As always, "what's happening" is a product of what has come before, and the past decade has been one of phenomenal and unprecedented social change, much of it fueled by the explosion in new and powerful technologies available to both adults and children. As the rightful boundaries between the adult world and the child's world have continued to…

Even at the dawn of the 21st century, the sexual education of children in America is controlled by attitudes and myths about sexual learning that, in reality, date back hundreds of years. And despite the strong, vibrant, and progressive traditions, many independent schools also remain well behind the curve on this vital aspect of children's lives.…

Independent school environments offer relatively small faculty-to-student ratios that afford significant time and opportunity for quality interactions with students. Beyond the standard expectations of shepherding students through a course of study, encouraging them to participate in extracurricular activities aligned with their interests, and…

Independent schools have the pedagogical freedom to determine the best approach to contemporary, perplexing educational challenges. This article focuses on the increasingly complex arena of Gender and Sexuality Diversity (GSD) in the pre-K-12 setting, offering specific reference points and frameworks for engaging these issues. Independent schools…

In this article, the author shares a story about Chris who publicly transitioned to Courtney during his eighth grade year. Working with a transgender student would require educators as a community to make many decisions for which they had no road map. They need time to educate the community while respecting Chris's need to express himself as…

Teenagers, and many preteens, can't get away from their hormone-filled bodies; therefore, they spend lots of time during school contending with issues of sexuality--from profound questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to more mundane issues such as whom a particularly cute classmate will choose to sit next to in English. Like it or…

The author's son Jeff is a heroin addict. He was not born this way, or maybe he was and the addiction was there, hiding, all through his childhood years. That is the thing with addiction, no one knows the cause. The author has spent a lot of time trying to ferret out the answer to why one of her two sons is an addict and the other is not. She now…

This article shares reflections in the rearview mirror of a departing board chair. The author has served seven years as board chair of Redwood Day School (California). As he departs, he figures out a few things that might be worth sharing. The author shares his responses to some Frequently Unasked Questions.

Schools are demanding ever more sophisticated executive skills from heads these days. As a result, the headship position is beginning to resemble that of a "chief executive," while at the same time retaining all of the academic and interpersonal components of the past. Many schools require their heads to at least understand, if not be proficient…

For those who have just been appointed to their first headship or who are aspiring to be a head of school, they undoubtedly know the importance of the mechanics of finance, curriculum, development, and trustee work. These are critical to their success. After four years of headship, however, the author has come to learn that the intangibles can be…

Now that the first decade of the 21st century has been completed, the authors contend that it's time to stop talking about the qualities of 21st century schools and actually start being 21st century schools. The challenge for most school leaders in schools is not in establishing a relevant mission, but in being too cautious and deliberate about…

Technological advances in communications, transportation, and information processing have deepened and broadened connections on multiple levels, local through global, thickening the webs of interactivity that bind us to each other economically, politically, militarily, socially, culturally, environmentally, and ethically. As with most complex…

Seemingly small things can lead to big changes in a school, when the moment is right and the community is willing. But changes that ultimately cut across all disciplines and grades are truly remarkable, especially when they take place in an institution founded when Grover Cleveland was president. In this article, the author discusses how…

In this article, the author shares his experience of being a football coach for 27 years and describes how he moves on after these years. For the first time in 27 years, he is not on the field with boys for two-a-days and scrimmages. And he is not going to be there for the games. So, there is no more football. This is after four years of walk-on…

Most independent schools espouse the value of diversity in their vision or mission statements. While it is important that diversity be at the core of the school's mission, it is just as important that it be ingrained into the day-to-day life of the school. Too often, diversity statements feel like idle words on a page that have little to no effect…