NewsUpper SchoolPre-K to 8
Goals 2000 to Strengthen Boarding Program, Enrich Day Experience, and Broaden Technology
Feb 1, 2000 8:00 AM
By Stefan Eady - Faculty
President David V. Hicks announced at the winter meeting of the board of trustees Friday, Jan. 14, a series of initiatives (Goals 2000) affecting student life, admission, communications, and curriculum.
Since last August, faculty, students, parents, alumni, and other schools have been consulted in an effort to produce Goals 2000. Parent discussion groups during fall Parents Weekend, alumni group discussions during Alumni Weekend, student Town Hall meetings and student polls, faculty small-group sessions during Faculty Orientation and surveys during the fall, and thousands of e-mails, letters, and phone calls have been devoted to the development of Goals 2000 and to ensure a broad base of informed support for the following changes:
• The creation of six houses out of the four existing dormitories;
• Increased responsibility, stature, and compensation for the six new heads of house;
• Membership of all faculty and day as well as boarding students in the houses;
• Establishment of an extensive student prefect system;
• The development of student-led and house-based programs of community service, intramural competition, performance and social activity, and life skills instruction;
• Student membership on the Discipline Committee, as well as on the House Council, Curriculum Committee, and Alumni Council;
• A longer and more effective period of student orientation.
• Drug screening as a part of every Upper School student’s annual physical examination.
• Required access to a computer and the Internet at home for students in certain grades.
• Development of on-line programs and courses, some in collaboration with local colleges and international schools.
• The dissemination of critical information through the Web rather than through printed publications.
In the upcoming weeks, many decisions will be made, as mandated by the action steps of Goals 2000: heads of houses will be named, rules and regulations evaluated, and technology strategies articulated. The articles on pages 1-3 of this issue of Lakeside Lines address the three goals, their respective action steps, and their implications. Additional information will be published on Darlington’s web site (www.darlington.rome.ga.us) as news develops.
House System Will Inculcate Sense of Pride, Belonging
Anyone who has read the new, best-selling children’s stories about Harry Potter will instantly see a kinship between the dormitories for up-and-coming wizards in the trilogy and Darlington’s new house system. Each of the four dormitories in J.K. Rowling’s novels, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, has its own personality and traditions, and as the houses compete against one another for prizes in sports and games, a sense of pride and ownership permeates its student members.
The author is British, and the model for the house system outlined by David Hicks and his senior administrative staff, quite unknown to America, is old hat to Britain, which practically invented the boarding school and whose oldest institutions, such as Eton and Rugby, antedate Exeter and Andover by centuries.
Beginning next academic year, Darlington’s resident campus will be divided into six houses each composed of around 36 boarding students and approximately the same number of day students. To accomplish this, Wilcox and Trippeer Halls will be divided into two houses each. The six houses will be led by six heads of house, who will have few responsibilities other than maintaining the most vibrant culture possible in their houses. As in the Potter books, the houses will create their own identities, traditions, and character, and the heads of house and their student leaders, to be called prefects (as many as 20 to 30 campus-wide each year), will make this happen.
Student life will revolve around the houses, because all Upper School faculty and all Upper School day students will also be assigned a house. “Anything that happens outside the classroom, athletics, and the arts is the domain of the house,” Hicks explained.
Once students are admitted into Darlington (and the heads of house will play an important role in the admission process), they will be assigned a house where they will remain for all the years of their Darlington experience, and where they will establish relationships with their head of house and the other adults working there. From the faculty associated with their house, students will be assigned an adviser.
“We believe in the importance of relationships,” Hicks said. “What sticks in the hearts and minds of our alumni are the relationships they developed while at Darlington. These take time. We believe that by bringing more stability to our living arrangements, we will strengthen this dimension of the Darlington experience.”
The head of house position will become one of the most important, well-respected, and well-compensated jobs at Darlington: “We want our teachers lined up wanting to head one of these houses,” Hicks said.
The houses will offer a range of activities and options open to students – day students too – ranging from Frisbee football and Ping-Pong to dances and debate – even Trivial Pursuit and Internet games.
“This is not just about boarding students,” Hicks emphasizes. “This will expose our day students to the richness of a high-quality boarding experience while expanding their opportunities for leadership and involvement in the school.”
