This article originally appeared in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
What if children are more whole, complete human beings than adults? What do I mean by whole? Less fragmented. Well, that won’t do for a definition. No self-respecting teacher would allow a student to define a word simply by invoking its antonym and saying, not that.
But how are children whole in a way that adults are not, and how do we do them a disservice by treating them, as Alan Watts points out, as “human beings on probation”? Wordsworth said, “The child is Father of the Man,” capital F, capital M. What did he mean?
There are times when as a parent I feel like my children are human beings on probation. When one of my sons wants the super-size orange Fanta instead of the small, I ask my- self, doesn’t he know better? Aren’t I compromising enough by even allowing Fanta? Western civilization depends upon children drinking water, and he wants a cup of Fanta that is bigger than his whole head?
That is when parenting becomes a duty: when we are protecting civilization from the whimsical, wayward tendencies of children; when we are chiseling away at those tendencies so that children become “productive members of society”; when we demand quiet around the house so we do not lose our minds.
Alfie Kohn, in his book “Unconditional Parenting,” discusses a few hidden beliefs behind what he calls conditional parenting, the kind that makes parental love and attention conditional upon certain behaviors and attitudes we expect from our children. One of the hidden beliefs is B. F. Skinner’s behaviorism, which reduces children to a set of behaviors, good and bad, versus a whole human being with thoughts, feelings and a complex inner world.
I become a behaviorist in a flash, however, when the boys are fighting over a toy or when one decides to make the other’s life miserable. I go Pavlovian in nanoseconds. But Mr. Kohn’s voice is now in the back of my head. What has led up to the crisis? What is each kid jockeying for? Why such strong attachments to a piece of plastic? Who really instigated what? Do I really have the time and patience to figure all of this out?
Saints admired children for their unconditioned view on reality, their spontaneous relationship to what is, including themselves. That is perhaps what is meant by whole – children have less conditioning through experience. Early toddlers are perfect Zen masters: a tube of toothpaste, a drawer or a wooden spoon are all things of wonder.
But as educators and parents we have to do something, don’t we? If not, some children will watch “The Avengers,” drink Fanta and ponder the miracle of pots and pans all day. We have to prepare them for the demands of civilization. I think this is one of the many insights in Amy Ch-ua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom” (which I believe got some unfair press): children are far more capable than we give them credit for, and per- forming anything at a high level is far more rewarding than stinking.
Jiddu Krishnamurti said, “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” Ouch. That hurts. But perhaps as we prepare children to learn from society, society can and ought to learn from children. Healing means wholeness, and chil- dren can heal with their open, fresh and unprejudiced embrace of life. But children are life, so there is nothing really for them to embrace.
Wordsworth ended that same poem quoted above with, “And I could wish my days to be/Bound each to each by natural piety.” Children’s days are bound by natural piety, though they don’t know it. Adults’ days often are not, and they know it. Somehow we switch from piety to duty.
We need both. We know the saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Or, as Homer Simpson puts it, “No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy.” I think even kids intuitively understand the balance between piety and duty. Kids like order too, and even gravitate towards it naturally. Why? Because they have it all – they are whole. Adults are too. We just need children to remind us of it sometimes.
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Entrepreneurship is nothing new to Harker students and now the school will draw together existing activities and new pieces to launch an academic Business and Entrepreneurial Program (BEP) in the fall.
Current elements, including the business club and its DECA participation, and Harker’s TEDx conferences will be laced together with new elements to make a complete program.
“We are ready to take our current elements of business and entrepreneurial opportunities for our students to the programmatic level,” said Chris Nikoloff, head of school. “The current elements of DECA, TEDx, career panels and other special opportunities will be assembled into a comprehensive program that will give students direct business and entrepreneurial training, experience and opportunities appropriate to the high school level. We want to leverage our location and contacts in Silicon Valley to create unique learning opportunities and experiences for students interested in these areas.”
DECA
The upper school’s Harker Business Club (HBC) participates each year in DECA events, and that effort will be rolled into the program. A new not-for-credit DECA class is being added that will teach future leaders and entrepreneurs ethics, leadership skills and expertise in business- related fields, and students will prepare business plans for DECA competitions.
Michaela Kastelman, grade 12, wound up her term as DECA Silicon Valley president in March and Sophia Luo, grade 9, ascended to a new role at DECA Silicon Valley as secretary and treasurer for the next year.
