Winged Ox Summer 2017
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ST. Luke’S SCHOOL 487 Hudson Street New York, NY 10014 212.924.5960 • stlukeschool.org SUMMER 2017 TALES FROM ST. Luke’S SCHOOL was raised in a politically active family. I spent my childhood stuffing envelopes in Citizenship various storefront offices, traipsing behind my mother as she knocked on doors, I and shifting impatiently from foot to foot as she worked polls on election day. I vividly remember my mother mourning the death of Adlai Stevenson in 1965. “We have lost one of our great statesmen,” she said. “He was more than a politician. He was a citizen!” Recently, I decided to revisit my mother’s fascination with Ad- lai Stevenson and began reading some of his speeches. Comfort and inspiration were to be found. “As citizens of this democra- cy,” Stevenson said, “you are the rulers and the ruled, the law- givers and the law-abiders, the beginning and the end.” Stevenson was identifying one path to lead children towards The apex of this effort, perhaps, was the Grade 8 citizenship an understanding of civil discourse and civic opportunity that project. Working in groups, students were asked to research transcend periods of dissent and discord. The St. Luke’s School and propose solutions for issues they had never experienced, Mission Statement offers another, calling upon us to be “… re- and possibly never would. They worked with each other and sponsible, caring members of one global, human community.” mentors in the community to delve deeply into the unknown, confident that they could offer understanding and support. Our focus for much of this year has been to embrace the skills, The event culminated in a written paper, an oral presentation, attitudes, and behaviors of engaged, values-driven citizenship. and questions and answers. We taught children skills of self-advocacy so they could learn the difference between arguing for and disparaging against. As members of the St. Luke’s School community, we ask stu- We asked children to engage deeply with perspectives dents to both honor and challenge rules, to abide by and gener- other than their own so they could see difference as an ate laws, and to serve a greater good. In short, we aim for our opportunity and not a threat. We encouraged them students, and for each of us, to be the beginning and the end of to take intellectual risks as they explored new ideas. the world to which we aspire. This edition of The Wingèd Ox celebrates a year of All in all, not a bad way to spend a school year. growth and challenge and honors the hard work and dedication of our faculty and staff, the intel- BART BALDWIN lectual and moral courage of our students, and Head of School the compassion and conviction of our parents. NEWS & THE ANNUAL REPORT Building Engaged Citizens ENGAGING COMPASSIONATE CITIZENSHIP IN GRADE 8 Upper School English, Social Studies, Technology, Library, and Diversity Departments In their final trimester at St. Luke’s, Grade 8 students complete STUDENT REFLECTIONS a project that spans their English, social studies, and technol- “Our project is about Islamophobia in New York City. In order ogy courses. The Grade 8 Citizenship Project aims to develop to fix this problem we must get a message out into the world a social awareness that drives students to be active, engaged that Muslims are humans too. Their only difference is their citizens who analyze and reflect on society's values. Ultimately, prayer; they still eat, drink, sleep, and enjoy life like us.” we hope to inspire our graduates to work for a just society that embodies the standards of St. Luke's School. “My research has been mainly focused on solutions to help stop homelessness. I was surprised that most homelessness in The project requires students to do an in-depth study of a demo- NYC is a result of high rents, which is why NYC has such a graphic that is different than theirs. Demographics may include large population of homeless people. I also learned that most Muslims, public school students, unionized workers, homeless solutions for homelessness revolve around trying to house a people, or farmers. Students are put into groups and assigned family rather than one person.” their demographics. As a team, they conduct extensive research. They work with both primary and secondary sources, conduct “I was assigned the topic of unionized workers. We had our interviews, listen to guest speakers, and go on field visits. Fac- first phone interview last week, and it went extremely well. ulty support students' research processes and accompany them Over the past couple of days I have learned a lot about col- on interviews and field visits. Additionally, School Librarian, Ms. lective bargaining, and the pros and cons of being a part of Eisman, and a representative from the New York Public Library a union. These pros and cons