A teacher noticed that a boy seemed a bit off, so he approached him and inquired if anything was on his mind. The boy confided that earlier, when arguing about an issue with a classmate, he had not been respectful of his peer’s views. Instead, he had belittled them. When the teacher asked this boy how that had made him feel and what he could do to make it better, the boy replied, “Not good,” and “I can go back to him, apologize, and let him know that even if I don’t agree with him, he has a right to his views, and I respect them.”
Raising and educating the next generation of boys who aspire to be good men is an exercise in optimism. As educators and parents, we are in the “business of hope." Future oriented, we are always thinking about how best to educate boys not for yesterday, but for today and tomorrow. For tomorrow’s world, we know our boys will need not only to master the three Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic) but also several Cs - those skills that rest entirely within the human domain, such as critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, curiosity, and compassion.
We are seven years into our thinking about the Teaching Boys Initiative (TBI) at Saint David's School, which began with the mission of the school and was driven by the dual imperatives to capture and share the wisdom of our master teachers, and to ensure that we focused on the evidence-based science of
how boys learn best in each of the subjects and disciplines we teach and
how best to teach them. This effort led to the development of our customized
Saint David's Framework for Best Practices in Teaching and Learning for Boys, which forms the foundation for our school's fully embedded professional development program, TBI—supporting and engaging our faculty from their first day at the school forward.
One aspect of TBI involves our teachers collaborating on inquiry work in specific areas of focus. Currently, we are in the second year of a three-year self study on accountability involving the participation of 12 faculty members. This study was an outgrowth of our collaboration with TBI Visiting Scholar Dr. Michael Reichert, who along with Dr. Richard Hawley, has conducted four global studies on boys’ learning. Results of these studies demonstrate how essential the relational dimension to teaching is. For boys to truly learn, they must feel known, valued, and cared for. When they do, boys will rise to meet success in a highly challenging academic environment like the one at Saint David’s. In effect, boys don't learn subjects, they learn teachers.
When there is a relational strain between a teacher and student, the consequences can negatively impact boys' learning. Interestingly, Reichert's and Hawley's studies also showed that when such relational breakdowns occur, boys do not try to fix it themselves. Rather, they rely upon the adults in their lives to do so.
This sparked a question: "How do we help boys be accountable, to take responsibility for their actions and be proactive in repairing the relationship?" Even though boys may not naturally move to repair broken relationships, we can’t leave it there. Boys shouldn’t be “given a pass” because it’s not something they intuitively or instinctively do. Instead, we must teach it.
It quickly became apparent that not only would this “accountability work” provide boys with agency, it would also promote their moral development, because accountability entails self reflection and introspection, vital dimensions of moral formation. Accountability, then, can help young men heed their inner calling to become better people. In this way, it becomes a moral invitation, empowering boys to take responsibility for their actions. As our Director of Teaching and Learning Jamie MacNeille has noted, "Against a cultural backdrop of self-centeredness and superficiality, this work appeals to a boy's spiritual dimension, helping him envision the path between who he is and who he is called to become." It also aligns seamlessly with our school-year theme excel, for to excel is not an endpoint where perfection is achieved, but rather a life-long journey of continued learning and improvement in the quest to achieve the good.
At our recent November PA Meeting, Mrs. MacNeille; Research Coordinator, Dr. Tori Gilbert; and Dr. Reichert updated our parent body on the progress of the faculty’s work. Certain themes have emerged thus far, including:
- Accountability entails a balance of consistency, connection, and confidence.
- High standards are important to maintain, but boys must know that we are all on the same team, with a shared agreement on approach and parental involvement.
- When boys get the chance to problem solve with support, the resulting agency provides gratification and moral growth.
- We all make mistakes as part of the learning and growing process, and the well-being of each boy is prioritized always.
- When adults express confidence in a boy's ability to take ownership of his actions and choices, the boy develops a confidence of his own.
For this second year of the study, we are inviting parents to participate in a series of focus groups facilitated by Dr. Reichert to obtain their perspectives and insights. In the third year, we will include focus groups and surveys with the boys themselves.
As Dr. Reichert has noted, our school's focus on accountability is the basis for developing a theory of boys' moral learning that goes beyond student achievement (although the two are interdependent). At Saint David's, guiding boys to aspire to be good men is a shared mission we live every day, across our community, enabling our boys to grow in spirit, character, intellect, and strength to discover their voice and pursue their purpose.