“I am very excited that Harker is starting a business and entrepreneurship program!” said Kastelman. “Many students are very interested in learning about business and entrepreneurship and I think that it will be a great opportunity for Harker students to gain pre-professional education and experience. Several current and past Harker students have already created and developed their own startups and I think that a business and entrepreneurship program will further support Harker students’ entrepreneurial spirit and interest.”
The DECA annual state competition was in March and more than 20 students qualified for and are attending the international conference in April.
DECA, which used to stand for Distributive Education Clubs of America, but is now the actual name of the program, is an international association of high school and college students, and teachers of marketing, management and entrepreneurship. The group works to prepare leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in business, finance, hospitality and marketing. Harker has had a business club for several years and 77 members attended the Silicon Valley Career Development Conference hosted by the California association of DECA in San Jose in January. Harker students won 14 trophies and several medals, with Harker teams and individuals earning eight top- three finishes. Nikoloff was one of the many judges at the event.
“Through my involvement in HBC and DECA, I’ve learned key life and business skills that I will carry with me through college and life,” said Kastelman. “I’ve particularly grown through my officer positions, which have helped me develop as a leader and team member. From arranging conferences for 800 people to helping other schools to start and develop their own DECA chapters, I’ve learned how to inspire a shared vision and foster community, which I think will be important skills for college and my future career.
“I’ve also developed my critical thinking, public thinking and time management skills through DECA and HBC, which will greatly benefit me during college,” continued Kastelman. “This program could help students discover their interest in business and entrepreneurship and … I think that (participating) Harker students will get a jump start into entering the Silicon Valley startup community as they will be able to gain essential business related skills.”
The club will now be an adjunct to the overall program. “We will be offering a DECA class, formerly only a club activity, as an extra period option for the upper school students,” said Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs.
TEDx
Almost 200 high school students came to Harker in October 2011 for the first-ever independently organized TEDxHarkerSchool event, headlined by keynote speaker Guy Kawasaki, chief evangelist at Apple in the ’80s. The event featured five top entrepreneurs, each offering unique perspectives and advice to the young audience. The TEDx committee is in full swing planning the next TEDx conference at Harker for April 27. Speakers are still being lined up, but the group had, by March 1, contacted its first round of potential speakers and outlined a comprehensive campaign to attract students from other high schools and colleges.
Marketing director for this year’s TEDx, Glenn Reddy, grade 10, noted, “As a student interested in going into business later in life, I am very excited about the new Business and Entrepreneurial Program. In the past, business-oriented students have had few course options in their field, but now that will change. Being a part of a larger program will help us expand the TEDxHarkerSchool event to involve more students.”
Initiating the BEP in the fall of 2013 is contingent upon finding the right person to chair the new department, said Nikoloff, and he is consulting with some of the many entrepreneurs in the Harker community to identify candidates.
Meanwhile, Kastelman is excited – and maybe a bit jealous – that the program is in the works. “I can’t wait to see how the program develops!” she said. “I really wish that this program had existed when I was a freshman; I would have definitely chosen to participate in it, and I think this will help Harker students to become even more well-rounded and amazing. The skills that will be taught and learned through the BEP could be applied to any of the other extracurricular activities that Harker offers. For example, a highly involved theater student could participate in the program and learn to start his or her own theater company. I’m really excited to hear that Harker is expanding its educational program.”
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
January 29 will go down in Harker history as the day school administrators were handed an official set of keys to the long coveted new campus property on Union Avenue in San Jose.
Sharing the historic accomplishment with the Harker community, Chris Nikoloff, head of school, recalled a previous groundbreaking moment when the Palo Alto Military Academy and Miss Harker’s School for Girls merged together and moved to San Jose in 1972.
Today, school officials have innovative, strategic plans to turn the Union campus into the future permanent home of the lower school. The site will also be used to launch a preschool starting this September.
Harker first made breaking news when it became top bidder on the available third campus property located at 4525 Union Ave. Following a due diligence period on the Union campus (where Harker reviewed areas such as permit, traffic, environmental and title use), the administration suc- cessfully closed on the Union property in January.
