Comments for Jory Macomber

Comment on Fusing East and West by jdmacomber

jdmacomber — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:53:04 +0000

Thought provoking fusion, thank you. Some questions that came to mind: Is the exam situation a make or break for life, as in Korea (so by giving up exam prep time, is it a conscious tradeoff for “whole person” with a possible downgrade in academics)? Do the parents feel that “educating and working with parents” is beneficial to their personal growth, or is it more like user manual/technical vocabulary that they have to learn? At home there is a lot of leverage at places like Judge Baker Guidance Center in helping parents to be parents but that may be a different audience. Finally, did you feel that there were elements of this particular school to bring in toto to Holderness, or is it more like a set of interesting observations?

Judge Baker Manville School Parent Support: http://www.jbcc.harvard.edu/programs/manville/family%20services.html

Comment on The Rhodes Scholarship of Secondary Education by grace bird

grace bird — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:18:44 +0000

Jory – I love this post. I have been working with and on those “opportunities outside the classroom” for 20 years. It is interesting and challenging to find a way to integrate with skills being developed in the classroom.
When tryingyou to do thiat i like toa reflect on Willthe Northrops (paraphrased) thought: “if you delegate you will get more done, but if you give responsibility; things will get done that you never dreamed of”

We look forward to your return to Holderness!

Comment on King’s Academy, Jordan by Kristin H. Macomber

Kristin H. Macomber — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 00:59:49 +0000

Wonderful, vivid report, Martha! You’re a good extra set of eyes and ears for Mr. Macomber.

Great to get both the visuals and your wise observations in words. Thank you!

Comment on The Sorbonne, The American School of Paris and L’equation du Coeur by Kristin H. Macomber

Kristin H. Macomber — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:06:46 +0000

I’m intrigued by the history of the Sorbonne–first boarding school ever, who knew? And I wonder how long it was before the housing divisions in to little nations was considered counter-productive, and a mix of backgrounds in the dormitories as well as in the classrooms became part of the learning experience?

I have been reading and very much enjoying David McCullough’s history “The Greater Journey,” about Americans who traveled to Paris in the 1800s and were transformed by their experiences, academic and otherwise. Add that to the long list of books you might want to put on your summer reading docket.

Meanwhile, count me in as one of your blog fans, always grateful to see and hear what you’ve been experiencing and pondering. Can’t wait for Martha’s take on Jordan!

Comment on What goal for global education? by mpeller

mpeller — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:45:19 +0000

Hey Jory,
Always fun to get these posts. I envy your time to think, ponder, read and write. Global citizenship is a critical component of 21st century schools.
In a recent MLK day session, one of the international students said: “I feel like the school is excited to get international students here, but then it quickly wants us to assimilate.” How do we embrace differences and encourage cultural integrity? As we bring more international students to our campus, we need to be more intentional in setting up the space to celebrate their cultures and their experiences. For me, I believe we need to push our domestic students to travel more (and not in the sense of 5-star hotels, shuffling from one white, english-speaking experience to the next.) Rather, providing our domestic (namely white) students to engage in travel where they are the minority (racially, culturally and by language) will promote the empathy and openness that is necessary for our school to truly be global and for our students to be global citizens. The world shouldn’t come to us; we should meet the world.
With advances in LMS’s and online learning, we could continue to provide students with excellent education while they live and work and experience different countries through meaningful semester-abroad programs. Class is about to start, so that is enough out of me…

Comment on What goal for global education? by Francis Chapuredima

Francis Chapuredima — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:46:34 +0000

Great recap Jory. Coming from the third world, I can’t help but wonder is this global approach to curriculum is remembering to bring along the majority of students who cannot afford international education? Indeed we have the few who get financial world, but it looks lie most of the schools you are visiting are not that accessible to the 99%. What do you think?

Comment on 40,000 by jorymacomber

jorymacomber — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:24:10 +0000

Mike,

I haven’t visited schools that put a lot of emphasis on online learning. Some schools augment their curriculum with an on-line class to fill a hole for a course they cannot teach. The theorists talk about using ICT to quickly and inexpensively connect with different cultures and different sources. I have not seen much work on flipping the classroom, etc. in these schools. They do emphasize ICT skills, but that’s different than online learning.

Public high schools are experimenting with online learning to save money. Pennsylania has an online high school with about 700 students. Virtual High School is used in New Hampshire schools. There is still work to be done in the online area.

Comment on 40,000 by Mike Peller

Mike Peller — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:18:07 +0000

Jory,
I am interested in what you’re seeing regarding online education. My thinking right now is that many entrepreneurs are trying to tap into the cash cow with gimmicky-online teaching, and they are doing okay. However, if a bunch of first-rate teachers created a pedagogically-driven, tech-savvy online platform:
a) one could deliver high quality global education for free, while
b) one could make tons and tons of money doing it.

