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Cartersville parents visit with president
May 1, 2002 8:00 AM
By Stefan Eady - Faculty
On May 30, Valley View, an antebellum home built in the later 1840s and owned by Mary's husband, Bob Norton, and his sisters, Jan Norton Finger and Florence Norton Reisgies, was the site for the second consecutive year for the Cartersville Parent Gathering. “I’m hopeful that this event will become a Darlington tradition,” Mary Norton, gift officer for annual giving, said in her welcoming address to about 50 guests, nearly twice as many as attended the 2001 gathering.
The event is in response to requests by Cartersville parents to have an opportunity to get to know each other better as a significant constituency of the School. President David Hicks also takes this opportunity to talk to parents about School issues and to answer questions.
“Raising children has become increasingly difficult because of mounting distractions that they face,” Hicks said to the group. “Children are major consumers and most of what they are asked to consume is offensive and encourages attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that are antithetical to healthy growth.”
“Check out the media they watch—TV, computer games, music, CDs, MTV, movies, and commercials. Tobacco and alcohol are marketed to preteens, for example, to persuade them to identify with a particular brand because the manufacturers know that if they get them hooked when they’re young, they won’t be likely to switch brands when they’re older,” Hicks said.
“Our challenge as parents and as School administrators is to teach children how to think critically about what they are being persuaded to do,” he said. “Our mission isn’t to babysit or teach kids for the next test. We are charged with stimulating healthy growth in six areas—intellectual, spiritual, cultural, moral, physical, and social.”
“We’re trying to be another family to your children. This is a boarding school attitude that is an added advantage to our day kids,” he concluded.
In response to a couple of questions about the degree to which technology is incorporated into Darlington classrooms, Hicks said, “The current state of technology is such that students are bombarded with too much information to process, with much of that information being inaccurate or distorted. The School’s job is actually to slow the pace down and give kids a chance to catch up so that they can process the information and make meaning of it.”
“We’re emphasizing reading and writing in every class, even more than we did in the past. A real education consists of reflection, discussion, processing, and composition,” he said.
Concerning a question about the teacher retention rate, Hicks noted that it is not as good as last year. “We’re losing our first-year teachers to law school, and we’re losing two heads of house, which is disappointing. A couple of teachers are retiring, some have married and are leaving the area with their spouses, and some are leaving because we pay less than our competitors.”
This led to a question about how the Annual Fund is doing this year. “While our Annual Fund is very successful compared to other schools, the amount we have been able to raise has stayed flat for the past several years, probably because of the state of the economy and because the number of contributors has been declining,” Hicks said. “We are encouraged that this year the number of contributors is up; however, the amount of money raised has not increased.”
Some parents expressed how much they like the uniforms that Lower School students now wear and asked whether uniforms will be incorporated into Middle School and Upper School. "The House Senate is studying our current dress code right now and will give us proposed changes shortly," Hicks said. Other parents talked about the importance of giving Upper School students, in particular, choices about what they wear, but noted that it is part of the educational process for them to learn what is appropriate to wear.
The event is in response to requests by Cartersville parents to have an opportunity to get to know each other better as a significant constituency of the School. President David Hicks also takes this opportunity to talk to parents about School issues and to answer questions.
“Raising children has become increasingly difficult because of mounting distractions that they face,” Hicks said to the group. “Children are major consumers and most of what they are asked to consume is offensive and encourages attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that are antithetical to healthy growth.”
“Check out the media they watch—TV, computer games, music, CDs, MTV, movies, and commercials. Tobacco and alcohol are marketed to preteens, for example, to persuade them to identify with a particular brand because the manufacturers know that if they get them hooked when they’re young, they won’t be likely to switch brands when they’re older,” Hicks said.
“Our challenge as parents and as School administrators is to teach children how to think critically about what they are being persuaded to do,” he said. “Our mission isn’t to babysit or teach kids for the next test. We are charged with stimulating healthy growth in six areas—intellectual, spiritual, cultural, moral, physical, and social.”
“We’re trying to be another family to your children. This is a boarding school attitude that is an added advantage to our day kids,” he concluded.
In response to a couple of questions about the degree to which technology is incorporated into Darlington classrooms, Hicks said, “The current state of technology is such that students are bombarded with too much information to process, with much of that information being inaccurate or distorted. The School’s job is actually to slow the pace down and give kids a chance to catch up so that they can process the information and make meaning of it.”
“We’re emphasizing reading and writing in every class, even more than we did in the past. A real education consists of reflection, discussion, processing, and composition,” he said.
Concerning a question about the teacher retention rate, Hicks noted that it is not as good as last year. “We’re losing our first-year teachers to law school, and we’re losing two heads of house, which is disappointing. A couple of teachers are retiring, some have married and are leaving the area with their spouses, and some are leaving because we pay less than our competitors.”
This led to a question about how the Annual Fund is doing this year. “While our Annual Fund is very successful compared to other schools, the amount we have been able to raise has stayed flat for the past several years, probably because of the state of the economy and because the number of contributors has been declining,” Hicks said. “We are encouraged that this year the number of contributors is up; however, the amount of money raised has not increased.”
Some parents expressed how much they like the uniforms that Lower School students now wear and asked whether uniforms will be incorporated into Middle School and Upper School. "The House Senate is studying our current dress code right now and will give us proposed changes shortly," Hicks said. Other parents talked about the importance of giving Upper School students, in particular, choices about what they wear, but noted that it is part of the educational process for them to learn what is appropriate to wear.