Ever since opening the upper school in 1998, Harker has planned to own three campuses. Currently Harker owns the upper school Saratoga and lower school Bucknall campuses, but holds a lease on the middle school Blackford campus until 2025. However, the Blackford lease has long been viewed as a temporary stopgap measure.
The school’s long-term plan is to locate the middle school on the Bucknall campus and move the lower school to the Union campus. Other plans in the works include: building a gym and theater complex on the Saratoga campus to replace the gym and theater on the Blackford campus; creating a permanent solution for field use; making improvements on the Union campus in preparation for its K-5 use; and relocating some operations at Blackford.
While the preschool would initially operate on the Union property, it would later be transitioned to leased or purchased land when the time comes to move the K-5 programs to Union.
The preschool will serve ages three through (young) five-year-olds with the capacity to serve up to 120 students. Previously, Harker ran a very successful junior kindergarten, but closed that program (as well as the school’s boarding program) to make space for the upper school.
Kelly Espinosa, Harker’s director of summer and preschool programs, said that due to state regulations, the admission process cannot begin until licensing is complete, likely in early July. Currently, Harker is asking interested families to complete an inquiry form to be notified of the preschool’s progress.
“We are all so excited about the new preschool,” said Espinosa. “It is a beautiful facility, and combined with our caring and qualified staff and our rich and balanced learning approach, it promises to be a one-of-a-kind experience for young children!”
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
With information literacy and research skills becoming increasingly important to college-bound high school students, the history and library departments have spent the last several years developing a comprehensive research and writing program to give Harker students an edge in creating scholarly works at the college level.
A work in progress since it began as a collaboration between Susan Smith, library director, and Donna Gilbert, history department chair, in 2006, the program has since grown into a cornerstone of Harker’s history instruction. “It’s become a normative part of every history course at The Harker School, and we’ve carefully scaffolded it and planned it so that the skills build over time, and kids are constantly reinforcing and practicing and mastering and then moving on,” Gilbert said.
The initiative was spurred in part by a feeling that too much emphasis was being placed on multimedia presentations and not enough on strong writing skills – “that PowerPoints and iMovies had started to replace traditional writing,” Gilbert said.
“The reality is that our kids need to go to college and they all need to write really well,” said Smith. History proved to be a great place to begin building this foundation because of its emphasis on studying primary sources, critical thinking and developing thesis-based arguments.
“We try to get them excited about primary sources and looking at the photos of people or artifacts of an era,” said Smith. “But then understanding how to analyze, evaluate and put together a cohesive, thesis-driven argument about something is what’s more important.”
History teachers work with the library department to come up with topics each year that the students at each grade level can choose for their research papers. Key criteria include the types of research required, the amount of researchable information that is readily available and whether the topics have been covered in class.
In grade 9, world history students are assigned a compare-and-contrast research paper on an ancient history topic. During this process, students learn the basics of using databases, creating note cards, paraphrasing sources and writing a thesis. Sophomores deepen their knowledge of databases and begin analyzing more scholarly works, as well as learn to reinforce their theses and create more detailed note cards. “That’s an argumentative, thesis-driven essay where they’re defending one side or the other of an issue, and we give them a choice of lots of issues to pick from,” Smith said.
Grade 11 United States history students may find themselves creating different types of research papers, depending on if they are in an Advanced Placement or regular class. AP students will analyze a Supreme Court case, while regular U.S. history students choose a topic from the Civil War.
This year students were asked to analyze a Civil War-era photograph from the Library of Congress’ American Memories project and create a biography of a person about whom little was known. Doing so required deep research of the world around the person and thinking critically about how he or she would have lived at the time the photograph was taken.
“One of, I think, the most captivating things about the U.S. history project was that they couldn’t possibly have known anything about these obscure people that we found these photographs of,” Smith remarked. “They aren’t in history books. They don’t have Wikipedia articles.”
AP students are given a wide range Supreme Court cases to choose from for their papers. They each then develop a thesis on whether the decision made on the case came from a partisan or neutral interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.
Although teachers and librarians decide which topics are open to students to research, offering a wide variety of topics to choose from is an important part of the curriculum. “We always try to add choice,” Smith said. “That is something we’ve protected and the teachers are great about that.”
For instance, grade 9 World History students may be given a list of five questions to choose from, such as comparing burial rituals from two cultures. They will then be presented with a list of cultures that they can choose to compare. AP U.S. History students are given a list of 120 Supreme Court cases as options to analyze.