What do you think about this??

Comment on Hugonnier, continual learning, mixing cultures, and poverty by jdmacomber

jdmacomber — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:48:03 +0000

Jory,

Happy Thanksgiving back atcha! Your post is indeed philosophical…and it should be. You are only a few months into your sabbatical and look at the benefits already realized from having the chance to get other inputs and then reflect and process them.

You mention that the pace of change in ICT platforms can spin one’s heads. This phenomenon (of constant change in the platforms and the rules) does not feel comfortable. Referring back to “High Noon” and the simple chart of pace of change/ability to adapt, one can expect this unease to accelerate – and to make we humans (and our institutions!) less and less comfortable. One of the mandates then would seem to be, “how can we teach our students to adapt to this pace of change…” which will continue all of their lives?
http://jorymacomber.com/2011/09/19/what-is-a-global-education/

As an aside, from a political point of view, one might also expect more and more backward looking comfort-rhetoric from candidates, as they reach out to a segment of population who are uncomfortable with the rate and types of change and would rather just shut out that noise. Your colleagues will have a chance to track the New Hampshire Primary conversation and map the correlation (or negative correlation) to the magnitude of forces in the global economy and in global education which you reference.

You go on to discuss the culture of Holderness. The ecological system analogy might be continued in several aspects. One is that successful ecosystems adapt to circumstances. Another is that succesful arborists and horticulturalists nurture and propagate the plants they want, with conscious intent. They don’t just let every specimen remain. Similarly, the selection of programs you list as framing tradition are not necessarily part of a coherent plan; they just seeded, propagated, and grew. Not all of them are equally worthy just because they are here. Holderness can be quite intentional about which of samples like orientation hike, pantry, special programs, Halloween costumes form the type of forward thinking integrated experience you want and which ones are just kinda there since they’ve always been there and on an individual basis they are all sorta worthy. You can collectively create the garden you want.

The sample programs in your list strike me as being about some sort of level-setting, equality, common experience, things-all-kids-can-do, homogenizing activities. If the school selects and nurtures the “best” of those (by some measure to be determined) then you should be able to a) train forward looking children who can cope with rapid change b) assimilate many other cultures and c) continue to intake a diversity of nationalties and socio-economic background.

With respect to gap between most wealthy and most poor, you ask for graphs. OK…. The global standard is the GINI coefficient of inequality, researched and published by the World Bank. A GINI coefficient of zero would mean everyone in the nation has equal wealth. A GINI coefficient of 100 means one person has all the wealth. In the developed world the coefficient is between 30 and 40 and is increasing. For way more than you want to know, go to http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTPA/0,,contentMDK:20238991~menuPK:492138~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:430367,00.html

A more digestible set of charts is from this WordPress blogger whom I’ve never heard of before now:
http://sofistic.wordpress.com/2009/01/03/income-distribution-in-the-us-1967-to-2007/

There are also good articles on Wikipedia but I assume you don’t let Holderness students cite Wikipedia in refernce works

As you have noted, the commitment to economic diversity is negligent in the European and Asian schools you have visited. The idea that some “equitable” spread of wealth is desirable is a very American phenomenon. The idea that egalitarianism, opportunity, and the outreach to all economic classes is important could remain a core Holderness value. The entity may find itself having to fight to make that remain true. But what a great story about American exceptionalism and also the Episcopal roots of the school.
http://jorymacomber.com/2011/09/23/jean-calvin-and-international-education/

Between the programs that establish an intentional culture, the continued commitment in practice to intake for economic diversity, and a curriculum that explicitly prepares students for a world that changes faster and faster could create a compelling case statement for Holderness. There will be families who don’t find the above to be attractive….too bad.

Thank you for philosophizing on a day of giving thanks. We all enjoy watching your thinking and feeling expand during this time away.

Comment on Seoul, Korea: big city and fishing boats by jdmacomber

jdmacomber — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:47:00 +0000

You mentioned that the growth of the international population is not necessarily a plus for international parents, since they want their children to have an American experience. I’ve had some of the same comments from participants in ExecEd on campus at HBS: programs like Real Estate Management http://www.exed.hbs.edu/programs/rem/Pages/participants.aspx attract 2/3 non-North Americans. My take is that educational institutions need to be out in front in terms of preparing students to be effective internationally, or else those institutions won’t remain relevant. The attendees will need to catch up. Maybe there will be a place for backward looking “nostalgic Americana” brands but that won’t attract the students who are future-facing.