“We send our children to school hoping that they will become insightful, knowledgeable, principled, independent. Hoping, essentially, that they will become well educated.“
― Dr. Deborah Kenny

Just like our students, our faculty members have summer reading.  Sometimes, we select a book that pertains to the entire school; other times, we choose something that may be more relevant to a certain division or age group. At Keystone, we commit to lifelong learning, just as we work to instill that habit in our students. 

When we returned to school for our August In-Service, teachers and administrators came together to discuss what we learned from the books we read over the summer.  Over the next two blog posts, I will share the books we read and some lessons we can take away from them. 

This past summer, Little and Lower School teachers read Dr. Deborah Kenny’s “The Well-Educated Child: How the Principles and Practices of Quality Thinking, Agency, and Ethical Purpose Cultivate Deeper Learning.”  This 2026 book provides a succinct discussion of education in this day and age and what children need.  

Kenny states “that the foundation of a great school is not only a strong curriculum, but a culture that sees children not as problems to fix but as people to honor.” 

In language that could easily apply to our hopes and aspirations for Keystone students, Kenny says that students who are well educated“can reason independently, understand ideas deeply, and evaluate information critically. They are self-directed and self-motivated.  Students who are well educated are too astute to be duped by misinformation; they are independent minded but not irrational, confident but not arrogant, spirited but civil in discourse. They are kind, happy, and considerate of others, not self-centered and stressed. They have cultivated an appreciation for beauty; the beauty of art, music; the beauty of math. They are knowledgeable and well-read, but have the humility to know how much they don’t know.” 

Kenny captures in a few sentences what we all want for the children and teens who arrive on Keystone’s campuses daily.  We want them to be strong in their academic pursuits, but approach their education with humility and awareness of all there is to know. We hope they will be eager but also appropriately critical. Yes, we wish that they will be good students, but just as importantly, they will be good people. We aim for them to learn how to form opinions and express themselves eloquently, but also how to disagree respectfully.  In addition, we aspire for them to see the inherent beauty in all fields from the arts to math, from literature to science.  

Much of Kenny’s argument matches Keystone’s emphasis over the past few years on mattering. We want our students to understand that they matter to us for the people they are rather than the score they earn on a test or the shot they sank.  We care about them and for them as wonderful children and outstanding teens who are imperfect, will stumble along the way, and we will walk alongside them and guide them toward finding their way.  This may mean having hard conversations characterized by honesty and critical feedback.  However, if we don’t engage in these talks, we shortchange our students’ growth and prevent them from reaching their full potential. Kenny cites a quotation “words that come from the heart enter the heart.”  

Ultimately, like Kenny, we want our students to be both inner and outer directed. We hope that they will appreciate all the wondrous things that occur in our world, but also be excited to benefit others.  She quotes from Albert Einstein who said, “One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality,” but also to “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” 

If we practice what Kenny preaches, our Cobras will be well-positioned to take on whatever comes their way, and they will flourish at Keystone and beyond.