Once they have completed three years of historical research and analysis, seniors have the option of applying for a grant to embark on a yearlong independent research project via the John Near Endowment or The Mitra Family Endowment for the Humanities. For this endeavor, students can choose whatever topics they like. “They can move in a direction that really appeals to them intellectually. And we get complete buy-in, because they’ve now not just chosen to apply but they are sent off, really, with very few restrictions and just guidance,” Gilbert said.
Students typically begin the process by arriving with well-developed proposals. “Somewhere in their studies, they’ve decided that they really want to explore the gender identity issues of Frida Kahlo, or they really are interested in educational reform,” Smith said.
Mexican poet Frida Kahlo was a subject of particular fascination for 2012-13 Mitra Family Scholar Shivani Mitra, grade 12 (and daughter of the scholarship’s founders). She began her research by reading books about Kahlo’s life and works. She then got as close to the source as she could. “I took a monthlong trip to Mexico City during the summer, where I was able to use primary source material – letters, diary pages – for my research,” she said.
“I visited her house in Coyoacán multiple times, met her grandnephew and niece, interviewed the curator of her museum, and visited countless museums in the city that had her works. By the end of the summer, I had gathered enough material from which I could start formulating my thesis.”
Mitra found that undertaking this project allowed her to foster her intellectual curiosity, and that learning so much about a person she respects and admires was the most satisfying part. “I enjoyed traveling to Mexico City and discovering Frida for myself, the most. She is a fascinating person, and the more I got to know her, the more I respected her,” she said. “Pursuing an academic passion of mine outside of a classroom, in a different country, by myself, was an amazing experience that I will never forget.”
Ashvin Swaminathan, grade 12, a recipient of a 2012-13 Near Scholar grant, combined his love of music and history for his project. “History is not just a collection of facts, and the patterns and connections between events and people are what make history fascinating to me. I also love classical music, and I play the violin for the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra,” he said. Swaminathan chose to focus on the development of American classical music, with a special focus on the works of Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. “I researched the lives and contributions of these two composers by reading several books from the Harker and local public libraries. I also studied numerous scholarly journal articles about these composers from the Harker library databases,” he said.
Swaminathan found that the two composers left their impressions on one another in several ways, and each had used the plight of Hispanic people as a theme in a major work. “Copland wrote his ‘El Salon Mexico,’ a piece that celebrates Mexico, in 1936 at about the time when the Mexican Repatriation was going on,” he observed. “Interestingly, Bernstein wrote his ‘West Side Story,’ a musical about the Puerto Rican gang wars in New York City, in 1957 when the Puerto Rican immigration to mainland U.S. was at its peak.”
Though Bernstein was candid about his politics, finding information about Copland’s political views proved difficult, so Swaminathan contacted several music scholars, including San Francisco Symphony musicologist Susan Key and the University of Houston’s Howard Pollack, a noted expert on Copland.
Both students found that their research practices have helped them develop skills beyond those required for historical analysis. “The ability to perform thorough analysis and uncover hidden patterns was the most valuable skill I have developed through this research,” said Swaminathan, who added that he also developed the skill “to analyze historical events and thereby extract plausible reasons behind them as well as connections between them. This abstract ability to analyze events and arguments manifests itself in every subject from English to mathematics.”
Similarly, Mitra discovered that her newfound research skills have helped her in writing papers for other classes. “For example, this semester I have a psychology and an English research paper. Finding the right sources comes much easier to me now,” she said.
The program continues to develop thanks to constant collaboration and feedback from teachers who frequently meet to discuss methodology and share their ideas, something that has been an important part of the program since its inception.
“It’s been a five- or six-year journey,” said Gilbert. “We used department meetings for two or three years, with the librarians always there in a kind of collaborative discussion about what’s working and what’s not working.”
This practice continues today, with teachers still learning from one another in brainstorming sessions at department meetings. “We get the best of everybody’s ideas. And they don’t even get that what they’re doing is brilliant,” Smith said. Over time, this sharing of ideas has resulted in a series of best practices that teachers can draw on. “And that’s the nature of teaching,” Smith said. “You go in there, you close the door, you do brilliant things every day and most of the time, nobody knows.”
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
For more than 50 years having fun through learning and play has taken center stage during summer at The Harker School.
