Both the 7:45 a.m. advisory period and the longer session in the middle of the day have provided my advisees the time and space to ask each other questions about specific classes and my colleagues who teach them. Those whose siblings are RE graduates have offered advice about what to take and what not to take, and others have shared their views on how difficult, fun, lively or boring a particular class is rumored to be. Together they have charted their senior year, leaving advisory with their crumpled yellow-orange papers partially filled out, continuing the conversation with their teachers and class dean. Erasers and white-out have been almost as important to the process as the conversations, and I have been thoroughly impressed by how very seriously they have taken the endeavor. I was privileged to listen and watch as they acknowledged, understood and communicated with each other.

 

And as one might expect, a lot of the conversations centered on academic rigor and “what the colleges are looking for.”

 

The foundation of a Ransom Everglades education will always be academic excellence revealed in a carefully crafted – and relevant – course of study informed by what we have determined to be exceptional college preparation. My advisees instinctively looked for rigor in their curriculum, and they wrestled with balancing a curriculum with courses they were genuinely interested in and those that would “help them get into college.” In many happy instances, certain courses served both objectives.

 

What I also observed during this process was what we often refer to as the “hidden curriculum.” The hidden curriculum is all about the ethos of a school: the values, norms and behaviors that exist in a school but that are not always explicitly stated. You cannot access this curriculum in the course of study booklet; you see it in the daily interactions of the people who make up a school. 

 

Our hidden curriculum is consistent with the mission of our school. Paul Ransom's letter to each newly accepted boy was all about attributes of character, and to this day, we hold his words sacred. Sending our freshman off to the Everglades transmits to them a sense of challenge, adventure and self-reliance as well as the importance of taking risks. Asking our students to work together on a group project or participate on an athletic team instills in them the importance of collaboration, teamwork and leadership. What our physical plant looks like and the value we place on recycling and managing our energy resources teaches them to care for the environment for which they will ultimately bear responsibility. How we organize the class day, the value we place on community gatherings and assemblies, and the speakers we invite to campus are essential to the character development of our students. 

 

The most recent issue of Independent School magazine (published by NAIS – the National Association of Independent School magazine) features a story about the inaugural Institute on Character and Admission. Last September, 55 educators gathered in Columbus, Ohio, to discuss "non-cognitive" factors in the college admission process. Those in attendance included college admission deans (Amherst, MIT, Pomona, Princeton and Carnegie Mellon), college counselors, College Board representatives and leading names in educational reform – such as Angela Duckworth, author of Grit. The article discussed the “growing interest in elevating factors such as resilience, perseverance, optimism, gratitude and grit in the college admission process” and ends with a shout out to what we do at Ransom Everglades: “independent school educators know what the researchers have found: character strengths are a stronger predictor of success in college, work and life than conventional measures such as SAT scores.”

 

No one argues that we live in a world in need of people who know how to live and work together, who value civil discourse and appreciate diversity in all its many forms. This cannot happen without character education. I am proud of the learning environment we have created at Ransom Everglades. Whether the curriculum is explicit or implicit, our students leave us with the skills and habits of mind and heart that will help them college and life beyond the walls of academia.


Penny Townsend
Head of School