Spring Break--Make Good Choices

With Spring Break beginning today I'd like to share an important message in the hope that each and every Vianney Griffin returns safely from break.

The majority of our students make wise decisions throughout the school year and will continue to make positive decisions during Spring Break.

However, many teenagers place themselves in harm's way by not realizing the dangers associated with poor decisions they make on unsupervised Spring Break trips or while staying home unsupervised.

While spring break is often portrayed as a rite of passage for thousands of students– often a week of non-stop fun, socializing, and going to different events–things can quickly turn for the worse.

According to travel industry experts, an estimated one in seven young people (15%) on Spring Break party destinations are high school students. During a 17-day stretch in March 2013, Panama City, FL police arrested 1,000 teens for underage drinking. Furthermore, the U.S. State Department estimates that 100,000 teens go to Mexico for Spring Break each year. Alcohol consumption, binge drinking, drug experimentation, and other risky behavior that often accompany these behaviors truly put our teens at risk.
It's also important to understand that, whether or not young people are traveling, teens often start using marijuana and alcohol for the first time between the spring and summer months.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) urges parents of high school students to know the risks associated with this time of year. ONDCP Director Michael Botticelli and his staff, as well as Drug Free Community coalitions, warn, "We don't want parents to be naive about what happens when teenagers are away for Spring Break or home and unsupervised. Pressure can be immense to share exciting and funny stories when kids return to school."

Please have important conversations with your young men about making good choices. Let them know exactly where you stand on underage drinking, drug use, and their safety and well-being. We care about each and every Vianney Griffin and thank you for entrusting them to our care.
We look forward to seeing each student return safely on Tuesday, March 29th.

My prayer is that you each have a rejuvenating and relaxing spring break and Blessed Easter!

Springbreak and the Science of Sleep

SHHH!!!! Quiet!! Do you hear that?
It's coming....the time we've all been waiting for! Springbreak!

And with it the opportunity for so many wonderful things! 

Spring training, walks and runs in the park, time with family & friends, springtime temperatures, and most importantly, the opportunity to rest and sleep!

Placed at roughly the mid-point of spring semester, Springbreak is a wonderful opportunity to disconnect from the day-to-day grind of the school year and get a much needed break.

I found myself thinking about the importance of this downtime as
I listened to an interesting TED talk on the importance of sleep
by Oxford professor of circadian neuroscience Russell Foster.

Foster argues that scientists still don’t have a full picture of why
we sleep, but that they suspect it involves the intersection of three areas:

• restoration and repair of metabolic processes,
• energy conservation,
• and brain processing and memory consolidation.

Foster is most interested in the impact of brain processing
and memory. He cites several interesting strands of research
that highlight just how important sleep is to learning and productivity. This, of course, flies in the face of our more recent societal trends to see sleep as an enemy of efficiency and a crutch of the unmotivated or lazy. Foster goes on to share some research that links healthy sleep patterns with positive mental health.

Foster’s talk reminded me of an important chapter on sleep in the book Brain Rules by John Medina. Targeted more for teachers and parents, Medina links sleep to better academic performance, while also highlighting how sleep deprivation hurts attention, executive function, working memory, logical reasoning, and quantitative skills.

Admittedly I'm not too deep into Dan Goleman’s book Focus: The Hidden Ingredient in Excellence, but it is already clear that sleep plays a major factor in our ability not only to focus on the task at hand but also the ability to let our minds wander — linked increasingly to our ability to find creative solutions to interdisciplinary problems.

At a time during the school year when everybody is faced with a cascade of deadlines and assignments, Springbreak is a nice opportunity to put away those check-lists, reflect a bit on the work we’ve accomplished so far, and perhaps get a restorative afternoon nap! 

March Madness-College Acceptance Season

This is the time of year in St. Louis when the morning gives us sleet and snow and 24 hours later we have sunshine and 70 degree temperatures!  A time when students (and teachers) look forward to spring break, spring training, and March Madness! Everything in March definitely starts to change!

But this is also the season for something much more important and often stressful for a population of our students and their parents--college admission season.