Today there is a bevy of unique camps and other programs available to both Harker and non-Harker students and to participants from around the globe. Now, it’s hard to imagine an era when bugling and military drills were on the list of the school’s scheduled summer activities.
Indeed, making magical summer-time memories is an integral part of Harker’s rich historical roots.
According to Terry Walsh, Harker’s archivist, the earliest record of a school summer program dates back to the 1920s. It was then that Harker’s predecessor, the Palo Alto Military Academy (PAMA), first offered a summer schedule of morning academics, followed by military drills, calisthenics, swimming, baseball and hikes.
PAMA also hosted a recreational camp at Camp Eldorado on Lake Alpine in the Sierra, where the boys slept in tent cabins and ate in a log cabin mess hall. Fishing, archery, swimming and campfire programs were offered, and popular activities included bike and horseback riding, bugling, rifle practice and boating.
Then, during the 1950s, the Miss Harker’s School for Girls’ summer program featured Puppet Pantomime, an original variety show presented by the children, as well as pool activities, arts, crafts and woodworking. By the 1960s, the Harker Day School featured a six-week summer program of “Academics, Recreation, and Just Plain Fun!”
After the move to the Saratoga campus in 1972 and into the 1980s, Harker’s summer programs continued to offer academic enrichment, recreation and sports for boys and girls in both boarding and day programs. Activities included archery, dance, drama, martial arts and weight training, along with an ESL program, with boarding students coming from around the world.
Flash forward to the present, and this summer will again offer a potpourri of summer programming options including Camp+ for younger children, the Summer Institute (SI) for middle and high school students, a range of sports camp offerings, and the still successful English Language Institute (ELI) program.
Last season saw expanded programming for the sports camps, which will continue this year with options for soccer, basketball, volleyball and water polo camps. Also new was the sports camp’s integration of lower and middle school athletics with upper school instructors to create a seamless path for athletes within their chosen sports.
But athletic camps are just one of the summer options. For students in K-6, Summer Camp+ offers a full day of morning academics and afternoon activities. Located on Harker’s lower school campus, parents choose sessions by their preferred format, with full, partial-day and morning-only options. Students have the choice of enrolling in either CoreFocus or LOL (Learning Opportunities in Literature). Core Focus is a three- or four-week math and language arts-focused program. LOL is a two-week integrated curriculum centered around a literary theme. Afternoon activities include swim lessons, archery, circus, sports and games, special theme days, a climbing wall and so much more!
“My favorite thing about camp is making hearts,” said first-time camper, five-year-old Sophie Grace speaking about an art activity she did at Camp+ last summer. Grace, who is not a Harker student, also said she enjoyed making new friends at camp.
Meanwhile, the Summer Institute gives students from grades 6-12 the chance to earn credits, learn new skills and follow their passions. Last year’s institute attracted 722 students, with many taking multiple courses.
The for-credit courses include a variety of class options in math, history and technology. Upper school enrichment courses span math, writing, art, history and driver’s education. Middle school enrichment includes several core subjects as well as classes as varied as money management and learning about hip-hop.
“I’m a Harker ‘lifer,’” enthused Jenna Sadhu, grade 7, although last year was her first time at the SI. “It’s more laid back than during the regular school year … I’m really glad Harker made the institute and highly recommend it!”
In addition to the programs for local residents like Sadhu, each year more than 100 international students from elementary through high school participate in Harker’s renowned ELI program. They come with the goal of improving their English and writing skills but leave with a breathtaking exposure to cultural adventures as well. The sightseeing trips are incorporated into the curriculum, and students use their travel experiences to create written and oral projects for presentation.
From ELI to SI, sports and Summer Camp+, summer at Harker offers something for everyone. And, modeling the Harker spirit of pioneering, what started out more than half a century ago as a simple camp for Harker’s predecessor, PAMA, has since evolved into a comprehensive variety of summer offerings.
Delighted that Harker has been offering outstanding summer programs that meet the needs of Harker families and the greater community for so many years, Kelly Espinosa, director of summer programs, said, “We’re looking forward to yet another exciting summer of amazing academics and awesome activities!”
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Harker progresses in its mission to help students become global citizens, the school’s foreign language department has been instrumental in not only equipping students with the skills to communicate, but also instilling familiarity, understanding and admiration of many different cultures.
