Vivat! The Head's Blog

In much of Canada, Victoria included, the phenomenon of 5:30 am hockey practice for your son or daughter is a common one. Up early, put on the equipment, some quick toast and cereal, and off to the rink. That’s the way it was with my sons.

I’m thinking about this because of the speech that the coaches made at the beginning of each season. This speech was for both parents and the boys and girls who were players – we were all supposed to hear it. Without fail, regardless of who the coach was, regardless of whether the coach had a job that lent itself to moralizing (like mine, teaching), or whether the coach worked on the line at the local General Motors plant (the local GM plant produced more than its share of coaches for my sons’ league), they had similar messages. You could almost mouth the words for them before they were spoken. It was about sportsmanship, equal ice time, and lastly: please don’t give your kids a dollar or two for every goal they get. Please.

I know that for most parents, hearing it the first time, it sounded odd. It didn’t take long to think through, though. If you reward a kid for scoring a goal, he or she starts wanting to be the goal scorer, thinks that goal-scoring is the most important thing, and misses the fact that each individual’s success is actually about making the team succeed. That the team can’t score unless people pass the puck, that defense is important, that skating hard and learning all those other skills is important – and more. The player who lives for the rewards got by scoring goals becomes a selfish player, misses out on so many other lessons that sport – or life – teaches, and never learns about the courage, skill, team play and tactics that would make him or her a much more effective and more rounded player.

I am amazed how this lesson gets lost at times. It gets lost in all kinds of places, including, unfortunately schools. Here at SMUS we have been trying to apply this lesson. The lesson is more ably explained by the following quotation by Daniel Pink. Daniel Pink is one of the most influential thinkers about coming trends in business and also in education, since he sees education as the foundation for the future of business. The quotation comes from Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. This book is recommended by the Harvard Business Review as one of the most influential books of the year. About motivation, Daniel Pink says:

“Most of us believe that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money (or grades) – the carrot and stick approach. That’s a mistake! The secret to high performance and satisfaction – at work, at school and at home – is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things and to better ourselves and our world.”

Some of you who read this blog of mine (and I am always surprised when I discover readers are out there), will recognize that I have talked on occasion about the importance of intrinsic motivation, of students wanting to learn, or excel at sports, or become excellent musicians, not for the rewards they receive but for the fulfillment they receive, and the delight they give others. Over the past ten years, the School has gradually moved away from certain types of awards, especially those based on the notion that one student is better than another. Instead – and parents will see it more and more – we recognize students and reward them for their achievements relative to expectations and standards rather than relative to each other. Our assessment in the school in general has followed this path, and I am happy to say it works: students feel rewarded for their own success, relative to real standards and expectations, rather than relative to the envy-creating and self-destructive notion of being better or worse than the student next door.

What does this mean in practice? It means that for major awards, for instance, instead of a single winner, there might be three or four or eight – as long as they have met the criteria for the award. The honour roll, long a controversial phenomenon, will be expanded, and will list all students who achieve the standard. These are just a couple of examples.

As I write these thoughts, I am becoming aware that to many in the SMUS community this will come across as rather obvious, not much of an evolution – and probably one that has been slow coming. For others, this will appear new, and perhaps not even right. Furthermore, the process is not finished. We will continue to examine what we do, and how we do it, in the area of assessment as in every other aspect of the school, in order to make SMUS the best possible experience for the boys and girls, the young men and women, who are its students. We adore them, and it is their good that we seek.

Clare Copeland
Two weeks ago today, Clare Copeland, one of the influential pillars of the last fifty years at the school, died. The Copeland Lecture Theatre, in the Crothall Centre, was named in honour of Clare’s contribution. During the late 60s and 70s Clare was on the Board of University School and then St. Michaels University School after the amalgamation of the two schools. Clare liked to tell the story of University School in the few years before amalgamation, when at the end of the year the hat was passed among the Board members to make up the school’s budget shortfall – the late 60s were tough times for independent schools across North America. But things looked up. In 1976 and 1977, Clare was instrumental in bringing John Schaffter in as Head, a change that altered the course of the school, as John transformed it into the very fine co-educational institution we know today. Clare remained active in the school right until he died, and spent more than a few moments in my office talking about how important it was for him to support the school, and especially how important it was to him and his wife, Barbara, to financially support students who would not otherwise be able to attend SMUS. Clare was always positive, full of energy, and made good, happy friends of nearly everyone he spent time with. He is very fondly remembered. Vivat.

St. Michael’s Centenary
This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the founding of St. Michael’s School, one of our two founding schools. The official event will be taking place next weekend, with the gathering of St. Michael’s alumni on two campuses, as well as a dinner and a conference on global responsibility. The keynote speaker is one of the more illustrious St. Michael’s alumni, Tony Quainton, former director of counter-terrorism under President Jimmy Carter, and director of the United States Foreign Service under President Bill Clinton. The St. Michael’s commemoration on Friday will recognize the great work of the Symons family in founding and leading the school over a period of seventy-five years. From St. Michael’s School we get our outstanding motto – nil magnum nisi bonum: nothing is great unless it is good.

