Letter from the Head of School
Dear World,
It’s been three years since I wrote my original Letter from the Founder, and I still regularly receive calls, notes, and emails from individuals and organizations from all over the world asking if we have been able to create a program that really lives up to all of its beliefs. Through much sweat, and no small effort from a tiny but dedicated team, I am excited to say yes, MIS has manifested as a reflection of our values and philosophy on what education should be.
As I do my rounds each day, I have been noticing one, truly paramount value come to the forefront of our classroom experience: limitless learning.
What does this mean in light of a broader dialogue about student learning and education? A teacher emailed me a few weeks ago with a question: “How do you see MIS as making a ruckus, as a disrupter of the status quo?” (Gosh, I love our team!) My answer?
It’s been three years since I wrote my original Letter from the Founder, and I still regularly receive calls, notes, and emails from individuals and organizations from all over the world asking if we have been able to create a program that really lives up to all of its beliefs. Through much sweat, and no small effort from a tiny but dedicated team, I am excited to say yes, MIS has manifested as a reflection of our values and philosophy on what education should be.
As I do my rounds each day, I have been noticing one, truly paramount value come to the forefront of our classroom experience: limitless learning.
- In September, the first graders take the stage individually for their student government speeches, for those brave few (okay, several…) who are running for the coveted position of Team Spirit. They become their dynamic, excited, fun, engaging potential without limits on their learning and expressiveness.
- A second grader, when she learns that MIS is moving to a permanent campus, finds a copy of the blueprint and spends a weekend shut away from her family sewing a quilt that mimics the floorpan of our new home. The student, who will tell you she “didn’t have a voice” before MIS, gives the quilt to our school counselor, naming it “My Happy School.”
- In a third grade environmental science class, as the teacher moves the students into the inquiry phase of their research on our new stream, one student pipes up to argue that the best way to track the health of the stream over time would be to outfit the fish in bowties, labelled, of course, for easy identification. The teacher let the students debate the pros and cons of such a course of study, before, after a minute, the discussion fizzled out and they were back on track with PH, sedimentation, and dichotomous keys.
- A fourth grade student comes up to me in the hallway, with the saddest, most puppy-dog face you can imagine, and moans “I don’t want to leave this school.” My heart drops as I think, are his parents moving? Did something happen? Working for calmness, I ask, “why would you have to leave?” His face falls, looking so defeated, and he responds, “it’s time to go home.”
- Another student, in fifth grade, finds an interest in transcendental numbers, and class stops (or launches?) as they explore the what ifs and the how coulds.
- A group of middle schoolers decides that the best way to use their daily recess is to write a play and produce it. On the playground, and completely unfacilitated by faculty, they abandon soccer balls and swings, elect a director, cast the roles, and rehearse the original script and production logistics.
- I call the eighth grade parents to share the good news that our trustees have approved our expansion into 9th grade for the 2016-17 school year, and their response, one and all, is “yes, we expected that.” What?! No hoorahs or “great work” or anything? Sensing my disappointment, a few of the parents said, “Well, Ande, we knew it would happen. You and your team stop at nothing for what’s best for the kids.”
- One teacher writes on his mirror-wall (yes, we have those), “The sky is the limit” and a student scribbles just below, “why do I need a limit?” …Indeed.
What does this mean in light of a broader dialogue about student learning and education? A teacher emailed me a few weeks ago with a question: “How do you see MIS as making a ruckus, as a disrupter of the status quo?” (Gosh, I love our team!) My answer?
What a great question! I don’t think it’s about ruckus for me, it’s about the phenomenology of the student experience. If you think about what it’s really like to be a student, a learner, and think about how that experience transforms the future self, it’s easy to commit to making that experience better, no matter what. The status quo and innovation don’t exist as different choices through this lens, because the commitment is to what is best, regardless of whether that currently exists or not.
It’s certainly not been an easy road, and, really, our job will never be done. There will be no stasis for MIS, no getting to a point where everything just is as it always has been. All of the beliefs on the list I wrote three years ago are just systems. They are in place, and being lived every day by our students and teachers. What I have learned is that the important part is not just what we believe, but why we are committed to it.
I am so thankful every day for the MIS team, for the broader community that has flooded us with meaningful partnership opportunities and significant financial support, for our engaged parents and extended family members, and, always, for our incredible, delightful, thoughtful, brilliant students. Every ounce of me knows that they will transform our future into the best world it can be.
Thank you all!
Ande Noktes
Head of School
ande@midtowninternationalschool.com
I am so thankful every day for the MIS team, for the broader community that has flooded us with meaningful partnership opportunities and significant financial support, for our engaged parents and extended family members, and, always, for our incredible, delightful, thoughtful, brilliant students. Every ounce of me knows that they will transform our future into the best world it can be.
Thank you all!
Ande Noktes
Head of School
ande@midtowninternationalschool.com
