November Crunch
Today marks the last day of November and for many of our students that will come as a relief. Several calendar issues conspired against some of our most active students this year thereby switching the month into overdrive. The first trimester ended on the Friday before Thanksgiving, and most classes had some culminating projects, tests or papers. There were several school events—Parent Preview, Barnes & Noble Book Fair, Grandparents Day, Choir Concerts, the start of Mock Trial—which demanded student performances or extra-curricular attention. And Parent Preview was scheduled a week later because it was a presidential election year. (Should I mention the election as another factor that wore us all out? Being in a “battleground” state was exhausting this year!) Meanwhile one of the few unfortunate aspects of having highly successful sports teams this year was that the teams played deep into the playoffs, which meant extra games played (mostly at night and/or on the weekends). While the tennis state tournament and the field hockey and soccer championships were incredible achievements, they also took a lot out of the students involved—not to mention the parents and fans!
And let us not forget one of the perennial stressors for our senior class: college applications. Early applications were way up this year, in part because more and more colleges and universities have added Early Action options. A majority of our students had to complete the bulk of their applications, including their all-important college essay, by either November 1 or November 15.
I also should mention that cold and flu season regularly rears its ugly head sometime in late October—and this year was no exception. Several students and faculty dealt (or are still dealing) with lingering illnesses.
All this while we were displaced into temporary facilities this year . . . a manageable but not exactly comforting experience. In short, I believe we had the perfect storm of factors to create a lot of extra stress and strain on students and teachers alike. No doubt parents heard some moaning and groaning and were rightfully concerned. I know I witnessed a real drop in energy and enthusiasm by mid-November. Despite the saving grace of generally warm weather, spirits were lagging into Thanksgiving break, which did, thankfully, seem to provide some much needed respite for all.
Several parents have asked me what our process is for managing our busy calendar. Are there checks and balances in place to ensure that things are not conspiring against particular students? The short answer is absolutely yes. We have numerous people with their eyes on the calendar, and meetings occur before and during the school year to examine the potential issues or conflicts. Judy Zinn is a calendar watchdog for the Upper School, making sure that major assignments do not pile up on any given day or days. Arts and athletics personnel also do their best not to step on each other’s toes, especially around major performances or games. Teachers who are asking something special of their students (performance, field trip, etc.) generally send “heads-up” alerts to their colleagues. Despite all that, however, we still have conflicts and periods of time that are over-busy for certain students. There are so many moving parts in a dynamic school like CA that some collisions are unavoidable.
Even amidst that reality, we have safeguards in place. For instance, a student is not expected to have as many as three major assignments due on the same day. If they do, they may request relief from the third one. They should communicate with their teachers and/or advisor when they know a busy time is upon them, looking for strategies for time management, or in some cases mediation between two conflicting interests. Most juniors and seniors learn to work these things out on their own. Sometimes, however, they need adult assistance or intervention, which is perfectly reasonable. Please know that anytime a student or parent feels as if a conflict does not have an obvious or satisfactory resolution, or if a student feels caught between adults, both of whom are telling them their particular class activity should take precedence, that administrators are there to help. Much of our time on a daily basis is spent troubleshooting; that’s one of the reasons we have principals, deans and counselors! Advisors or other trusted teachers can also play a pivotal role. Communication is the key to success. If that communication for any reason has broken down, let me know and I can help. We pride ourselves on being a busy and appropriately challenging environment for our students, but we are not trying to run them into the ground. Our students seek out and take advantage of the multitude of opportunities that we offer; occasionally they will find themselves on overload. We want them to do their best to work out those situations on their own through self-advocacy and effective communication, but in case they run into unexpected roadblocks, we are here to help.
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