From the director:

This time of year brings with it thoughts of ritual, tradition, family, and community. Every week provides opportunities for the PHS community to gather in a variety of ways. Here are a few recent examples that show the range of activities that connect us with each other, not including Follies which is one of the most important!

On November 7, a huge treat for the whole student body was a performance by DREAM (Destiny: Re-defining Education through Art & Movement), “a collective of multidimensional professional performance artists redefining urban underground culture for the stage to inspire a vision of personal and social transformation that pays respect to cultural history and values.” Their mission is “to bring messages of self-empowerment and social justice through the arts” via “Hip Hop, House, Latin, and African-influenced dance, urban poetry, theatre, song, and live music.” The performers were fantastic dancers, dazzling us with their moves and poetry. They even taught 32 bars of Hip Hop dance to every student in grades 5-8! We were grateful once again for the luxurious space of the Susan Andrews Theatre, without which we could not have this kind of all-school event.

On the November 10 in-service day, the entire staff worked on the Program section of the strategic plan. This was a wonderful opportunity for us to come together and talk about the central tenets of progressive education, our hopes and goals for every PHS graduate, and specific objectives towards refining what we already do well and improving what we can do better. Not only was the day both fun and inspiring, but we also accomplished a significant amount of work, making it productive on every front.

November 13 was the first PHS Book Fair at Books, Inc., organized by the indefatigable Lisa Jeli. Parents from all grades—including parents of alumni—showed up with literary shopping on their minds. Lisa had organized an author’s table with alumni parent Elissa Guest (the Iris and Walter series) and also Mittie Cuetara (Baby Business—more later on her work with the 3rd grade). A central table featured books from the PHS library wish list, with many generous patrons contributing to our school by purchasing and donating those titles. Josefina Bates designed and hand-printed marvelous posters advertising the event, featuring characters from children’s books cavorting around PHS—they make great gifts, and there are a few left for sale for only $10. Parents procured delicious donated food from Bryan’s and the 24th Street Cheese Company, adding to the festive atmosphere of the evening. Major kudos to Lisa and the parent volunteers for masterminding this win-win event for our community and the bookstore, and for raising our literary profile. We hope this becomes an annual tradition.

This week, the Parent Diversity Committee hosted a “culture chat” evening on November 18, following a meeting of LGBT parents and staff. (Yes, we are busy busy!) The goal of the culture chat, and of the Diversity Committee in general, is to bring us together to hear each other’s stories. This is how we learn: by listening, pondering, asking questions, hearing perspectives different from our own, discovering commonalities, considering the experiences of others, opening our hearts and minds to the full range of human potential and possibility. We are the ones building the PHS community, day by day.

From the deans:

In a recent Self & Community class discussion, students examined the various types of responsibility, (i.e., personal, community, moral, family, etc.). We discussed at length the idea of ‘community responsibility’ or the idea of being responsible for treating others as you want to be treated, for participating in community activities and decisions, and for being an active contributing citizen. Follies provided the perfect format for such a discussion. Every student member of the community has a role and, therefore a specific responsibility in the production and to their fellow actors. Students understood clearly both their personal and community responsibilities when given Follies and other examples.

To reinforce students’ learning, they participated in an in-class, group activity requiring them to build tall, freestanding structures of marshmallows and toothpicks. (Many were excited to be working with candy and secretly hoped that they would be allowed to eat the structures once the exercise was completed!) One of the assignments of the exercise was to identify and articulate the roles assigned or emerging from the process, the responsibilities assumed by each member of the group, and the impact of decision making on the group process. Decision-making and group dynamics were a large part of our discussion.

I was absolutely amazed watching the students work together. When processing the activity, most students commented that the responsibility of ‘making it work’ never fell to one person. In some cases, individual students took the lead. These students were appropriately identified by their classmates as ‘engineers’ or ‘architects.’ In other groups, students worked individually to erect what would become a collective piece of ‘art.’ The ‘entrepreneurs’ in these groups made the decision to merge companies at the most opportune moment – just minutes before time was up. Of course, there was not one ‘correct’ way to approach the exercise. It is this appreciation for individuality and communal cooperation among students that is representative of how we ‘make it work’ at PHS!

Karen Amaker
Middle School Dean