From on-campus cultural events, to visits by authors and musicians, to trips overseas, the foreign language program strives to create an immersive experience to make students enthusiastic about languages and the cultures of the people who speak them.
“There’s just so much energy connected to the immersive experience that really motivates the kids,” said Abel Olivas, upper school Spanish teacher and foreign language department chair. “It’s almost like they don’t even really realize that they’re learning.”
One indicator of how valued foreign language education is at Harker is its early introduction into the curriculum. In grade 1, students attend one period of Spanish each week. Students in grades 4 and 5 attend two periods a week. Upon reaching grade 6, they may take Spanish, French, Japanese, Latin or Mandarin for four periods each week.
“It’s wonderful to introduce foreign language study as early as possible,” said Carol Parris, K-8 foreign languages department chair. “In terms of oral fluency, young students are generally good mimics and less inhibited about speaking than students who start the study of language in later years.”
Diana Moss, an upper school Spanish teacher, says beginning early also helps students pick up patterns in different languages, enabling them to transition from one foreign language to another much more easily. “I do think that there is something to the effect that once you’re working with language, it’s easier and easier,” she said. “You understand how to put languages together.”
This foundation often results in students taking level 3 language classes in their first year of high school. “Very few high schools encourage freshmen to enter level 3 language classes,” Parris added.
This level of proficiency, however, isn’t just the result of starting young. At every level, teachers go to great lengths to keep their students engaged and excited about learning languages. “Language students enjoy learning about the countries and cultures where the languages are spoken,” Parris said. “In addition to language, they learn about geography, art, music and customs, participate in holiday celebrations, have food tastings, etc. A highlight of 2M classes [for students who have taken the three-year middle school language sequence] is going to a restaurant of the appropriate nationality.”
Such activities take students beyond the often rote process of learning a foreign language to help them develop a more emotional connection to the languages they are learning. “Let’s face it,” Moss said. “Grammar and learning vocabulary are not the most exciting things in the world. The thing that makes a foreign language fun is the culture.”
Olivas, for example, teaches students in his classes how to dance salsa. “It’s one of the things that they seem to really enjoy, even the kids who are not dancers,” he said. They also delve into the lives of famous salsa artists, such as Cuban-American legend Celia Cruz.
Other teachers treat their students to local cultural events, such as the Japanese tea ceremony in San Francisco which was attended by the students of middle school Japanese teacher Kumi Matsui. Similarly, upper school Mandarin teacher Shaun Jahshan has taken her students to local Chinese-American marketplaces, where they use their knowledge of Chinese to order food and milk tea.
Angela Ma, grade 11, who has studied French at Harker since grade 6, said the cultural elements in her classes have enhanced her enjoyment and understanding of the language. “All of my French textbooks dedicate many pages to cultural and social comparisons, which my French teachers then expand on in class,” she said. “These extra mini-lessons on French tradition not only make everyday French class more relevant, but also remind the students that French is a language that encompasses much more than grammar and vocabulary.”
Teachers also liven up the classroom by inventing games to make the learning process more fun for their students. One of Olivas’ most popular classroom activities is the fly swatter game in which Olivas says a word or phrase in English or Spanish and students use a fly swatter to slap a synonymous Spanish word or phrase written on the board.
“Because they’re having a blast with it, the energy level goes up, and this learning process doesn’t feel like grunt work. It’s actually enjoyable,” Olivas said.
“We spend a lot of time having students practice in pairs, do group works and play games for reviewing materials, and there is always lively interaction going on in class, which makes foreign language classes unique from the rest of academic classes,” said Masako Onakado, who teaches upper school Japanese.
“The nice thing about foreign language is that it’s really whatever you want to talk about,” Moss said, remembering a time when Olivas walked into her classroom to ask her students what they thought of his sweater, sparking a long and lively discussion about his wardrobe, entirely in Spanish.
To create a more immersive environment, teachers often enforce a “No English” rule while class is in session. Olivas said this helps students mentally associate people and places with a language, thereby making use of the language feel more natural. “If you can get them to associate people and places with that language then it becomes more automatic; it’s like a switch comes on,” he said. Not surprisingly, foreign language teachers at Harker are full of stories about encountering their students outside the classroom, who then speak to them in their second languages almost automatically.
