February 2011

At a recent faculty meeting, teachers were lamenting about the poor quality of writing they were receiving on homework assignments.  “Our language has been degraded by the computer,” said our English instructor.

My daughter, who is living in Kenya, writes me every week on her computer in this mystical code they call computer language.  I have an eight year-old granddaughter who translates the text for me.  Spelling rules are consistently ignored and I am hard pressed to identify the subject and the predicate.

Further discussion revealed that I wasn’t alone in feeling I had been disenfranchised by this generation.  I had a choice, get with it or get left behind.  A couple of weeks later I was delivering SAT forms to seven students.  The form has a section that protects the student’s identity.  It requires that the student copy a statement in cursive and sign it with black or blue ink.  This is to prevent someone from taking the test, posing as someone else.

I quickly realized that not one of these students could perform this task.  I had to write the statement cursively for them to use as a guide.  It required a full teaching period to get the task completed.  I asked staff about the quality of homework that had been handwritten and found the same types of issues:  the writing was difficult to read, lacked complete sentences, contained little or no capitalization, punctuation errors and an enormous amount of spelling mistakes.

After several meetings devoted to this issue, we developed a new homework requirement that insists on readability.  If you can’t read it, return it.  Spelling errors carry a one-point deduction, lack of capitalization costs another point and incomplete sentences are penalized.  The dreaded red pen will be applied liberally.  After a couple of weeks, I spent very little time reading homework and now the mechanics are improving.  Perhaps civilization and literature may survive after all!

Because of our new concept “back to basics”, we have added a new requirement to our curriculum.  All students will be required to take a class on cursive writing so they can write a check instead of punching a pin number.

We begin this summer so look for the letter from your child written in cursive, spelled correctly, correct grammar and of course, readable.

January 2011

For years we have graduated students who go on to higher education and graduate as part of the American Dream.  Into the world of work they go, renting and furnishing an apartment, buying that new car and of course that necessary wardrobe that guarantees success.

Within five years, 42% will owe more than a half year’s salary and their wallets, on average, will contain six or more easy to get credit cards that carry a 24% APR.  Soon, minimum payments are necessary to make the monthly payments and it will take over 30 years to erase the debt.   Young people often reflect what their parents have been through but the need to have what you want when you want it is overwhelming.  Credit ratings tumble and economic tragedy follows. 

Our curriculum fails to prepare students for the daily economic factors of life, therefore we have added another required course for all students to prepare them for the real world.  Personal Finance is now required for all students.  Through simulations they experience making a budget and living within their incomes.  They learn about living debt free and how to prepare for emergencies and their eventual retirement.  They will attend seminars sponsored by the Credit Union League of Maine to test their skills.  In addition, they will learn how to prepare their income tax filings, both the EZ file and the long form, from an accountant and tax preparer on our staff. 

Life is difficult enough and the knowledge this course will provide may save them a life of financial misery.  Hopefully, this new course will help them to hang on to the economic success they will have earned.

November 2010

The leaves have fallen and the chill in the air are reminders that the fall is ending.  The first quarter was a very active one in the Education Department.  We have been reviewing our curriculum for ways to improve the quality of education and the manner in which we deliver it to our students. 

A particularly troublesome problem has been gaining accurate information about the learning levels of new students.  We currently do diagnostic testing for math and reading levels, but that takes time and delays the time when we could get accurate information about students.  To improve the situation, we have entered into a contract to train our personnel to administer and interpret NWEA testing (http://www.nwea.org).

The test, which takes four hours to administer, does not compare scores to other students in the country.  The test will reveal the skill that a student lacks that is found in the national and state standards for all students.  In other words, we discover what is needed and develop a plan to correct the learning situation.

"Back to Basics" is a familiar theme in this country and simply put, we take students from the point of what they know and bring them forward for as long as we have them and eliminate gaps in their learning.  Over one third of all entering freshmen in our country's colleges are required to take remedial courses in Math and English for which they do not receive credit.

We shall conduct our first tests in January and hopefully start the new semester with a better assessment of our students.

We have added an advanced writing course and a Basic English Grammar course for the second semester.

I am currently preparing recommendations to add a community service component to our program and a required personal finance course before a student graduates.

We have recently formed a relationship with the Paris Town Library which enables our students to have access to local and state library services.

I want to wish you a happy and safe holiday season and look forward to meeting some of you during this season.

Warm regards,

William A. Foss

Headmaster