“There is the possibility of building deep culture here through the house system,” Hicks added. “This is a living arrangement that boosts nearly everybody. The house system has a much higher chance of communicating Darlington’s motto than our current dormitory situation. Wisdom comes from experience, particularly the experience of living with others, being your brother’s keeper, having authority and dealing with the authority of others.”
Most important, Hicks said, is that “we want every student to feel he or she belongs and plays an important part at Darlington. When summer vacation ends, we want our students eager to get back to school.”
A Sign of Ownership: Students and Faculty Vote on Major Changes
Two major changes sought by the senior administrative staff were put to the vote Monday, Jan. 10.
The first item, on random drug testing, was narrowly defeated by faculty and students. The proposal resulted from the second goal of Goals 2000, which addresses drug and alcohol use among students. If passed, the proposition would have required all Upper School students and Middle and Upper School faculty to participate in professionally-administered school-underwritten random drug screenings, with regular, mandatory, family- or employee-billed testing for anyone with positive results on the random test. Positive results on a mandatory test would have resulted in immediate dismissal from school or loss of employment.
Prior to the vote, the senior staff made it clear that this proposed policy did not change the school’s existing drug policy, which results in dismissal for first violation of the drug policy. Instead, the senior staff emphasized random testing as a third prong in a three-prong strategy to eradicate drugs from Darlington’s campus: the no tolerance policy (those caught with drugs or under the influence of drugs are expelled) would remain; the Student Support Team would continue to work with those students referred confidentially to them for drug and alcohol counseling; and the random testing would give all students a further incentive to “say no” to drugs. Faculty were included in the testing proposal to create an atmosphere of solidarity with the students.
The senior staff, believing that random testing would only be effective with the buy-in of the entire campus community, put the proposal to a vote requiring a two-thirds majority to pass. The combined polling of the faculty and students resulted in 253 votes for and 154 votes against random testing, narrowly defeating the measure 62 percent to 38 percent.
A second item, on student participation on the Discipline Committee, passed by a wide margin. The proposition, to go into effect next year, calls for an overhauled Discipline Committee to be composed of six students and five faculty members, replacing the current all-faculty committee.
The purpose of a student-dominated committee is to make student behavior principally the responsibility of students. Faculty representation on the committee, to be chaired by the dean of students, will ensure that safeguards against hasty judgment or grave injustice remain in place. How members will be chosen has not yet been specified.
The item passed in faculty and student combined voting 321-88, or 78 percent for and 22 percent against.
Grades eight through eleven and all Middle and Upper School faculty voted in the referendum.
Since last August, faculty, students, parents, alumni, and other schools have been consulted in an effort to produce Goals 2000. Parent discussion groups during fall Parents Weekend, alumni group discussions during Alumni Weekend, student Town Hall meetings and student polls, faculty small-group sessions during Faculty Orientation and surveys during the fall, and thousands of e-mails, letters, and phone calls have been devoted to the development of Goals 2000 and to ensure a broad base of informed support for the following changes:
• The creation of six houses out of the four existing dormitories;
• Increased responsibility, stature, and compensation for the six new heads of house;
• Membership of all faculty and day as well as boarding students in the houses;
• Establishment of an extensive student prefect system;
• The development of student-led and house-based programs of community service, intramural competition, performance and social activity, and life skills instruction;
• Student membership on the Discipline Committee, as well as on the House Council, Curriculum Committee, and Alumni Council;
• A longer and more effective period of student orientation.
• Drug screening as a part of every Upper School student’s annual physical examination.
• Required access to a computer and the Internet at home for students in certain grades.
• Development of on-line programs and courses, some in collaboration with local colleges and international schools.
• The dissemination of critical information through the Web rather than through printed publications.
In the upcoming weeks, many decisions will be made, as mandated by the action steps of Goals 2000: heads of houses will be named, rules and regulations evaluated, and technology strategies articulated. The articles on pages 1-3 of this issue of Lakeside Lines address the three goals, their respective action steps, and their implications. Additional information will be published on Darlington’s web site (www.darlington.rome.ga.us) as news develops.
House System Will Inculcate Sense of Pride, Belonging
Anyone who has read the new, best-selling children’s stories about Harry Potter will instantly see a kinship between the dormitories for up-and-coming wizards in the trilogy and Darlington’s new house system. Each of the four dormitories in J.K. Rowling’s novels, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, has its own personality and traditions, and as the houses compete against one another for prizes in sports and games, a sense of pride and ownership permeates its student members.
