! While having luck on your side helps, no one got into college by chance or by mistake. Every admission decision this class received was well thought out, purposeful, and meaningful. In fact, the only miracle that happened this year is that I started going to the gym on a regular basis! Now that's a miracle!

Here are more interesting facts and figures for you to take in:

Webb School of California – 44 boys in the senior class filed 364 applications to 116 colleges and received 204 acceptances (56% admit rate). Each boy applied to an average of 8.3 colleges. 73% applied to the University of California system and 94% of them were admitted. 36% applied to the Ivy League, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT, and 31% of them were admitted. 93% applied to the top tier colleges/universities (not including U.C. and Ivy League) such as Duke; Georgetown; Johns Hopkins; University of Chicago; Washington Univ. St. Louis; Middlebury; Wesleyan; Brandeis; Colgate; Vassar; Colby; New York University; Davidson; Macalester; Carnegie Mellon; University of Richmond; Colorado College; Occidental; USC and the Claremont Colleges, and 93% of them were admitted. 86% were admitted to at least one of their top choice colleges. 100% of the boys’ class was admitted to a selective four-year college.

Vivian Webb School – 45 girls in the senior class filed 343 applications to 120 colleges and received 219 acceptances (64% admit rate). Each girl applied to an average of 7.6 colleges. 64% applied to the University of California system and all of them were admitted. 31% applied to the Ivy League, Stanford, Cal Tech, and MIT, and 43% of them were admitted. 98% applied to the top tier colleges/universities (not including U.C. or Ivy League) such as U.S. Air Force Academy; Wellesley; Wesleyan; Georgetown; Johns Hopkins; Barnard; Vanderbilt; Northwestern; Boston College; Hamilton; Bryn Mawr; Vassar; New York University; Trinity College; Reed; Kenyon; Colorado College; Occidental; USC and the Claremont Colleges, and 87% of them were admitted.  91% were admitted to at least one of their top choice colleges. 100% of the girls’ class was admitted to a selective four-year college.

It was also another strong year for girls (almost 50% of the class) applying to Women’s Colleges. 86% of these girls were admitted and 15% of the class plans to attend a Women’s College. Vivian Webb School continues to lead the way as one of the top “feeder” schools to America's most prestigious Women’s Colleges with an average matriculation rate of nearly 20% over the past 10 years.

Overall, 83% of the Class of 2010 will be attending a college ranked in the top 10% in the nation (based on data from U.S. News & World Report on 1600 accredited, 4-year colleges and universities in the U.S.). On average, each senior received an acceptance letter from 5 of 8 colleges (over 60% of the schools to which they applied). 42% will be attending college in the West, 3% in the Mid-West, 10% in the South, 44% in the East, 1% in another country.

Congratulations on a job well done, and best wishes as you take your places in the nation’s leading colleges and universities!

Click here for a list of ALL college acceptances for the Class of 2010.

Click here to see a photo gallery from this year's Roll Call Assembly.

I am on a plane looking down from 33,000 feet at blue skies and a solid floor of clouds.  I know we will pass over threatening weather, yet at this altitude the pilot has promised smooth sailing as we wing west.  Leaving Chicago, the sky was menacing and I send out a little prayer to those who endured super cells yesterday in the infamous tornado alley.  I think of them and how different their view is from mine.  Although obscured, I know there is trouble below. 

I am returning from a two-day meeting of CFOs who serve on the board of the National Business Officer Association.  Peppered among talk of association business, we spent many hours comparing notes about the financial health of our schools and sharing concerns.  I admire and respect these colleagues immensely, and I see this small, representative sample as a good barometer for best-thinking about the economy and what challenges lie ahead for schools.

My colleagues worry aloud about parents affording the independent school experience, about providing faculty and staff with fair wages and good benefits.  We talk about controlling the uncontrollable in an economy where prices are increasing for things like food, health benefits, insurance, utilities and supplies.  We wish for more funding to invest in aging physical plants.  In somber voices, some share stories about sacrificing heretofore programmatic sacred cows in the name of financial sustainability.  All have felt impacts of a changed economic environment, yet there is unevenness.  Some schools are experiencing record enrollments, and everyone knows of at least one school that has closed their doors.  We commiserate about how our schools are struggling under waves of new regulation.  And while seeing to the day-to-day operations of our schools, we agree that we must keeping a wary eye on the horizon looking for signs of proverbial bad weather that is likely in an economic environment of ongoing uncertainty and volatility. 