may be different depending on assist students in learning library skills, including the use of people's situations and points of view.” online databases. Ms. Stewart, Manager of Diversity and Inclu- sion, supports the project by providing curricular input that encourages the students' cultural awareness and understanding and by doing outreach that devel- ops our list of contacts for given demographics. Based on the group findings, each student writes an MLA formatted research essay. Then, using de- sign thinking methodologies, Director of Technol- ogy, Ms. Zelechow, helps each group create tech- nology that models innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for the demographic groups they have studied. Finally, the groups present their proj- ects to the St. Luke’s community. 2 | The Wingèd Ox COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY TO SELF-ADVOCACY READ TO FEED Jessica Kristan, Grade 3 Teacher Elon Rosenberg, Grade 4 Teacher Communication is the key to self-advocacy. This is a phrase the Grade 4 has been working on a community service project Grade 3 students are coming to live by. In our social emotional called “Read to Feed.” It is intended to help them understand learning (SEL) lessons, we’ve been talking about the difference how their efforts can benefit not only themselves but also those between passive, aggressive, and assertive communication. All in need. Grade 3 and Grade 4 worked with The Father’s Hearts communication can be less stressful and more successful if we Ministries to prepare and donate “meal bags” for families in understand the nuanced differences between these three styles need in our city. This is an organization that provides a soup of speaking. When we speak in an aggressive way, we elicit ag- kitchen and food pantry in the East Village. We first heard gressive and defensive behavior in return. When we behave about this wonderful group from Grade 3 teacher, Ms. Chiu, in a passive way, our voices are not heard and our needs are who has been a frequent volunteer there. The students read not met. So instead, we must be assertive when we speak to articles and looked at websites to see how poverty affects our each other. We show assertive body language by grounding city. We hope that they also develop the idea that poverty does our feet, keeping our heads up and our shoulders straight, and not always mean being homeless on the streets, but it can also maintaining eye contact. We are clear, direct, polite, and firm mean having difficulty paying for food, rent/housing, health in our language. We also are thinking, “I have the power and supplies, medicine, clothing, and other items they might take courage to ask for this. I am strong and fair.” This is a difficult for granted. We hope to have volunteers from The Father’s skill to learn, and many adults still struggle with this idea. Hearts Ministries speak to the students during class time. The Father’s Heart Ministries models how being engaged in one’s We practiced speaking in an assertive voice while role playing religion is also about the actions you take to help the world and certain situations in which we might find ourselves. For ex- the community around you. In Judaism, for instance, this is ample: A classmate keeps joking with you by trying to trip you as called Tikkun Olam which means “repairing the world.” you walk up the stairs. It might have been funny at first to both of you, but now it’s definitely not funny to you anymore. However, For this project, the Grade 4 students collected pledges for your classmate keeps doing it. We learned how to the amount of chapter books they read from the begin- self advocate and stop this type of behavior by be- ning of February to the beginning of spring break. With ing direct, clear, and honest. Equipped with this the money collected from the pledges, the students went kind of language, we can stick up for ourselves on a grocery shopping field trip to gather healthy goods to do- Grade 3 students and others when the need arises – whether that is nate. They then organized this food into “meals” for families in practice assertive communication in our immediate community or in a larger social need. These meal packages also included encouraging pictures context. We are gaining the confidence to ask for drawn by the children. Our goal at St. Luke’s is to help our stu- what we need and what we think is just. This year, dents to become caring and proactive citizens who realize that we will continue to practice conflict resolution and they can make a difference. problem solving in our SEL lessons. Summer 2017 | 3 Living Our Standards PARENTS AS PARTNERS IN SOCIAL JUSTICE WORK Susan Yao, Upper School Humanities Teacher Parents and teachers traditionally educate children in completely separate spheres: life lessons are learned at home; academic lessons in the classroom.