The author is British, and the model for the house system outlined by David Hicks and his senior administrative staff, quite unknown to America, is old hat to Britain, which practically invented the boarding school and whose oldest institutions, such as Eton and Rugby, antedate Exeter and Andover by centuries.
Beginning next academic year, Darlington’s resident campus will be divided into six houses each composed of around 36 boarding students and approximately the same number of day students. To accomplish this, Wilcox and Trippeer Halls will be divided into two houses each. The six houses will be led by six heads of house, who will have few responsibilities other than maintaining the most vibrant culture possible in their houses. As in the Potter books, the houses will create their own identities, traditions, and character, and the heads of house and their student leaders, to be called prefects (as many as 20 to 30 campus-wide each year), will make this happen.
Student life will revolve around the houses, because all Upper School faculty and all Upper School day students will also be assigned a house. “Anything that happens outside the classroom, athletics, and the arts is the domain of the house,” Hicks explained.
Once students are admitted into Darlington (and the heads of house will play an important role in the admission process), they will be assigned a house where they will remain for all the years of their Darlington experience, and where they will establish relationships with their head of house and the other adults working there. From the faculty associated with their house, students will be assigned an adviser.
“We believe in the importance of relationships,” Hicks said. “What sticks in the hearts and minds of our alumni are the relationships they developed while at Darlington. These take time. We believe that by bringing more stability to our living arrangements, we will strengthen this dimension of the Darlington experience.”
The head of house position will become one of the most important, well-respected, and well-compensated jobs at Darlington: “We want our teachers lined up wanting to head one of these houses,” Hicks said.
The houses will offer a range of activities and options open to students – day students too – ranging from Frisbee football and Ping-Pong to dances and debate – even Trivial Pursuit and Internet games.
“This is not just about boarding students,” Hicks emphasizes. “This will expose our day students to the richness of a high-quality boarding experience while expanding their opportunities for leadership and involvement in the school.”
“There is the possibility of building deep culture here through the house system,” Hicks added. “This is a living arrangement that boosts nearly everybody. The house system has a much higher chance of communicating Darlington’s motto than our current dormitory situation. Wisdom comes from experience, particularly the experience of living with others, being your brother’s keeper, having authority and dealing with the authority of others.”
Most important, Hicks said, is that “we want every student to feel he or she belongs and plays an important part at Darlington. When summer vacation ends, we want our students eager to get back to school.”
A Sign of Ownership: Students and Faculty Vote on Major Changes
Two major changes sought by the senior administrative staff were put to the vote Monday, Jan. 10.
The first item, on random drug testing, was narrowly defeated by faculty and students. The proposal resulted from the second goal of Goals 2000, which addresses drug and alcohol use among students. If passed, the proposition would have required all Upper School students and Middle and Upper School faculty to participate in professionally-administered school-underwritten random drug screenings, with regular, mandatory, family- or employee-billed testing for anyone with positive results on the random test. Positive results on a mandatory test would have resulted in immediate dismissal from school or loss of employment.
Prior to the vote, the senior staff made it clear that this proposed policy did not change the school’s existing drug policy, which results in dismissal for first violation of the drug policy. Instead, the senior staff emphasized random testing as a third prong in a three-prong strategy to eradicate drugs from Darlington’s campus: the no tolerance policy (those caught with drugs or under the influence of drugs are expelled) would remain; the Student Support Team would continue to work with those students referred confidentially to them for drug and alcohol counseling; and the random testing would give all students a further incentive to “say no” to drugs. Faculty were included in the testing proposal to create an atmosphere of solidarity with the students.
The senior staff, believing that random testing would only be effective with the buy-in of the entire campus community, put the proposal to a vote requiring a two-thirds majority to pass. The combined polling of the faculty and students resulted in 253 votes for and 154 votes against random testing, narrowly defeating the measure 62 percent to 38 percent.
A second item, on student participation on the Discipline Committee, passed by a wide margin. The proposition, to go into effect next year, calls for an overhauled Discipline Committee to be composed of six students and five faculty members, replacing the current all-faculty committee.
The purpose of a student-dominated committee is to make student behavior principally the responsibility of students. Faculty representation on the committee, to be chaired by the dean of students, will ensure that safeguards against hasty judgment or grave injustice remain in place. How members will be chosen has not yet been specified.
The item passed in faculty and student combined voting 321-88, or 78 percent for and 22 percent against.
Grades eight through eleven and all Middle and Upper School faculty voted in the referendum.