Keep the Beat
As I write this, the Senior and Middle Schools are holding their event, Keep the Beat, a day of music, concerts and service events that raises money for War Child Canada. Videographers are on campus today also, since we are one of the largest fundraisers for this organization – people may remember the Chantal Kreviazuk concert held at the school last June in honour of our contribution to this cause.

I have remarked before how music permeates our school. A good thing: the discipline, hard work and mental dexterity – to say nothing of the creativity – of music elevate so many moments around the school. And here is one of our most elevated moments, from last week’s Cross-campus Band Concert, held at University of Victoria. Enjoy!

Last Saturday in the Business Section of the Globe and Mail, the School and one of its alumni, Hugh McGillivray, were featured. Here is the link to the article, one of a series about philanthropy in Canada: enjoy the read!

In the most recent edition of School Ties, I wrote a short piece about scholarship, ruminating on how the word resonates differently in different contexts. Scholarship, of course, is different from “scholarships.” I was interested in cutting through the thorny underbrush that has thickened around the word as people took to using the word to talk, for instance, about “athletic scholarships” – this use of the term hardly invites an ironic lift of the eyebrow these days, the transfer of intellectual recognition to physical prowess now an accepted notion. Changes in usage are not all bad, either: scholarships used to be awarded, more or less as prizes, to those who had achieved a certain excellence; now, in most circumstances, they are given to students who do, yes, possess qualities an institution values but who also, at the same time, demonstrate financial need. To me, this is a good thing, even though it deviates from the original definition of “scholarships.”

My thoughts about scholarship and scholarships aren’t a nostalgic lament for the corruption of language – although there are plenty of occasions when I do bemoan the use of jargon and other violations of the language of Shakespeare; what many – even non-anglophones – describe as a language that is at the same time one of the most serviceable, organic and beautiful in the world. Knowingly, therefore, at SMUS, we do stretch the liberties that are commonly taken with the word “scholarships”: yes, they are nearly all given to worthy students who otherwise would not be able to attend the school.

Which brings me back to Hugh McGillivray. I first met Hugh (as I first met Bill Redpath, who died three years ago and left the school over $800,000 in his estate to establish similar scholarships) at a gathering at our house, Reynolds House, on Alumni Weekend. A reader might smile to know that you are never sure of the tone of conversations at these gatherings – how much will the talk be about past deeds (or, more likely, misdeeds); how much will the talk be words of affection for old friends; or how much will it be nostalgia for a gone time, and awe at the transformation from the modest school of 200 during the 40s, 50s and 60s to the thriving school of 925 that exists today. But on the occasion I first met Hugh, he mentioned he wanted to make a donation to help some kids who were good all-rounders, who weren’t just bookish but who also had something else to give the school, on the playing field or the stage or the dorm.

To all those who are associated with SMUS today, this strikes a chord: we have an essential purpose comprised of twinned themes, to pursue academic success in an environment where the character and self also grow. We educate the whole person, and that’s what our “scholarships” and our SMUS education are about. Hugh’s original gift has swelled from $40,000 to $1.4 million, and now supports a number of students who are “Timmis Scholars” – young men and women who, in their individual and personal way, add their qualities to a school which they wouldn’t be able to attend without this support. We hope and expect all of our students to add their special qualities to this community that is theirs – if we didn’t value these qualities, these students and their families wouldn’t come here, as if finding a home where their individual gifts could not only dwell but thrive. One of Hugh’s favourite phrases is “give back” – a phrase inspired by a t-shirt designed by Shun Kinoshita ‘09 when he was a student here. As Winston Churchill said, “we make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” Thanks, Hugh.

All capitals?

Yes. As I write this I am on a plane to Toronto, for a full day of meetings to work on the Strategic Plan for SEAL Canada – Standards in Education and Learning – which is the new name of the merged organization of the two major national independent school bodies: CAIS, the Canadian Association of Independent Schools; and CESI, the Canadian Educational Standards Institute. This merger had its genesis over a year ago, when the boards of the two organizations explored the benefits and cost savings of becoming one.

SMUS is actually one of the few schools in BC that will benefit from any cost-saving: until very recently all of the BC independent schools you might be familiar with were members of CAIS but not CESI; we were the only BC school in CESI, which was the accrediting body for Canadian independent schools. We joined CESI over ten years ago, embracing the examination and accreditation process that CESI requires, believing that it is important to undergo regularly a comprehensive and searching review of all the School’s operations, for the purpose of improvement. We have now experienced two of these accreditation visits, visits which involve not just the presence on campus for three and a half days of a team of ten or twelve administrators, Board members and teachers from other schools across the country, but which also includes an extensive self study assembled by our school (which takes about six months to complete) and put together by our own staff, Board, alumni and parents. The most recent visit, two years ago, was extremely constructive and positive, and in particular praised the school’s staff for its attitude of continual self-examination and improvement. “An attitude of continual self-improvement”: music, I can tell you, to the ears of the one who sits in the Head’s office.

