A modest proposal for schools this fall - Fine Point Communications

With America electing a new president in less than 10 weeks, plenty of school leaders are starting the academic year in a defensive crouch.

Who could blame them? The 2016 and 2020 presidential elections severely challenged the climate of independent schools, while the past year delivered plenty of community polarization, acrimony and, in some cases, executive ousters.

School administrative retreats this summer focused on all of these issues, especially the political campaign. Teams built plans to manage the fall and keep constituents’ faith strong.

At Refill, meanwhile, our retreat looked at the alternative: How could schools utterly lose the confidence of parents and students through the election?

‘Invert, always invert’

We came to this idea after learning of the advice lawyer Charles Munger gave graduates of Los Angeles’s Harvard School in 1986 (back before it went co-ed and became Harvard-Westlake): Consider how to achieve the outcome you don’t want. That will reveal the path for what you do want.

“Invert, always invert,” Munger encouraged, adding, “Many hard problems are best solved only when they are addressed backward.” (As an example, he would later be remembered for his quip, “All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I never go there.”)

Jokes aside, the advice is sound, if counterintuitive: Envisioning how to get to the worst-case outcome tends to usefully highlight potholes ahead.

Lessons from St. Umble’s

With that in mind, the Refill team thought about how a made-up independent school — call it St. Umble’s School — could forfeit the trust of its community this fall.

Here are four of the options we came up with, accompanied by how the school might elaborate, in a Swift-ian way, on its unique approach.

Hope as a strategy

At St. Umble’s, our administrators have read the political tea leaves closely. Our assessment is that America will have a straightforward, unremarkable election this fall. Politicians have earned our full confidence that they will deal with any differences amicably and quietly.

And anyway our leadership team has plenty to do at the start of school, none of which involves electoral politics. We decided, therefore, to focus our attention fully this summer and fall on those pressing matters.

Planning for trouble simply invites trouble. Why jinx ourselves?

Focus on the adults

The St. Umble’s mission statement is all about students, but we understand that, in practice, the school exists to serve our employees, graduates and benefactors. Without these people, tests would never be written and graded, reunions would never be held and bills could never be paid.

During elections, meeting the needs of our adults is a particular priority of St. Umble’s.

For instance, we invite teachers to use their classroom and curriculum, no matter the subject, to promote their personal viewpoints. Employees are welcome to call upon school facilities, materials and grounds for political rallies, to advocate publicly for candidates and causes, and to take work time to volunteer on behalf of campaigns. Alumni are encouraged to present themselves as school representatives and speak on our behalf on all issues.

Meanwile, the role of students is serving as the accessory that allows our adults to be their most authentic selves. Grown-ups know what’s best for young people; children will come to understand this when they get older.

Since students are too young to vote, obviously they hold no political views. Even our teenagers are far too immature to engage in political debate, much less to organize such activity as protests or walkouts.

Jump to conclusions

St. Umble’s doesn’t waste time organizing task forces or talking to various groups to gather a range of thoughts. Our leaders were chosen for their God‑given genius and unerring instincts, which are all they need to resolve any situation.

Hearing from others — especially those who look different, come from different backgrounds or hold different views — is unlikely to yield consensus. We discourage difficult conversations at St. Umble’s; inviting dissension does not help our school reach its goals.

Hold any actions close to the chest

It serves no good purpose to inform the community of St. Umble’s decisions. Parents are far too busy to be interrupted with such messages, and anyway, they obviously agree with the school leadership on anything important. Otherwise, they would never have enrolled here in the first place.

The news media — a bunch of bad actors stirring up trouble — say studies show adults as more distrustful than ever of education. Even if that were true, that would pose a problem for lesser schools, not ours.

Here, we never explain and certainly never apologize. That is the St. Umble’s way, and nobody seems to mind!

Don’t-miss clicks

This seems to be the year that schools are finally saying “Enough!” to students having and using phones in schools. Here’s a report on the trend of banning phones, which is affecting public and private schools alike, and the head of a D.C. independent school wrote an op-ed explaining why. But the pressing question may be not “why” but “what”; this new approach involves several details and, to earn parental buy-in, schools will have to clearly describe them.
In a sobering read, the Education Writers Association has disconcerting findings about the discrimination Black girls face in schools. This is not a new issue, yet we continue to fail these young people.
Cybersecurity threats to independent schools are a menace that continues to linger, reports EdTech Magazine.

What’s new at Fine Point Communications

This year, Fine Point Communications made a goal of deepening our connection with the independent school community.

We extended our long-standing sponsorship of the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools. We became a sponsor of The Heads Network and the CASE-NAIS Independent Schools Conference.

Such connections continue: This summer, Fine Point became a Supporter of the National Association of Independent Schools, joining a select group of businesses at this partnership level.

And this fall, Fine Point will sponsor the National Association of Episcopal Schools’ Biennial Conference. If you’re coming to Fort Lauderdale, stop by our table to say hello. And mark your calendar for Friday, Nov. 15, at 10:30 a.m.: Our principal, Scott Butterworth, will moderate a workshop on crisis management featuring Kirsten Adams, head of school at St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School, and Henry Broaddus, president of the Church Schools in the Diocese of Virginia — both longtime Fine Point clients.

Each of these five organizations contributes greatly to the health and ambition of independent schools. We are deeply proud to associate with them and look forward to the partnerships continuing.