In addition to its unique approach to teaching languages, Harker’s foreign language program also offers an unusually wide array of languages for students to learn. “It might be difficult for some people, but the variety is amazing,” said Erik Andersen, grade 12, who started learning Latin in grade 10 and now studies Japanese. “The availability of Latin, Romance and Asian languages has been a rewarding experience for me, allowing me to learn about many different aspects of language and culture.”
Moss said support from Harker families, many of them multilingual, is a big reason for the depth of foreign language options. “The families here really value second-language education,” she said. “They have seen firsthand how important it is in this world economy to have languages under your belt.”
Students frequently find that their study of languages has applications beyond the classroom. “I chose French, in particular, because I do ballet and all of the dance steps are named in French,” said Ma. “Learning French has allowed me to understand ballet in a much more meaningful way by exposing me to the history and origins of the art.” She has also had the chance to use her French skills overseas during trips to France and Switzerland. “Two years ago, I traveled to Switzerland with the Harker Exchange Program. While I was there, I spoke almost entirely French the whole time,” she said. “Speaking French helped me become closer with my host family and appreciate the way of life in Switzerland.”
Andersen has found that his studies in Latin have enabled him to pick up on the meanings of English words that were previously unknown to him. “It might also help me if I decide I want to try to learn a Romance language later on,” he said.
Another important component of Harker’s foreign language education is trips to parts of the world where the languages are spoken natively. Students visit Japan, China and other countries every year to immerse themselves in their cultures and converse with native speakers. In 2011, middle school Spanish students embarked for the first time on a language immersion trip to Costa Rica, where they visited various important landmarks, participated in cultural celebrations and visited with the local population, using their Spanish language skills to communicate. This summer, middle school students will again participate in this trip, which is scheduled to take place every other summer.
Once overseas, Moss said, students often find themselves less apprehensive about using their second languages. “There’s really nothing like the actual experience of being in a foreign country and using a foreign language,” she said. “Kids tend to be kind of timid in the class. They don’t think they speak very well, but when they get out in the real world, they say, ‘Oh, my gosh, I can communicate,’ and it’s exciting for them.”
For many students, this passion for languages continues after graduation. “In the past few years, we have had growing number of students continuing to study Japanese in college,” Onakado said. “In this past year alone, we had four alumni going to Japan on study abroad programs.” Several more students, she said, are planning to study in Japan to learn more about the country’s culture and improve their proficiency with the language, even though most of them are not Japanese language majors.
Katherin Hudkins ’06, daughter of lower school art teacher Susan Bass and Director of Instructional Technology Dan Hudkins, spent a year in Ecuador as a birth doula and worked as a midwife’s apprentice in Guatemala. She Skyped from Ecuador with a Spanish class in 2009, and visited Harker in 2010 to speak to the students about her experiences.
“By the time they’re done with our program, I think that they really feel that … this is one of their languages,” Olivas said. “We haven’t heard back from them for a couple of years, and then all of a sudden you hear either that they’re minoring in the language or that they just spent a year in South America or they just did this great community service work.”
The importance of foreign language studies at Harker has resulted in many awards and honors for its students. Japanese language students have taken top honors at the Japan Bowl in Washington, D.C., several times and once even earned the opportunity to visit Japan and meet with the Imperial Princess. Harker also inducts dozens of students into the National Honor Societies of its foreign language programs. Students on many occasions have also taken top spots in linguistics competitions. Andersen, for example, helped his team win first place at last year’s International Linguistics Olympiad in Slovenia.
Ultimately, Moss views foreign language education as another way of helping students become citizens of the world and not just of the country in which they grew up. “Our students understand that they are global citizens, and it’s not about just living and understanding [American] culture,” Moss said.
Olivas also stressed that learning a new language, though useful, is more than just learning about how people talk: “It’s connected to how people live and how they express themselves, the ways in which they’re unique, the ways in which their societies are rich.”
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly
The end of January marked the beginning of the winter video conferences between grade 6 students and their contemporaries from Harker’s sister school, Tamagawa Gakuen, in Tokyo, Japan.
“All of our sixth graders have been partnered with a buddy in Japan whom they have been emailing through their computer science class,” said Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education.
Back in September, grade 6 students “met” their Tamagawa buddies and families from Japan for the first time via two separately held video conferences.