By now, anybody with a high school junior or senior has probably read Frank Bruni’s March 2015 New York Times column “How to Survive the College Admissions Madness.” In this piece Bruni shares stories of a few talented young men and women who first survive and then later thrive after getting turned down at elite colleges. One underlying problem, he says, is that many of our students have come to equate their self-worth with admission into these highly selective universities. Whereas, many of us working in education like to think we are a part of a much longer end game: to help foster healthy and happy adults. The paths to that outcome are MANY..

What our students are up against is often referred to as a madness or a mania. I think this is fair, because it also implies that even the most healthy and well adjusted can get caught up. By now, the story is fairly well known. A small and well-publicized number of elite schools are now competing globally for students, making the marketplace more competitive than ever. In addition, helpful tools like the Common Application are making it easier for students to apply to many more schools than ever before.  According to the National Association of College Admissions Counseling, only 9 percent of students applied to seven or more colleges in 1990. By 2011, that number was 29 percent. Students who apply to more than 20 colleges are not uncommon. This leads to ever shrinking acceptance ratios that are under 10% and approaching 5% at the most elite schools. 

This can’t help but create a potentially unhealthy environment for our students, feeling they have to do more and more to beat the odds. Sites like College Confidential at first seemed to open up the admissions process, but now seems only to add to the sense of competitive frenzy.

More and more students are feeling pressure to craft resumes in high school that don’t really reflect true passions or interests, and as a result are matriculating to college with significant health issues. 

So what to do?

Bruni highlights the healthy way in which the parents of one particular young man kept perspective throughout the process. Their letter of support to their son on the eve of admission notification reassured him that he is not the product of the decisions of an overwhelmed admissions committee.

I’d also add the importance of being a part of a healthy school and community environment. Schools have many subtle and not-so-subtle ways of increasing the stress and competitive environment, from starting college counseling in middle school, to encouraging underclassmen to take multiple AP exams, to ranking students by their GPA(practices Vianney does NOT do). The answer to the college admissions madness is not to double down and go even more mad. 

In the end, college counselors can demystify this process and help our students see that there are absolutely fabulous options beyond the top 10 lists that dominate the popular press and social media. When we help our students understand themselves as learners and as people, then they can see themselves as happy and successful in many different places.

Despite the craziness of the application process, this is exactly what colleges are also saying they want from our students. I recently read a post from the National Association of Independent Schools Conference featuring the leaders of four universities. They said they were looking for graduates who:

• can interact in a community,
• have perseverance,
• have good writing and quantitative skills,
• have a healthy and balanced lifestyle,
• have the ability to self-reflect and self-assess,
• and can navigate new situations and act independently.

Thankfully, I do believe that we’ve got the right balance here at Vianney. I’ve found myself on more than one occasion describing our school as “healthy.” Our approach to developing young men spiritually, academically, and personally in the Catholic, Marianist tradition is an important perspective on this topic.  To educate the whole person values their uniqueness and maximizes their potential! 

Thank you for entrusting your son to our care and for partnering us on this holistic journey to becoming Men of Character & Accomplishment! 

Developing Authentic Leaders

There is a plethora of research on what characteristics define the truly great leader. Integrity, honesty, vulnerability, vision are all descriptors of the outstanding leader. There is also a prevailing belief (in which I concur), that you cannot ascend to the highest level of leadership without being relational. 

At Vianney we take the leadership development of our students seriously!  For years our students have been required to take a freshmen leadership course, we were the 1st school in St. Louis to have our upper-level leadership course approved for dual-enrollment through Drury University, and the list of leadership opportunities is extensive and impressive! 

One thing we always stress to our young men during their leadership development is that Relationships Matter! Gifted leaders, ones who are well-respected, trusted and liked, understand that relationships must also be authentic.

Weak or passing fad leaders confuse authenticity with the art pleasing the people. Pleasing people is more often about self gain, about getting votes or being liked (although those might be great end results). Authentic relationships are formed by leaders who do the right thing, make tough decisions and have difficult conversations. Building authentic relationships is a great skill for teenagers to develop and for all of us to continuously work on and improve.

The challenges of effective leadership are immense. Chris Lowney writes in his book, Heroic Leadership, "it is not easy for the leader to set the course, get everyone onside with the direction and then maneuver in and around the barriers that exist to ascertain the preferred future."

Getting people committed to the cause requires authentic relationships. The leader’s ability to build effective and authentic relationships with one’s employees,colleagues and the general community is simply non-negotiable. Authentic relationships where everyone is committed to a common cause has been a strength of Vianney since our establishment in 1960 and something we hope to continuously work on and improve for many years to come! 

