August 2015 Update Presented to Faculty and Staff |
It was the German writer Goethe who said, "There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots; the other, wings." At first glance, his statement seems contradictory: doesn't one image cancel out the other? And yet, upon further consideration, we see that each metaphor really makes the other possible: after all, we cannot discover our roots – our identity – until we go and look for them, any more than we can fly off endlessly into the sky without knowing that, eventually, we must find a place to perch. So, staying grounded and taking flight – Goethe's beautiful metaphor for growth and learning – paradoxically go hand in hand. |
Last year, we embarked on a self-study of our school that very much involved finding our roots and our wings. It was truly a group effort; so many of you in this room generously contributed to the process, and when we say we couldn't have done it without you, we mean that sincerely. You have helped us define our roots, which are our traditions, our deep lineage, the unchanging essence of Punahou, and you have showed us where we can sprout wings, which are all the opportunities for growth and change that will keep our school thriving for another 175 years.
We, as your self-study team, want to echo the gratitude shown in the video of student voices that you just watched. Me ka ha’aha’a, we thank you for your thoughtfulness, candor, growth mindset, and continued work that ultimately benefit the students of Punahou. We have learned through the self-study process that having deep roots doesn't mean Punahou is unmoving and frozen, and that soaring into an innovative future doesn't mean our School is adrift. The Punahou you have described for us has the best of both worlds: roots and wings – staying grounded and taking flight – are, it turns out, the perfect metaphors to describe the ongoing life and work of our school.
It is so amazing that as a whole school we have come so far in the span of a year. Through your involvement in this self-study, you shared your strong dedication to always grow and soar. We thank you for all the many ways you have participated and will continue to participate--in focus groups, dessert dialogues, by answering surveys, continuing discussions, gathering student insights, taking and submitting hundreds of photos, as you see here, on “A” Day at Punahou, reading our emails and promptly answering our requests for information, participating and adding to the self study Engage page, tweeting, willingly meeting with us to clarify and inform, graciously welcoming Holly and Sheryl on the Anthropology Walk from kindergarten to the Academy, for being ever so focused and committed on your professional development days. And in these multitude of ways, always embracing this self-study as a positive opportunity to grow as a community to improve the lives of our students.
And through this participation, your input has been so valuable as the 134 self-study responses are formulated.
At this time last year there were zero responses to our self-study questions. And as you can see, we are now well on our way. You have done much to get us this far and we thank you.
Here is our present status.
Status of Drafts of Responses to 134 Self-Study Questions (As of 8/23/15)
· Ready for review: 72
· Almost ready: 31
· On its way: 27
· Not yet: 4
We’ve accomplished so much together within one short year, and we look forward to continuing this work with you in the next phase of our self-study journey. Here are some Fall milestones and next steps:
Our biggest challenge right now is prepping for the publication of our Accreditation Self-Study report, to be submitted for printing on December 1st. Brian Johnson is also working on an iBook version of the report that has photos, videos, digital versions of documents we’ve been asked to collect--a virtual version of the “evidence rooms” from previous accreditations combined with the self-study report.
We’re also looking forward to welcoming our three Accreditation Self-Study Visiting Team Co-Chairs in September:
Dr. Harlan Lyso: Retired head of Seoul Foreign School (Convening Chair)
Dr. Robert Peters: Retired headmaster of Hanahauoli School (K-8)
Mr. Kevin Yaley: Head of Francis Parker School (Academy)
The main purpose of their September visit is to be of counsel and support as we complete our self-study document and plan for the March 13-17 accreditation visiting team’s time with us at Punahou.
There is lots of good work to be done this Fall. Jim, Emily, Paris, and our accreditation self-study steering committee request your continuing engagement in the self-study process. We have two particular asks for September and October:
The first is for volunteer readers to review 1 to 3 responses to self-study questions and provide us with feedback during the month of September. We currently have about 60 faculty, staff, administration, student and parent volunteers--it would be great if we could double that number! We know how busy you are and therefore promise to keep our review requests manageable.
The second ask is for your support in the month of October. We will be asking everyone to review the summative questions from each of our main accreditation document sections and fill in a quick survey that basically asks, “Does the response sound like us?” and “What conversations would you like to continue?” The first question is a final quadruple check on the authenticity of our responses. And Holly will share a little about our hopes related to the question, “What conversations would you like to continue?”
As my colleagues have already emphasized, your contributions to this work have given birth to a self-study that belongs to all of us, and that has and will continue to serve all of you in your work as dedicated, self-reflective professionals. This big O represents all of us, OUR Mission, OUR whole school and OUR institutional self-study - which has already ignited a visible cultural habit of self-reflection that we hope will be a self-propagating, living practice in our community in the years ahead.
