AOSR News May—June 2004 WWW.AOSR.ORG “Don’t Know Much about History… Don’t Know Much about Science Books….” By Dr. Larry Dougherty, Headmaster When I was growing up there was a popular rock and roll song with these lyrics, and many more about what we did not know, mostly because the singers were in love. Recent articles have alleged that there is a “growing historical ignorance” among teenagers. According to Professor Sam Wineburg of Stanford University in a recent article in the Journal of American History, American students have been performing poorly on history tests since the first record of a standardized history test in 1917. According to his research, students scored equally poorly in 1943, 1976, 1987 and 1994. “A sober look at a century of history testing provides no evidence for the ‘gradual disintegration of cultural memory’ or a growing historical ignorance,” he stated in his article entitled “Crazy for History.” Wineburg demonstrates that the type of multiple choice standardized tests that have been used to measure student knowledge is the source of this low level of achievement. By their very nature, these examinations are de- signed to create a bell curve. Automatically half of the students will be above the mean and half below. The mean (Continued on page 3) Turn Off TV! Turn On a Healthier Lifestyle By Dr. Beth Pfannl, Principal Every year the third week of April is National TV Turnoff Week in the United States. This initiative, dedi- cated to raising awareness about the impact that television has on children and adults, celebrated its 10th anniversary last month. It may be appropriate to put some of their well-researched advice into practice here in Italy! Why not take a seven-day break from TV? Reclaim time to talk, play, read, exercise, create, dream -- and live in this wonderful place and time! Turning off the TV, even if it is only for one week, is not only a great way to im- prove your health and quality of life: it also makes you realize how much time you actually spend sitting in front of the television set, Nintendo, Play Station, X-Box, etc. Does that sound impossible? Not with the students and parents I have met here in Rome! They have so many other things to do! (Continued on page 4) Contents Message from the 1, 3 3rd Q Honor Roll 11 HS News 20-21 Notes from the 27 Headmaster Field Principal’s Column 1, 4 All-School News 12-15 HS Awards 22 Rome ‘N’ About 28 PPAC 5 Pre-K News 15 News from the 23 Bon Appetito 29 Counselor PTO Corner 6, 7 ES News 16 Talking with Teachers 24 Il Foro 30 Tara Rosso Mayfair 8, 9 News from Rome 17 Sports Briefs 25 June Calendar 31 1 Teacher’s Bulletin 10 MS News 18-19 More Sports 26 May Calendar 32 Board NO CLASS DAYS Letter from the Editor I have a sign posted on the refrigerator Memorial Day at my home: “The object is not ‘to sweep the Monday, May 31 floor’….The object is ‘to clean the floor’!” My parents had it up on their refrigerator, too. Italian Holiday Students do a great deal of “sweeping” Wednesday, June 2 throughout the school year, and sometimes I know it might feel to them that it is just endless process, but then comes this exciting time of year with finals and then graduation right around the cor- SUMMER VACATION STARTS JUNE 12 ner. In a way, next month’s graduation issue is the most im- portant news of the school year. It announces publicly that our Admission packets were due April 7. Please return children have passed the requirements laid out before them, ful- your forms quickly, if you haven’t. All of the school’s filling all the requirements, and are moving on. Finally, the floor planning is based on this enrollment information and a is spotless. Job well done! The graduation issue of the Falcon Flyer is published on good school plan benefits all of our children. the day of HS graduation , June 11, because the award winners do not know of their award until that morning, and we don’t want to ruin the surprise. We know that folks have a lot else to think about that day and might not pick up a copy of this newsletter, so PTO Partners we are making special arrangements to send it out by e-mail. Please, take a minute and make sure that the school has your cor- Carol Atwood [email protected] rect email address ([email protected])! Susan Berton [email protected] The “news” that we report each month --- the student Julie Deptula [email protected] writings, sporting events, the drama and music productions, the Grazia Deulus [email protected] art work, the events designed for and by the students—is wonder- Lisa Finerty [email protected] ful. After a year