The pursuit of
excellence has long been a defining pillar of the mission of MFIS. Member schools value the pursuit of high moral and academic
standards for the students we serve. Our schools strive to encourage all
aspects of our students’ intellectual and personal capabilities by providing
challenging learning environments where students strive to reach their full
potential as individuals and as contributing members of society.
Traditionally,
much of the focus of our academic programs has been on the three Rs - “reading
‘riting and ‘rithmetic,” appropriately enriched with ample opportunities to
develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. Our students have been
well served by such a model, but as we contemplate the sort of education
required for the 21st century - in post-secondary studies and beyond
- is this enough?
Robert J.
Sternberg, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University, has
proposed that the criteria for excellence needs to be expanded to include not
only the traditional three Rs, but also to include “the other three Rs:”
reasoning, resilience, and responsibility” (2008. “Excellence for
All,” Educational Leadership, Vol.
66, No. 2, 14-19)
Reasoning refers
to the “set of thinking skills that a person needs to be an engaged, active
citizen of the world (Sternberg, P. 17).” Not only does this include the
critical and analytical thinking long valued by our schools, but it also places
renewed importance on creative
thinking that helps to generate new ideas; practical
thinking for implementing ideas in real world situations; and wise thinking that focuses on caring
about the common good and the impact of one’s actions on others.
Resilience refers
to instilling in our students the attributes needed to develop “persistence in
achieving goals despite the obstacles life places in our way (Sternberg, p. 18).”
Resilience is a necessary component of academic excellence because it braces
children for the challenges they will face in school and in life. Resilient
children develop a belief in their own self-efficacy to achieve goals, are willing
to think independently, and pursue their goals with passion. We know that true
learning often emerges from taking risks and learning from both successes and failures. This ability to pick oneself
up, dust off, adapt and get back at it is more important than ever in a rapidly
changing world
Responsibility refers to the ethical and moral
development of our students. Our faith-based schools have done a terrific job
of paying attention to this critical element of the development of the
well-rounded person. This brings to mind the famous excerpt from the original
Deed of Gift of New Hampshire’s Philips Exeter Academy written over 200 years
ago:
[I]t is expected that the attention of
instructors to the disposition of the minds and morals of the youth under their
charge will exceed every other care; well considering that though goodness
without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is
dangerous, and that both united form the noblest character, and lay the surest
foundation of usefulness to mankind. (http://www.exeter.edu/)
This central dimension of schooling reminds us that private education
has a public purpose to instil in our students a caring attitude that balances
one’s own interests with those of others and the ability to clearly distinguish
right from wrong - and to act accordingly. In today’s rapidly changing society
with its complex challenges it is more important than ever to provide our
students with a solid ethical and moral footing to help guide them throughout
their lives.
An expanded view of academic excellence in our schools will see our
students well prepared for the very different future that awaits them. A
successful program of academic excellence will contribute to the common good by
graduating those who will know how to make the world a better place.
Bruce Neal
Executive Director
