On Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, students and families from JCDSRI and the Islamic School of RI (ISRI) gathered together to create a tape art mural to promote peace. In addition, the students collected puzzle and activity books for children at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. For video coverage of this wonderful event, visit ABC6 or WPRI.
In February 2015, when ISRI was vandalized with hateful, anti-Islamic messages, students from JCDSRI made cards to show solidarity and support for their Muslim peers. Head of School Adam Tilove hand delivered the messages to ISRI’s Head of School Abdelnasser Hussein, and a friendship was born.
This year, with financial support from the Rhode Island Foundation, the two schools are building a partnership in the form of a 12-week theater program for their 5th graders, facilitated by the Center for Dynamic Learning. In addition, several whole school activities are planned, including the recent community building day on Martin Luther King Day organized by the two schools’ Parent Associations.
Mr. Tilove understands that, in the wake of terrorism in Israel and Paris, many people are nervous about such a partnership. He states that, among other things, “I believe in my partner Abdelnasser Hussein and the lovely people I have met from ISRI. I believe in people’s innate goodness and kindness, and I will not let evil acts poison my faith in humanity. Further, I believe that living in peace and mutual respect with one’s neighbors is not an option, but a mandate from Heaven: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ is a command from God, not a qualified suggestion.”
ISRI’s Mr. Hussein is confident that cooperation and understanding will combat misconceptions and hatred. He says, “I believe religion and freedom of speech are the preliminary common grounds which will lead us to unity as citizens of the United States. We can present ourselves as role models for tolerance.”
We are so proud of our alumni, Annabelle Doyle and Reese Sock, who planned and executed a wonderful community Hanukkah party and evening of giving back, Mitzvahs & Miracles. You can read all about the event in this article from the Jewish Voice.
We are so pleased that our KinderSTEAM partnership with the Brown/RISD STEAM club was featured in Our RISD, a place for show and tell in the RISD community! You can read it here. [su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/143611780″]
Our Head of School, Adam Tilove, was interviewed on the L’Chaim radio show on WCAP 980, the ‘Voice of the Merrimack Valley’ in Worcester, Massachusetts. He explained the thinking behind our “Too Jewish” campaign, as well as the reasons for our eye-catching public billboard on I-95N. The ensuing conversation with the host enabled Adam to share the JCDSRI vision, our partnership with the Islamic School of RI, our STEAM partnership with Brown and RISD, our progressive curriculum, and our pluralistic community. In addition, Adam was able to engage listeners in the process of challenging their assumptions about Jewish day school in particular and Judaism in general.
You can listen to the whole show online (ad-free!). At the beginning of the broadcast, the host shares background information about the campaign and billboard; Adam joins him at about 8:45.
As a part of our new campaign, a bright pink billboard on I-95N is getting drivers’ attention. “Too Jewish? Challenge Your Assumptions,” it reads, along with a website, toojewish.info. The campaign, which grew out of a comment we often hear from parents who have not considered sending their kids to our school, asks people to rethink their attitudes about Judaism in general and Jewish day school in particular.
Mr. Tilove was also interviewed by ABC6 News about the intentions behind the billboard and the community reaction to it.
The Jewish Voice featured us on their front page at the beginning of November.
To capitalize on the high interest in the billboard and continue the conversation, the school is hosting a Community Conversation on November 19th at the Brown RISD Hillel at 7:00pm.
We are delighted to share this incredible video highlighting our partnership with the Brown/RISD STEAM club. We hope you enjoy this introduction to Design Thinking at work at JCDSRI! [su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/143611780″]
As teachers and parents, we spend most of our time helping children succeed. We support them, give them work that is challenging (but not too challenging), and if they fall, we are there to jump in and catch them before they hit the ground. Often, when students fail, they cry – and we feel terrible. We wonder, “what could I have done to teach the material better, to communicate their homework more clearly, or to give them more time or resources so this failure could have been avoided?”
But I wonder if we are doing children a favor in this regard. Take a break for a moment and check outthis video produced by my creative heroes, OK GO. This isn’t my favorite OK GO video to watch, but what what I love about this video is the effort that went into creating it. In fact, there are many videos on the makingof the video. In one of those, Damian Kulash, the lead singer of OK GO, talks about what he wanted from the video: “Hopefully it’s like, right on the edge of do-able. Hopefully we won’t nail it once and say, ‘aw, we could have made it better!’”