of doing the Falcon Flyer, Mariela Ortiz and I Susan Haight [email protected] realize that this is such a creative group of children who, before Francesca Kelly [email protected] our eyes, develop understandings of the world that are profound. Laura Rumpf [email protected] Look at the 7th grade poems on page 19, Patricia Kelly-Schmutz’s Monique Smits [email protected] achievement on page 10, Daniel Deulus’s story on page 28, and Ana Volk [email protected] David Ortiz’s description of soccer around the world on page 26, Moshira Zelenka [email protected] among the other insightful, personal reflections. The students here know who they are. They are accept their differences and As always, please call if we can help with info, recom- each others. They are curious. They recognize the gifts they mendations, advice, — or a lunch date! have been given. We are fortunate. AOSR parents, faculty and administration can commend themselves that these children, after this year together, have more Important Phone Numbers ability — and sensibility — to be leaders than they had 10 months ago. School Number: 06-334-381 So, with Mayfair (the school’s biggest fundraiser) this Fax: 06-3326-2608 weekend, and May being Teacher Appreciation month, there is a oHeadmaster: Larry Dougherty 06-3343-8331 great deal to be thankful for and appreciative of. It’s almost time Headmaster’s Secretary : Domenica Losani 06-3343-8331 to put away the brooms and admire your work. Principal: Beth Pfannl 06-3343-8326 (Oops… missed a spot) Lisa Finerty Principal’s Secretary: Alessandra Cozzi 06-3343-8326 Admissions: Don Levine 06-3343-8300 Editor Reception/Secretary: Joanne Hoberg 06-3343-8300 Financial Consultant: Elisa Bruno 06-3343-8338 Boarding/Finance: Estelle Dougherty 06-3343-8339 Guidance Counselor: Donna Ross 06-3343-8327 Graduation/June Issue Nurse: Diane Cullen-Moore 06-3343-8321 After School Activities: Christine Hogan 06-3343-8320 2003—2004 Margaret Ciuffreda Coming Next MS Activities Coord.: Angela Santangelo 06-3343-8336 Resource Room: Karen Lee 06-3343-8302 To make comments, suggestions, Records Office: 06-3343-8315 or to submit an article to the Falcon Flyer, please send an PTO/Boutique 06-3343-8322 email to [email protected]. or call editor Lisa Finerty at 06-4782-6192. We prefer documents to be sent as an attach- All telephone and internet address corrections should be ment in WORD. Article submissions may be left also in the emailed to [email protected]. Flyer box located in the Principal’s office. Via Cassia 811 00189 Rome, Italy Next Deadline 6-7-04. Internet: www.aosr.org 2 (Continued from page 1) Dr. Dougherty: “Don’t Know Much About…. scores of students throughout the century are similar because the tests all are designed on the same basis. Pundits, reporters and politicians who write about the good old days in education are probably too young to remember the good old days. As I get older and older, I remember that some of the methods used in the past to keep test scores high were discriminatory and anti-democratic. For example, in one district in which I worked in the last century, the school counselors did not allow students to take the Scholastic Aptitude Tests unless they had a B aver- age on their report cards. Students who might do poorly on the examination were discouraged from taking the ex- amination. The original population of students on which the SAT examination was standardized came from high schools and private preparatory schools, all of which were preparing students for college. In the late seventies and early eighties politicians pointed out that New Hampshire had the lowest per pupil expenditure in the U.S. and above average SAT scores. On further analysis, very few students in New Hampshire actually took the SAT examination and the three large, exclusive, and highly expensive private schools in New Hampshire—Exeter, Andover and St. Paul’s—had enough students taking the SAT to significantly increase the average scores. The reality was that the students from among the most expensive schools in the U.S. were causing the SAT scores in New Hampshire to be very high. Statistical facts can be misleading. From the perspective of many years of observing students and schools, I believe today’s students at our school know a great deal more about history, science and many other things than past generations of students. Sci- ence instruction in biology has been revolutionized in the last 15 years, for example, based on the ever growing body of scientific research and the rapid dissemination of these discoveries throughout the world.