Follow-up from Strunk and White Talk

Dear Families,

Thank you for being so responsive and offering your insights and experiences during yesterday's Strunk and White Speak to Children talk. From the positive response I have received, I intend to offer this talk again in the fall--perhaps with a different title so more parents will be inspired to attend. Other of my talks for next school year may include, "An Apology for Self-Esteem," "Making Choices about Choices," and "Here, Eat a Carrot Instead: Apparently Crazy Discipline Ideas from Experienced Teachers that Really Work."

During Sunday's talk, I spoke about the articles describing the research on the inverse power of praise--that too much global praise (good job, good girl, great job, you're so smart) can make a child risk averse and less likely to prosper academically, emotionally, and socially. I have published links to these articles before, but I offer them again here to make them easy to find.

This article from New York Magazine offers a parent's perspective on the research.

This article from Scientific American Mind is by Professor Carol Dweck (the researcher mentioned in the previous article) and is a bit more formal in nature.

I look forward to seeing many of as begin our new Spring Session this Thursday and Friday. We will have new finger games, songs, and a puppet show for the spring--along with Maypole dancing at the end of each class (the fiddle with Brother Wind's green cloth will be there, too). Call the school if you still need an application--341-5686.

Applications for next year's 3 day nursery class are also available. Please call Adam Fawcett at school (341-5686) to procure one. You may also visit www.wiws.org to obtain documents.

Please know that beginning in the 2009-2010 school year, our administration and board are launching a 100/50/0 tuition policy for new families (with the goal of giving current families the same benefit as soon as possible). This means that for a family's second child enrolling at our school, that child's tuition will be half of what it would normally be. The third child comes to school for free. This is part of a larger plan to make Waldorf education as accessible as possible to all families in the South Whidbey and surrounding areas. Please share this information with friends who may have dismissed our school because they assumed the tuition for multiple children would be unaffordable.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde