From the director:

Dear Families,

Walkathon and the corporation meeting afforded us the opportunity to gather together on two occasions this week. Thank you to everyone for being present and offering of yourself. There are many different ways of participating in our community - some of this work is public and visible and some of it is the nuts and bolts of stuffing envelopes and carrying supplies. And all of these tasks are essential to the functioning of the school. I am regularly inspired by the degree of commitment and volunteer spirit PHS parents share with us.

In my earlier years at the school, the teachers and director – that was the extent of our administrative staff! - were the people primarily responsible for just about everything. In addition to teaching duties, teachers were expected to arrange for field trip drivers, decorate for May Festival, sew costumes for Follies, develop and implement fundraising ideas, write and manage the budget, paint the furniture, water the gardens. Little by little over the years, administrative positions have been added to our staff to provide guidance and support and parents have taken on much of the work. It has been a pleasure to experience these aspects of the school’s maturation during my time at PHS

And so it is wonderful to listen to the parent committee chairs stand up at corporation meeting and describe the goals and activities of the various committees and task forces. All of this represents hours and hours of work done collectively by parents, faculty and staff in an effort to help the school provide the best possible experience for the children. I am always so impressed with the level of expertise that parents are able to provide the school by sharing their professional skills and devoted energy with us. As Anne Regenstein mentioned Tuesday night, this volunteer community work really does have the potential to enrich your life as you expand your understanding of the school and meet some wonderful fellow parents. Look for next year’s volunteer form coming in the mail soon. Thank you!

Ann Meissner
Acting Director

From The Deans

Dear Families

This is the last time I will write to you as the Lower School Dean for this year so I’d like to share some thoughts on summer. Summer is a wonderful time to foster social relationships. Although it can take a little more effort since the children do not come together every day at 3839 Washington Street, it can also be extremely rewarding as the pressures of the school-year schedule relax and allow for more unstructured time. I would like to encourage all of you to help your child expand his/her friendships over the summer. This is a great time to make some new friends both from within the PHS community and from other schools. I’d like to recommend a wonderful new book by Michael Thompson, entitled Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children, that talks about the complexity of social relationships in practical and warm hearted ways. It might be a good summer read.

During the school year, relationships often form based on shared academic interests and skills. The summer provides opportunities to develop relationships based also on non-academic activities such as athletics, arts, theater, the outdoors. As the lower school dean, rather than the middle school dean, I can suggest that you set up play situations that include children your child might not ordinarily play with. As I’m sure you realize, the older your child gets, the less involvement you will have in the selection of friends. I have heard of families who make a list of all children in a class and work their way through the list, having a play date with everyone on the list. I know other families who try to gather the whole class together for a picnic or day at the beach. Another approach is to plan on a regular gathering at a specific park every Saturday afternoon and make sure everyone in the class knows about these gatherings.

These social activities have a direct impact on how the children are able to work together in the classroom when September rolls around. A classroom environment conducive to real learning is one in which the children and the teacher feel safe enough to take risks and make mistakes. This safety is born, in part, out of feeling included and respected by classmates. And children need time to practice social skills that contribute to inclusive and respectful behavior. They also need to be complimented when they are doing a good job of this or helped in developing more positive ways of interacting when they are not doing a good job. Adult models of respectful and inclusive interactions provide a starting point for the children. The concept of needing a village to raise a child comes into play as we all work together to create positive social relationships for our children.

I have a particular request of you for this summer. Help nurture our village. Go out of your way to be inclusive. Invite children and families with whom you do not usually socialize to join you in activities. And then help your children have fun with one another. In some cases, that will be a natural outgrowth of the play setting. For other combinations of children, the adults may need to be more involved by being close by or actually initiating activities. I think we will all see good things as a result of this community exercise. And you might even have fun!

Best wishes for a wonderful summer!

Ann Meissner
Lower School Dean