This spring, a contingent of Harker’s grade 6 students will head to Japan as part of the reciprocal exchange program.
“The video conferences are fun events held on the Blackford campus. We have a translator present to assist with communication,” explained Walrod. “The students are always so excited for them!”
The Blackford Theater came alive on March 15 for the annual Evening of Jazz, a concert featuring student musicians from all three campuses playing selections both modern and classic. The Upper School Jazz Band, directed by Chris Florio, got things under way with the famous Latin-flavored Dizzy Gillespie tune “Manteca,” and contined with the theme song to the most recent James Bond film, “Skyfall,” sung by Nina Sabharwal, grade 12.
Louis Hoffman and the Lower School Jazz Ensemble took the stage next, kicking off their set with a piece by student Anika Fuloria, grade 4, titled “Jazz in the Park,” followed by Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father” and the theme to the late 1950s-early ’60s television show “Peter Gunn” by Henry Mancini.
Harker Winds, the grade 6 middle school ensemble directed by Dave Hart, then performed their own arrangement of the 1930s American popular song “You Are My Sunshine” and “Cantaloupe Island” by Herbie Hancock. Hart proceeded to lead the Middle School Jazz Band in a set of four tunes, including “Four” by Miles Davis and “St. Thomas” by Sonny Rollins. The middle school musicians were soon after joined by the lower school jazz ensemble to perform Miles Davis’ “Blues by Five.”
Count Basie’s lively “Jive at Five” was the first of five songs performed by the Upper School Lab Band, directed by Hart, followed by no fewer than three Horace Silver songs and finishing with “Malaguena” by Ernesto Lecuona. Florio and the Upper School Jazz Band returned to perform a five-song set, including the Broadway favorite “My Funny Valentine,” the Irving Berlin classic “Blue Skies” and concluding with “Frequent Flyer” by Rich Woolworth.
The show ended with the jazz bands from the upper and middle schools performing the familiar favorite “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
Field trips are a much anticipated highlight of the year for Harker’s third graders. Their last outing was to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where they participated in the Discovery Lab, a hands-on lab providing students with a fun introduction to some of Monterey Bay’s most precious habitats and the animals that live there.
“Live marine invertebrates and the science processes were used during this activity,” explained Jeannette Bhatia, grade 3 science instructor, noting how much students enjoyed their visit to the aquarium.
After their time in the lab, the youngsters were free to explore the aquarium further, where they took full advantage, enjoying the splash zone, jellyfish, touch pools, puffins and kelp forest.
Come May, the third graders will be heading off to the California Academy of Sciences for another fun learning adventure!
On March 16, more than 143 students from 23 high schools came to the Harker campus for the third annual Harker Invitational Programming Contest. The event pits teams of three students against each other in two challenge rounds of problem-solving and programming.
The Harker Invitational is the only high school programming contest in the Bay Area that is organized and run by high school students. Harker junior Divyahans Gupta, grade 11, and seniors Lynda Tang, Maddie Dawson and Wilbur Yang led the effort which included fundraising, problem writing, generating the scoring software, getting a keynote speaker and organizing a college fair.
The event was originally created by Christine Chen ’10 in order to provide a forum that lets students interested in computer science, especially girls, compete. Many schools lack a computer science program, especially schools in economically disadvantaged areas. Even in affluent areas, many schools lack a CS program. One key objective of the contest is to give these students an outlet for their interest in computing.
This year’s contest attracted students from throughout the Bay Area, including San Francisco and Albany.
Registration for the contest filled almost immediately. Given the demand, the Programming Club hopes to increase the number of teams by about 15 percent next year. In addition to competing in the programming contest, students were treated to an amazing interactive talk by Dr. Dan Garcia of the University of California, Berkeley, who spoke about his research in game theory. The auditorium in Nichols Hall was filled with students who participated in several activities orchestrated by Garcia that illustrated his work. The students were spellbound and participated eagerly.
Following lunch in the Edge catered by Harker chef Danae McLaughlin, participants visited with professors from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara University, Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Tom Cortina of CMU commented on how well the contest was run and said that he is looking forward to being invited to next year’s contest; he said it was well worth the trip from Pittsburgh.
The contest was made possible by generous donations from the Harker parent community and SanDisk. The officers and members of the Programming Club are to be congratulated for another overwhelmingly successful day of computer science.