I highlight the word “authentic” because too often relationships are viewed as one way, shallow and superficial. In other words the default becomes to please others. Employee groups or leaders sometimes revert to the position that if you truly cared about this relationship you would do “X”. This is simply not authentic. In fact it's is immature and dare I say, "adolescent?"

Effective and authentic relationships are mutually beneficial and based on respect. It is not centered on getting your own way and is not structured with the mentality of win/lose. It is also not without struggle, tough decisions and disappointment. Authentic relationships value the messiness of the interactions and understand the complexity of leadership life. 

It is crucial for students to recognize upon graduation that it is impossible to please
everyone. They need to understand that any decision made will have people lined up on both sides of the fence. It is a no win scenario and therefore should be avoided at all costs. However, authentic relationships allows leaders to make tough decisions without major fallout. Pleasing people is fleeting and superficial at best. It requires no strong and enduring commitment which is why these leaders typically don’t have a long and successful shelf life and never create a legacy!

Our goal in developing Men of Character & Accomplishment is that they will grow in to leaders who will be authentic in their relationships rather than simply desiring to please people. That's the legacy we hope to leave behind. 

Building Character-there's a science to it!

Anyone who has spent anytime at St. John Vianney High School knows how serious we take the Character Development of our students. It has become our motto, our rallying cry, and statement of who we all aspire to be, an example we hope to set for others--"Men of Character & Accomplishment."

Similarly, anyone who has spent five minutes with me has likely heard my speeches or even viewed my presentations on the importance of school culture.  I believe culture fuels everything in a school. The more positive people are, the more open, and willing people are to take risks, the more caring and loving the people are, the greater the outcomes will be!

Of course, one reason our culture has been so strong and so outstanding in improving student learning is our commitment to implementing neuroscience and groundbreaking brain research.

While most of our implementation has been on brain-based instructional strategies, the research also demonstrates that we can "train" our brains and shape how we approach the world and complex problems. 

We understand that our brains have tremendous capacity to take on challenges and learn new things. While this may seem obvious, it takes some training to tap into our potential. Often, we fool ourselves into thinking we can't do something. (How often do you hear someone say,"Oh, I am no good at math"?)

Some people have trained themselves to operate with a “fixed” mindset. At Vianney, we want to promote a "growth" mindset, and science tells us that it is possible to teach both young and older brains how to expand their potential. 

It all comes through practice. If we respond to the world with disappointment and doubt, we reinforce that mindset in our neural pathways. Essentially, "We are what we practice." Through practice and deliberate effort, we can train our brains to see the possibilities and opportunities that sometimes even failure presents.

Check out this short 8-minute video that captures this science in an amazing way.

The video was produced by Tiffany Shlain & The Moxie Institute Films.

Defining Excellence

It is carefully placed in every publication, hangs in every classroom, fills the bottom of our emails, and any Vianney employee, student, or alumni can recite it:

"St. John Vianney High School is dedicated to forming young men for spiritual, academic, and personal excellence in the Catholic, Marianist tradition."

Of course, these are merely words unless we have a shared understanding of what they mean for our school. I reflect on these words often.  As principal I think it's important that I at least have my own understanding of what the words mean to me. I always find myself coming back time and time again to the word “excellence.” I often ask myself some tough questions:

• What exactly what about this concept is important for us at Vianney?
• What organization doesn’t want to be excellent?
• What school doesn’t want its students, employees, and alumni to be excellent?
• How, exactly, does my understanding of excellence differentiate our school?

So here are some of my quick thoughts/ramblings on what excellence means for Vianney...

To me, Vianney recognizes excellence as meaningful growth resulting from dedicated pursuit of individual and shared goals.

This view is not meant to discount what might be traditional measures of excellence such as our Average ACT score, number of National Merit finalists, or state championships in soccer. Instead, we want to dig deeper, to recognize how excellence is defined by individuals or groups depending on a host of factors.

Lory Hough has written a terrific article in Harvard Education Magazine where she highlights the dangers of using “averages” to define excellence in student achievement. The design of school, says Harvard professor Todd Rose, is built around a mythical “average student,” with the result being that systems, textbooks and curriculum don’t fit about 80% of the students sitting in the classrooms — we end up treating students in one-dimensional terms.