Webb has a long history of thriving in tough times.  Our financial operation, reserves and physical plant have come a long way from the days when Pappy Webb took chickens in trade for tuition. It is that strong financial footing that allowed Webb to weather the 2008 financial crisis.  Conservative practice and generous donors allowed us to build a safety net of reserves.  Creative thinking, hard work, frugal practice and individual sacrifice led to efficiencies that enabled us to preserve those funds.  Throughout the past two years, when others have faltered or failed, we have been at our best, adhering to conservative financial plans and working together to protect the best interest of our school.  We are among the success stories, but we realize that like all independent schools we are not immune to changes in the economy.

Looking ahead, we expect smooth sailing.  Looking ahead, we expect some turbulence.  Today, enrollment looks stable, endowment values are rebounding, donors continue to be generous, capital projects are ongoing, contingency plans are in place, and most importantly we are providing financially for what is core to our Mission.  We won’t always be able to see beyond the clouds.  Tomorrow, the weather may change, but Webb is on a firm financial footing and positioned to handle whatever lies ahead.

The steward’s voice comes over the speaker announcing our approach to Ontario.  I gaze out at blue skies and the San Gabriel Mountains.  It’s good to be home. 

The first time I saw a cell phone was on the Movie Wall Street in the mid 1980s. It was roughly the size of a car battery. Now we all have them and they fit in our pockets or purse. Email was the next step in getting connected. My friend from college works for the government, and in the early 1990’s, he told me that he was using something called electronic mail. Neither of us had any idea how that technology would transform society when it was adapted into a private sector product several years later. And then a few years back, I started hearing about MySpace, and then the “college version of MySpace” – something called Facebook. I thought it was terrible that people had to stay connected via the Internet, but then I took the leap and now enjoy my Facebook interactions tremendously. Yes, I still get the awkward “friend” request from the kid on the playground from when I was in the fourth grade (who I didn’t really know then, and most likely have little in common with now), for the most part however it is rather fascinating to reconnect with family and friends, past and present. And now we have Twitter, YouTube, Skype, and numerous other ways of communicating and staying connected on the net. Devices themselves have also changed dramatically. When I was in high school, we had a computer literally the size of a room. It was a mysterious creature – something out of Lost In Space. I remember being afraid of even being around it. And then a computer suddenly could fit on your desk, and then in your hand, and then in spaces invisible to the naked eye.

Social networking sites represent the greatest change to how community is formed, and how human connections are made. At the time of this posting, Facebook has over 400 million subscribers, with approximately 100 million of those subscribers accessing it via a handheld device. And the numbers are climbing steadily. The uses of these sites are also evolving – from centers of basic information to multi-media presentations including movies, tutorials, blogs, etc. (If you want to see an amazing demonstration of where the Internet is going from a tutorial standpoint, I encourage you to visit www.kahnacademy.org)

Suffice to say, electronic communication is here to stay, and places like Webb, which put at a premium on human interaction, must grapple with how best to handle this potential paradox. I’m proud of how we are approaching this issue here at school. Students, teachers and administrators are engaged at a variety of levels with how best to strike the right balance between preserving the timeless benefits of human interaction with managing the plethora of social media sites effectively and responsibly. If we balance these two forces in the right way, I believe the latter has the potential of complementing and expanding the former rather than working against it. But it’s a tricky balance to maintain and it requires an ongoing dialog with all members of the Webb community.

I am especially proud of how we recently approached the issue of Facebook access in the dorms. While we used to totally restrict Facebook on our servers, the Community Life Group, which is a group of students, faculty and staff led by Dean Brian Ogden, worked hard over a 6-month period of time to discuss the issues surrounding Facebook. The consensus was – rather than pretend Facebook and other such sites don’t exist or, perhaps even more absurd, that students aren’t currently accessing these sites with their handheld devices and other means, we are much better served by allowing students access to these sites during non-study times, and educating the community on how to use these sites responsibly, safely, and productively.

Of course, the announcement during school assemblies was received with enthusiastic cheers from the student body. More importantly though, was a student-made Power Point tutorial following the announcement (led by current senior Elle Markell).

To me, this is an excellent example of how Webb works. We carefully and deliberately make our decisions after a great deal of thought and research, and with not only adult but also student involvement. I commend the Student Life Group and the community as a whole in arriving at a good place in allowing access to Facebook with ongoing education on its use.

As we continue on this unfamiliar and complex journey of contemplating the interface between technology and community, I value greatly all perspectives on how best to achieve this balance. Much more to say and consider on this topic but for now, I’ll conclude with two specific questions:

1. What do you think the right connection/community balance is? Do you agree with how the school has handled the issue of Facebook this year?

2. As parents and school, how can we develop a stronger partnership in this area. Are the school’s policies consistent with yours at home?

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at graduation in just 2 short weeks. It’s been a good year and there is much to celebrate.