Upper School Archives

Head’s Message: Witnessing History With Our Freethinkers and Right Makers

January 19, 2017

By Dr. Bill Hudson, Head of School

It is rare that we have an opportunity to be a part of history. On Friday, I will be with 43 Upper School students witnessing the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States. Our road to Washington D.C. had its genesis in the Upper School Election Club and has been in the works for nearly a year. No one could have predicted the outcome then, but along the journey, MPA students have learned a great deal about themselves and their place in the world. While it hasn’t been an easy road, they have debated ideas, sought understanding, grappled with difficult issues, and explored the privilege and responsibility that comes with citizenship. Students have wrestled with the balance between respectful discourse and passionate advocacy for social justice and the common good.

From Dr. Hudson: What Problem Do You Want To Solve?

October 5, 2016

“Instead of asking children what they want to be when they grow up, we should instead ask them what problem do they want to solve,” said Jaime Casap, chief educational evangelist at Google. According to Casap, most jobs of the future haven’t been defined yet. Instead of preparing students to enter today’s workforce, we should foster a mindset that empowers students for success in a rapidly dynamic, global society.

Author Ken Bain, in his book, “What the Best College Students Do” draws a distinction between “strategic” learners and “deep” learners. Strategic learners are driven by external rewards, such as grades and honors. They often have superficial understanding of their disciplines and are rarely able to transfer that learning. Conversely, according to Bain, deep learners are driven by their own curiosity and sense of wonder. They conceive of their own education as a great adventure. They are reflective, self-directed, and autonomous. They are resilient and embrace failure. They see themselves as part of a broader learning community, and they find perspective, support, and inspiration from that community. In the long term, they are more successful—and happier.

Head’s Message | May 26, 2016

May 26, 2016

This is the last week of classes for our outstanding senior class and I am truly going to miss them. Although there are many events, traditions, and celebrations leading up to graduation, this week will be bittersweet. Early in the year, I had lunch with them in small groups and I enjoyed hearing their reflections on their time at MPA and was inspired by their hopes for the future. A common theme that emerged from those lunches was that MPA not only helped them develop the gifts and talents they already had, it helped them discover gifts and talents they never knew were possible. They also spoke of the influence MPA had in discovering their own uniqueness, as well as inspiring them to embrace the same in others.

It can be challenging to get a pulse on how engaged students are with their school. The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) has partnered with Indiana University to measure student engagement through the use of the High School Survey of Student Engagement (HSSSE). This survey is taken by hundreds of thousands of students in public, private, and independent schools across the nation. The data are rich and the contrasts significant. For instance, in 2015, 60 percent of the participating students in independent schools indicated that their schools contributed “very much” to their ability to write effectively (versus 31 percent for the public school students) and 59 percent indicated the same for their critical thinking skills (verses 29 percent). Read More