At Vianney we are dedicated to helping discover and unlock known and unknown potential in all our students. We help them understand standards of individual excellence and to develop the self-awareness and skills to achieve realistic goals. We also work to develop the group and social skills necessary to achieve in interdisciplinary, artistic, and athletic endeavors. 

In this way, we can say that we are all constantly striving for excellence at Vianney. The target is moving, and we are excited to be on the journey.

Catholic Schools Week--THANK YOU Vianney Teachers

It is with great enthusiasm and gratitude that we conclude 2016 Catholic Schools Week!

This week always arrives at the perfect time for me and gives me so many reasons to pause and be thankful for the blessings I have had in my life and career in Catholic education.  As if my career was not blessing enough, I now leave my house each morning and arrive home each night knowing my daughter is educated by some of the most passionate, inspiring, and faithful people I could ever imagine.  That's a gift!

This week as I reflected I thought of how proud I am of our wonderful students and the many contributions of all those who make Catholic education possible: dedicated teachers, our cafe and maintenance staff, secretaries, volunteers, committed parents, and board members who all ​provide excellent leadership and stewardship of our Catholic, Marianist mission.

Thank you for all you do to support Catholic education!

This week as we hosted Back-to-School Night and prepared to send off our acceptance letters to the Class of 2020 I could not help but think of how blessed Vianney is to have the most dedicated and talented faculty in Missouri! Parent after parent approached me on Tuesday night saying how excited THEY were to spend time with our teachers.  How excited THEY were to learn about the course content, projects, and brain-based learning!  It reaffirmed what I have known for 5 years.  Vianney is blessed with great educators!

The amount of work and energy our teachers pour into their work and into educating our ​students is astonishing! It is a crime that they don’t all make ​$5​50K a year. Since they couldn’t possibly do it for the money, I ​​​can only assume they love their job and love our young men. I hope they know how much I ​appreciate them for that!

 Our teachers do far more than teach ​students​ the building blocks of knowledge and learning; they are help ​to  develop them in to tomorrow's leaders! Our teachers provide an environment in which students have to practice respect, obedience, teamwork, and diligence​. T​he high standards they set for students both in their academic work and behavior is amazing! ​

Thank you Vianney faculty & staff! 

Thank you for insisting on kindness and respect, excellence and persistence! Thank you for sometimes saying, “This ​work is garbage and you can do better." Thank you for making our young men tuck in their shirt, sending them to the office to shave, and calling them out when they are wrong! Thanks for ​constantly ​requiring their best.

 ​After nine years in administration I guess it's safe to assume my career has officially ended as a classroom teacher.  But as someone who sees the quality of students our faculty produce year after year, it NEVER escapes me how magnificent you all are! 

I've seen you in your brilliance and in your most difficult times.

I've seen you instruct our students that struggle as much as you have celebrated the success of those who achieve remarkable feats. 

I know there are students battling academic and personal struggles and I've marveled at your tireless patience with them. I know they require so much of you in the midst of your regular responsibilities, and your patient attentiveness cannot possibly be over-celebrated.

​Please remember, at least during this Catholic Schools Week, that you are so respected, so important! Your work impacts your ​students for the rest of their lives.

I am 3​6​-years-old and still talking about my old teachers: Mrs. ​Meltner, Doug Thaman, Mrs. Meyer,

Mr. Mana, and even Sister Louise Wagner. Educators don’t get the credit they deserve, so I am standing up today, applauding YOU, cherishing YOUR investment in the next generation. I see the incredible amount of work YOU do, and I am forever grateful! YOU are heroes; there is no lesser designation.

Please remember when you are grading papers at 10:30pm on Sunday night, or tweeting another incredible idea, or writing our ​students another encouraging note​ or letter of recommendation​, or ​updating your website, ​I ​see you, ​I ​ appreciate you, and ​I think our school is abundantly blessed to have you!

 Your life matters so much and your legacy will go on long after you’re done teaching. You are sending out visionaries, thinkers, activists, and leaders into the world, and ​I ​owe you a debt of gratitude that ​I ​can never repay.

 Happy Catholic Schools Week! You are amazing! From the bottom of my heart, Thank you​!