“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”
-Sir Richard Steele

At Keystone, required summer reading is not just for students.  We also ask the faculty and staff to delve into a book that offers relevant insights to our work. 

In the past, the adults at Keystone during the summer have collectively read Charles Duhigg’s  “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” and the “The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact” by Chip and Dan Heath.  (No, it is not a requirement that every book we read have “The Power of” in the title.) 

This past summer, we did something a little different and assigned books to faculty by division. 

Teachers and administrators in the Little School read “The Playful Classroom: The Power of Play for All Ages ” by Jed Dearybury and Julie Jones, PhD. In this very fun and playful book, Dearybury and Jones argue for the importance of play as a fundamental element of meaningful learning.  The book’s upbeat and positive tone supports the argument for play for children and adults. The authors provide data, both quantitative and anecdotal, to bolster the case for us getting down on the floor with children and showing them the sheer joy inherent in learning new concepts and skills.  A playful classroom demonstrates that learning is a never-ending act of constant reinvention and we should always strive to improve. At one point, they say, “We can always be better. Let us help each other be more.”

Lower School teachers took on a book we have been talking about for the past couple of years, NYU Professor Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.”  Ms. Matthews led a book group of parents in a collective reading last year, and many expressed how much they appreciated the book’s thesis and supporting evidence.  Although people rightly focus on Haidt’s powerful argument against the omnipresence of cell phones in our children’s lives, they sometimes forget the other side of his proposal; that just as insidious and deleterious as unregulated time on cellphones has been the unwillingness of parents to allow children to play independently without adults constantly hovering over them. He says,  “My central claim in this book is that these two trends—overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world—are the major reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation.”

Although he primarily focuses on parents and families, Haidt also has recommendations for schools, and some of Keystone’s recent changes around electronic devices on campus stem, in part, from the valid points he makes.  

Teachers in middle and upper school also discussed the impact of technology on our students; however, in this case they looked at artificial intelligence. They read Jose Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson’s book, “Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Learning.”  Although this book begins with an interesting introduction around the basics of AI and the role it is playing in our world, it moves to the pragmatic side of teaching and learning with artificial intelligence.  

Interestingly, the authors point out that the new world of AI will only further the need for an education that schools like Keystone provide. They say, “As the job market changes more quickly, core skills and the ability to adapt increase in value.  Specifically, the AI revolution looks to prioritize the ability to ask new questions, connect with and interrogate new ideas, evaluate, iterate, and adapt to new responses.  The best hedge against an uncertain future job market is the ability to think and adapt.  The liberal arts will only become more relevant in the new era.” 

Led by Mr. Spedding, middle and upper school teachers had fascinating conversations and activities around AI during our August In-Service week.  We will continue to study the book and discussion around AI over the course of this school year.  

As they do in countless other ways, Keystone teachers model the benefits of reading and thinking, in this case during the summer months when school is not in session.  As a result, and  like our students after their summer reading, we begin the new year even more enlightened than we finished the previous one.