message from the head of school
A Balance to Strike
DEAR CATHEDRAL SCHOOL COMMUNITY:
And while the growth of programs like Experiential Education, STEM, and Student Leadership Development operate as conduits for the development of necessary skills at Cathedral School, essential content remains important, too. We believe students need to learn content that allows them to build connections across curricular areas, to make meaning of the world, and to appreciate their place in it. Thus, we are in the process of organizing our curriculum in ways that deconstruct the typical silos that often impede a student’s ability to make important connections across content areas. Such connections, we believe, prepare our students for the rigorous high school programs that they will face later in their careers, and they are necessary for complex problem-solving and fundamental to productive citizenship and leadership. Perhaps, more than anything else, the key to academic excellence resides in our desire to continue to evaluate our approach, to be open to new ideas, and to be research-based in the way we construct our academic programs. We want to hold true to all that is remarkable about our program, and regularly evaluate how we make our program even better. Very truly yours,
Our Red & Gold magazine presents an opportunity for Cathedral School to highlight so many of the people and programs that make our school
special. Perhaps no component is more important than our academic program. We are known to provide one of the top K–8 academic programs in the Bay Area, and there are a number of reasons for that reputation. As many of you know, there has been a seismic shift in the way schools have, or at least should, approach the process of education. For decades, if not centuries, the American educational model was premised upon the delivery of content — what students needed to know to be successful adults. Typically, this approach placed teachers and the materials they developed or delivered at the center of the classroom experience. Teachers represented the primary and often only source of learning within this model. That model has shifted in this technological age. Now that information is ubiquitous, schools have grown to recognize the importance of the development of skills — the attributes, behaviors, and approaches that students need to develop to become capable citizens in a global and increasingly complex world. (Public speaking represents an important program within this approach, and we have chosen to profile our Public Speaking program in this edition on page 20.) Like most things in life, however, there is a balance to strike.
Burns Jones Head of School
2024–2025 red & gold | 1
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