This week I revisited two Op-Eds from the New York Times that I read well over a year ago.  The first is by David Brooks and the other by Frank Bruni. They are both worth our time because each presents a challenge to educators, parents, leaders and students.   The Bruni piece, “Best, Brightest — and Saddest” tells the story of a group of teen … Continue reading Towards Excellence and Happiness

In his book How Children Succeed author Paul Tough cites a paper by an organization called Character Education Partnership that divides character into two sections: Performance Character and Moral Character.  Performance character, Tough writes, “includes values like effort, diligence, and perseverance.” Moral character, on the other hand, “embodies ethical values like fairness, generosity and integrity.” In the Upper School at EAB we follow a similar … Continue reading The Upper School of EAB Honor Code

2015-2016 Theme For the past couple of years the Upper School has had a theme we used to set a tone for the year.  In 2013 the theme was “We do what we say we do.” The idea was that the daily work done at EAB had to be closely aligned with the EAB Mission, Vision and Values.  In 2014 a quote from John Wooden … Continue reading 2015-2016 Theme

Last week I read two Op-Eds from the New York Times, one by David Brooks and the other by Frank Bruni. They are both worth your time because each presents a challenge to educators, parents, leaders and students. The Bruni piece, “Best, Brightest — and Saddest” tells the story of a group of teen suicides in the town of Palo Alto, California. According to Bruni, … Continue reading The Importance of the EAB Learner Profile

In his opinion piece on Tuesday, David Brooks from the New York times wrote about the often unnoticed skills – social courage, amorphous thinking, opposability – that he feels will lead to success in the digital age. Interestingly, Brooks begins the piece by referencing a recent article by Ian Leslie in The Guardian that discusses how the application of subtle, learnable skills in the classroom … Continue reading The Past, Present and Future

Tim Wakefield is a former professional baseball player who is most famous for his role as a pitcher on the successful Boston Red Sox teams of the 2000’s.  What makes Wakefield interesting, other than that he started his baseball career with my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates,  is that he threw one pitch – the knuckleball – to every batter he faced.  The vast majority of pitchers … Continue reading The Tim Wakefield Dilemma