Since most BC schools have not been involved in the accreditation process in the past, there are numerous tricky issues around how the merger unfolds. It is one thing to have embraced the standards and somewhat imposing accreditation process of your own volition, as we did; it is another to find that you are now expected to have your standards verified by a visiting team as a result of the merger. CAIS, for its part, had moved several years ago to add an accreditation element to its membership, so it was a direction in which that particular organization had been moving anyway. Nevertheless, it’s fair to say the change isn’t within the comfort level of all schools in BC. At the moment, our schools in BC do have a “compliance” visit from the BC Ministry of Education that makes sure we satisfy requirements for course outlines and teacher certification. Schools that have International Baccalaureate programmes do get accreditation for their academic programmes. Nothing however, is as comprehensive as the former CESI process that examines – and aims to improve – all aspects of the institution, from academics, to personnel practices, to athletics, arts, extra-curriculars, residence life, parents’ auxiliary, alumni, financial operations, fundraising, risk management – and that trickiest, most sophisticated and most fundamental building block of an independent school: leadership and governance.

It just so happens that I was prevailed upon to be the Chair of this national exercise. Hence my presence at the meeting this weekend. Given the sensitivities to this merger in BC Schools, the SEAL Board in its wisdom thought it was important to bring BC right inside the tent, so to speak, so here I am. With the same motives in mind, the co-chair of SEAL is Pat Dawson, head of Crofton House School in Vancouver. Similarly, the strategic planning exercise is being managed by Berlin, Eaton Associates here in Victoria – the same outfit that has done the strategic planning for the Independent Schools Association of BC. This significant BC presence doesn’t automatically resolve the issues but it does help.

So why would I bother putting myself in the middle of this potential mess of spaghetti? To begin with, as you can infer from our longstanding participation in the accreditation process, I think it is a valuable exercise to submit the school and its entire operations to the scrutiny of professionals from across the country, for the purposes of improvement, and also to be able to say so: to say that we believe in this process of self-examination and improvement as part of – and proof of – our continuing pursuit of excellence. Also, I believe in a strong national organization to which our school will belong: an organization which espouses standards in all areas of a school’s operation from academics to sports to leadership and governance and which will hold its members to those standards, an organization that helps us to share those elements that are truly national rather than provincial (such as lobbying the federal government on taxation issues), and an organization that focuses on the professional development especially of administrative leaders and Boards in our schools. It’s not a simple thing to be a Canadian nationalist (except during the gold medal game of the Olympics), but I find the relationships and shared world of my colleagues across the country to be one the most fulfilling experiences I have as a Canadian. Somewhat emotional, perhaps – in the old days, a very unCanadian moment, I know. Not any more.

Inspired by the worst cold I have had in years, the topic of good health has sprung full-blown into my thoughts. Fortunately, I am on the mend – and besides, compared with some people’s trials, my cold is, well, little more than a sniffle. I look out from my office on the sunny fields full of students running around and playing games – the sounds of laughter, grunts, coaches’ exhortations, cheers. The sound of a ball thudding against a foot bounces across the field, off the front of Schaffter Hall and in my office window. It is important to be thankful for good health.

I recently returned from a meeting of other independent school heads, who were reliving their experience of the H1N1 virus last fall. Some schools suffered high percentages of flu, a good number in the 50% range or even higher. A few schools were closed – or closed to outsiders. I was away on sabbatical at the time, but followed the emails from our school, impressed by the steps taken to stay healthy, by the apparent efficacy of hand-washing, restricting large group meetings, sanitizing of keyboards and doorknobs, and other measures that kept our incidence of flu in single digits, at its worst. Credit for this good health does go to our Health Centre and to Kathy Roth, Acting Head, and the other Directors of Middle and Junior School, Xavier Abrioux and Nancy Richards, for ensuring that the situation was treated seriously and that sensible steps were taken.

Good health in general is a complex thing, of course, and I tend to be impressed by the level of energy and activity of our students. The relationship between physical and inner, spiritual well-being is usually pretty straightforward, and is reflected in one of the school’s mottos: mens sana in corpora sano – a healthy mind in a healthy body. In the past few years, for instance, we have paid special attention to the healthiness of the food on offer in Brown Hall, eliminating or restricting foods that are high in sugar, sodium and fat. Exercise, diet, a balanced routine: all things that contribute to good health, according to any magazine.

Today in Chapel – that excellent 20 minute respite that occurs several times a week – I also reflected on how important are these moments of calm in a day full of activity. These pauses are thoughtful, and serve as a brief but important resetting of the order of things. In the deep breath we take during this pause, balance has a chance to re-assert itself, and to we are reminded, as I like to say from time to time, that the body is inside the soul.