To me, this is a profound statement about vision. Vision is about seeing the long distance of what might be. It’s not about doing what’s already been done or making incremental changes or improvement. Vision is big and almost impossible. As such, one has to have an appetite for failure. For example, in the outtakes of the video above, one can see that it took them at least 215 takes before they finally got their shot. They knew going into it that they were going to fail their way to success.
A classic example of this “appetite for failure” comes from Thomas Edison, who, when asked about his trials and tribulations while attempting to invent the lightbulb, is widely quoted as saying, “I have not failed. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work!”
I know I have had my failures, and I know how important persistence is on a personal level. But I can’t remember when I tried doing anything 215 times without giving up. I wonder how my life might be different if I had that kind of persistence. Would I be able to fix my own computer problems? Could I rehab my own house? Could I have written that screenplay I dabbled with? Would I love playing basketball? Would I be a rocking guitarist? I imagine being a happier, more successful person – not from being more talented, taller, or richer, but by being the kind of person who has a higher tolerance for failure.
One’s ability to face failure over and over again and proceed with faith, vigor, and vision is called persistence. Calvin Coolidge once said, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Are we as parents and educators allowing students to come up with ideas that are “on the edge of do-able?” Are we allowing our students to pursue them doggedly – allowing them to fail over and over again on their way to success? Are we pursuing the changes we want in our organizations and communities with an appetite for failure, or are our own discomfort, impatience, and aversion to struggle impeding our abilities to change and grow? While we hyper-focus on giving kids the tools for success, are we offering them critical opportunities to learn from failure?
Last year, Jill Davis’ third grade class became very invested in their Animal Adaptations unit. They had direct experience with disabled animals, since their class pets Gizmo and Gili (bearded dragons) were missing a foot and a leg, respectively. When it came time for the students to choose another pet to adopt, they found Bugsy, a guinea pig who was being bullied by his peers in the shelter. Fearful that the shelter would have to euthanize him, the students begged Ms. Davis to give him a new home in their classroom.
In the spring, the students chose “Animals Around the World” as the theme for their annual Read-A-Thon. They lined up sponsors and spent the whole day reading, earning donations based on the number of pages or books they read throughout the day. At the end of the day, the third graders had raised almost $2,000! They researched animal rescue facilities to choose the recipients of their fundraising.
The kids decided to donate half of the money to the ASPCA and half of the money to the PAWS Humane Society in Charles City, Iowa. Recently, Ms. Davis and her students received a heartfelt thank you from Julie Taylor, the director of PAWS Humane Society. Ms. Taylor was floored by the generous donation, and shared that the students have indeed helped to save the life of a husky named Fire (pictured). The Charles City Press published an article about our fabulous class and their life-saving donation.
Ms. Davis is also thrilled that, with the assistance of the reporter in Charles City, our school is establishing partnerships with two other elementary schools in Iowa. Our students will be able to connect with their peers there as they learn about the differences between rural and urban communities.
In many ways, leadership can be seen as taking a team on a journey. Sometimes it’s easiest to see complicated tasks through parables, and what could be more familiar than a family trip?
Imagine, summertime is here, and you have a surprise for your family. You pull up to the house in your brand new mini-van and call the family out to take a look. Your spouse nods with approval, having taken part in the decision. Your kids are excited to have a new car– the old one was so beat up.
NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION, Anthony Michael Hall, Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Dana Barron, 1983
“Pack your bags,” you grin, “We’re going on a trip!” The first question your family will ask is, “Where are we going?”
Our first lesson in leadership is to know where you are going. In other words, have a vision. Your family doesn’t want to pack their bags to drive in circles for two weeks. They want to know where they are going, how long it will take to get there, and how to pack. Without a destination, expect an anxious and quickly frustrated family. A manager might be able to keep the status quo; a leader has to lead, and that requires having a vision, a goal, or a destination in mind.
“We are crossing this great country of ours, heading to California!” you announce proudly, expecting a shout of excitement. Your teenage daughter rolls her eyes. Your 12-year-old son jumps for joy and says,“Yes! We’re going to Disney Land!” Your 9-year-old daughter says, “I have a soccer game on Thursday and Becky’s party is on Sunday!” Your 5-year-old son says, “How long is that going to take?” and your 3-year-old asks, “Can I bring toys?”