So, we wanted to share the good news with you that the self-study doesn't end in March when our visiting committee leaves our campus. Our school has already actively embraced the true spirit of this work, and as we continue to do so this year, we will give lasting roots to a community-wide attitude of open communication for growth that keeps itself alive because it is clear that such work is useful and gratifying for all of us. We hope the self-study concept will continue to evolve into a K-12, continuous growth mindset process that remains active throughout the coming 6 years when our next accreditation will take place in 2023. In the future we will, perhaps, no longer need a small committee of individuals to research and build engagement in this kind of work, because it will have taken root, and flight, in all of our minds and hands and hearts.
We, as your self-study team, want to echo the gratitude shown in the video of student voices that you just watched. Me ka ha’aha’a, we thank you for your thoughtfulness, candor, growth mindset, and continued work that ultimately benefit the students of Punahou. We have learned through the self-study process that having deep roots doesn't mean Punahou is unmoving and frozen, and that soaring into an innovative future doesn't mean our School is adrift. The Punahou you have described for us has the best of both worlds: roots and wings – staying grounded and taking flight – are, it turns out, the perfect metaphors to describe the ongoing life and work of our school.
It is so amazing that as a whole school we have come so far in the span of a year. Through your involvement in this self-study, you shared your strong dedication to always grow and soar. We thank you for all the many ways you have participated and will continue to participate--in focus groups, dessert dialogues, by answering surveys, continuing discussions, gathering student insights, taking and submitting hundreds of photos, as you see here, on “A” Day at Punahou, reading our emails and promptly answering our requests for information, participating and adding to the self study Engage page, tweeting, willingly meeting with us to clarify and inform, graciously welcoming Holly and Sheryl on the Anthropology Walk from kindergarten to the Academy, for being ever so focused and committed on your professional development days. And in these multitude of ways, always embracing this self-study as a positive opportunity to grow as a community to improve the lives of our students.
And through this participation, your input has been so valuable as the 134 self-study responses are formulated.
At this time last year there were zero responses to our self-study questions. And as you can see, we are now well on our way. You have done much to get us this far and we thank you.
Here is our present status.
Status of Drafts of Responses to 134 Self-Study Questions (As of 8/23/15)
· Ready for review: 72
· Almost ready: 31
· On its way: 27
· Not yet: 4
We’ve accomplished so much together within one short year, and we look forward to continuing this work with you in the next phase of our self-study journey. Here are some Fall milestones and next steps:
Our biggest challenge right now is prepping for the publication of our Accreditation Self-Study report, to be submitted for printing on December 1st. Brian Johnson is also working on an iBook version of the report that has photos, videos, digital versions of documents we’ve been asked to collect--a virtual version of the “evidence rooms” from previous accreditations combined with the self-study report.
We’re also looking forward to welcoming our three Accreditation Self-Study Visiting Team Co-Chairs in September:
Dr. Harlan Lyso: Retired head of Seoul Foreign School (Convening Chair)
Dr. Robert Peters: Retired headmaster of Hanahauoli School (K-8)
Mr. Kevin Yaley: Head of Francis Parker School (Academy)
The main purpose of their September visit is to be of counsel and support as we complete our self-study document and plan for the March 13-17 accreditation visiting team’s time with us at Punahou.
There is lots of good work to be done this Fall. Jim, Emily, Paris, and our accreditation self-study steering committee request your continuing engagement in the self-study process. We have two particular asks for September and October:
The first is for volunteer readers to review 1 to 3 responses to self-study questions and provide us with feedback during the month of September. We currently have about 60 faculty, staff, administration, student and parent volunteers--it would be great if we could double that number! We know how busy you are and therefore promise to keep our review requests manageable.
The second ask is for your support in the month of October. We will be asking everyone to review the summative questions from each of our main accreditation document sections and fill in a quick survey that basically asks, “Does the response sound like us?” and “What conversations would you like to continue?” The first question is a final quadruple check on the authenticity of our responses. And Holly will share a little about our hopes related to the question, “What conversations would you like to continue?”
As my colleagues have already emphasized, your contributions to this work have given birth to a self-study that belongs to all of us, and that has and will continue to serve all of you in your work as dedicated, self-reflective professionals. This big O represents all of us, OUR Mission, OUR whole school and OUR institutional self-study - which has already ignited a visible cultural habit of self-reflection that we hope will be a self-propagating, living practice in our community in the years ahead.
So, we wanted to share the good news with you that the self-study doesn't end in March when our visiting committee leaves our campus. Our school has already actively embraced the true spirit of this work, and as we continue to do so this year, we will give lasting roots to a community-wide attitude of open communication for growth that keeps itself alive because it is clear that such work is useful and gratifying for all of us. We hope the self-study concept will continue to evolve into a K-12, continuous growth mindset process that remains active throughout the coming 6 years when our next accreditation will take place in 2023. In the future we will, perhaps, no longer need a small committee of individuals to research and build engagement in this kind of work, because it will have taken root, and flight, in all of our minds and hands and hearts.