December 1, 2007

Dear Parents,

“Warning: Failed Road,” read the sign that greeted Laurie and me as we pedaled our borrowed bikes on a back road near Alvescot in the Cotswolds region of England. We were in some sort of training for our upcoming week-long bike tour of western Ireland. “Caution: Loose Chippings” alerted us to repair work on the narrow and rough surfaced Irish roads that greeted us. As Laurie and I found out, it wasn’t so much the loose chippings as it was the loose and roaming sheep that created a hazard for our bike trip through Clare and Connemara. We learned that what we politely call “speed bumps” in our country are referred to as “humps” in England and “ramps” in Ireland.

A holiday on a bike offers plenty of diversions from the routine of business and home while one awaits steady inclines, wonderful scenery, and unexpected adventures. Perhaps my favorite occurred in the Irish town of Kilforna atop the Burren. Laurie and I and a few others from our bike-touring group took a coach up the Corkscrew after a wonderful dinner in our hotel, Gregan’s Castle. We were to watch a traditional Céilí – the coming together of the town folk, young and old, to have a night of Guinness and traditional Irish set dancing.  A light mist fell from the sky, the hall was crowded and ripe with the scent of people polished up from work. The leader of the band beckoned the dancers. “The first is a Caledonian Set!” Just then a rather gnarled and stooped grandfather type slipped across the floor and took Laurie by the hand and invited her to be his partner.

“I can’t do this!” Laurie gasped, “You don’t understand. I’m from Connecticut.” Her protestations did no good. Now she and the town elder made the fourth couple in the third square, and then the music began.

These dances are not called. As couples swirled and tapped their feet and passed each other one to another, it was clear to see that Laurie was game and was gaining the admiration of the dancers in her square as well as those of us who were glad we were not she. The music ended. Laurie thanked her partner and made to slip away, but, alas, he grabbed her hand and suggested there was more to go. We then learned that a Caledonian Set consisted of four dances.

While Laurie is not ready to audition for Riverdance, she certainly learned first hand the rhythms and music of Ireland.

As is my custom, I want to let parents become aware of pertinent issues that reflect on the education of your children or your role as parents. Two recent articles came to mind that seem oddly ironic. One had to do with computer games, while the other had to do with computer use. While I cannot remember the name of the researcher who had determined after some years of studying children that playing computer games that demanded the participant be quick on the trigger finger to shoot down marauders or villains was enhancing a child’s reaction time and an ability to make quick decisions. I felt flabbergasted at first, but, of course, tried to see that there was some practicality in allowing children to sit glued before a computer screen and learn how to kill and eradicate quickly. But I couldn’t. I thought that there are far more harmonious and better character-building ways of formulating good eye to hand coordination and quick decision-making. Tennis does that. Building model railroads, someone suggested, could do the same. Crazy Eights is a pretty wild card game. Or Slap Jack, if one wants to improve reaction time. And why not learn some patience at the same time that one is working on reaction speed? Chess, problem solving with some forward thinking strategy, or even weeding can help build important cognitive awareness. Soon after I read this brief article, I came across a response from an educator named Jane Healy, a writer that I have read for many years whose books on early education and brain development have been important influences on the curriculum development (Failure To Connect and Endangered Minds). She feels that students really don’t need to begin to be trained on computers until they reach the fifth grade. All the good stuff that traditionally goes on in elementary and primary classrooms, such as play, learning to read, sharing, using math manipulatives, developing imagination through fantasy and make believe are the necessary activities that engender building the important connections that make later education successful. Supplanting those activities with computer screen time can for some short change or short circuit what has been for years considered important future academic readiness and preparedness.

What I have been so aware of in my years in education, especially the last twenty or so, is that the schools of which I’ve been a part put a premium on character development, training students along right lines, helping them to understand the wonders of numbers and language, the dialogue of history and science, and the joy of music and art. When those foundation stones are in place, it is then time to educate our students, who are now so media savvy, to the proper and beneficial uses of the computer and word processing, PowerPoint presentation, and research. There is no need to rush through childhood.

     Here is an image I would like to share with you that has all to do with children and culture. It makes me wonder whether we would ever see a similar scene in America. Laurie and I were biking from a wonderful lunch at the Man of Aran restaurant and heading to Kilronan to catch our ferry to Rosleague on the north side of Galway Bay. There stood in the center of town a monument. It could have been a Celtic cross. Seated at the base of this monument were five children ranging in ages perhaps from nine to five. A little girl was striking the bodhran, the oldest boy squeezing an accordion, and the next in line was playing a tin whistle. Next to them sat a three-legged Jack Russell and two other children moving their feet in time to the music. They were not asking for the tourist to throw money in an opened instrument case. They were just having a fine time being children forming the necessary connections to see that their musical and dancing heritage continues. No computer games there.

     There is an Irish proverb that says, “It is in the shelter of each other that people live.” I read somewhere that today’s technology – television, computers, facsimile machines, email, the Internet, iPods and the like – has replaced porch sitting and story telling. I hope as you examine closely the role you wish technology to play for you and your children that you try to stay rooted to a slower paced family culture. I hope in the upcoming holiday season you will create new memories and retell stories that are both vivid and meaningful. And I look forward to welcoming you to the new year that will have all the hope and promise of a well-executed Caledonian Set.

Respectfully,

C. Dary Dunham

Head of School