As you can see, lesson two is that people will react differently to your vision. Some people will love it and some will hate it; some will be skeptical, some curious, some optimistic and enthusiastic; some will want to stay mired in details rather than seeing the big picture; and others will think they understand your vision, but they actually don’t. All of their reactions are normal and should be addressed with confidence, patience and optimism.
You are trying to do something nice for your family and before you have even gotten everyone in the van, you are already encountering resistance. It might be tempting to ‘lay down the law,’ saying something like, “I’m the parent here, now do what I say!” This might be the quickest and simplest way to get things done- but does it get your family ready to enjoy a wonderful vacation? To build good memories and intimacy, it might be better to take a different approach.
“Ok, everyone,” you announce, “this trip is going to be great for all of us – because it’s not just about California, it’s about the trip! We are all going to get to pick places where we will stop along the way. Everyone is going to have a say and a choice to do something that is just for them.”
Lesson three is to remember: It’s not just about the destination, it’s about the journey. Just as the success of your vacation depends on the happiness of your family, the success of your institution depends on the happiness of your employees. Happy employees work harder, spread optimism, and support you and your mission. Unhappy employees feed on each other’s negativity, spreading discord and rebellion. On a cross country trip, do whatever you can to get the family singing together and not bickering in the back!
You get the buy-in from your family, they pack their bags, get in the van, and you are off! It’s a long trip—longer than you expected. You are committed to building trust and intimacy on your journey, to stopping along the way to meet the needs of individual family members, and to enjoying the ride. But it’s taking a long, long time. You think about skipping some stops on the itinerary, just to get there faster.
Lesson four: Change takes a long time. Sometimes you have to move slow to move fast. That means that even if your family is tired of driving and you just want to get there already, you have to be very careful before you strike one of your kids’ planned stops from the itinerary. You might get to your destination faster, but at what cost? Will someone feel alienated, forgotten, or disrespected? How will that affect the family in the long term? Often it’s worth taking the extra time to make sure everyone gets his/her needs met, even if it takes a little longer.
You decide to take one extra day and visit an attraction that the whole family will appreciate. You wake up the next morning to discover that someone hit your car while you were all sleeping. It needs to be repaired. The attraction will be closed by the time you get there. The family is cranky and fed up. They are bickering with each other and everyone seems to think it’s all your fault. Even your supportive spouse thinks you are botching things terribly. You have a speech prepared in your head that goes something like,“You lousy ingrates! I’ve done all of this for you, and none of this is my fault, and the least you could do is have a positive attitude or shut up!”
Lesson five is that you are the parent. As a leader, and the one with real power in your institution, you are not allowed to react in anger. Absurd mishaps, unintended diversions, and personal conflicts will happen. When they do, remember that as a leader, you are being paid to be the adult. Your job is to be a good listener, remain positive, and look for solutions without resentment, blame or the need to be thanked. You might have good reasons to be frustrated, but it is your journey, and you have to see it through with unshakable optimism, faith, and responsibility. Allowing yourself to express anger won’t get you any closer to your destination, and it will undermine the point of your entire trip.
The final lesson in leadership from our hypothetical family vacation is to take care of yourself. Make time to exercise, eat well, and get plenty of sleep. If you skip meals, stay up late, and try to drive all day without a break, chances are much higher that you’ll fall asleep at the wheel, strain your back, or explode at a family member who asks a silly question. Leadership is an emotional job; it requires making difficult decisions and having intense conversations every day. To be a great leader, you need to be at your best. No one deserves to deal with a tired, hungry, stressed, dehydrated, cranky you! Never underestimate the relationship between your body and your brain, so make taking care of yourself a priority.
As you pull into the driveway of your home, you think back on your trip- not just on the destination, but on everything that happened along the way. Your family is happier, stronger, and looking forward to the next adventure. Where do you want to go next?
On Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, students and families from JCDSRI and the Islamic School of RI (ISRI) gathered together to create a tape art mural to promote peace. In addition, the students collected puzzle and activity books for children at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. For video coverage of this wonderful event, visit ABC6 or WPRI. 
about such a partnership. He states that, among other things, “I believe in my partner Abdelnasser Hussein and the lovely people I have met from ISRI. I believe in people’s innate goodness and kindness, and I will not let evil acts poison my faith in humanity. Further, I believe that living in peace and mutual respect with one’s neighbors is not an option, but a mandate from Heaven: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ is a command from God, not a qualified suggestion.”
