RHS Open House and FCIS Conference Highlights

This past week, we had the opportunity to share our school with prospective 9th graders and families at our Open House program. We were so proud of our student tour guides, as well as both of our students, Dylan Joseph and Abraham Waserstein, who spoke about our school and their experiences. We look forward to upcoming day visits from 8th grade students and meetings with families.

On Thursday, I traveled to Miami with other school leaders to attend the FCIS (Florida Council of Independent Schools) Conference. I attended sessions on the “Changing Landscape of College Admission,” “Building Resiliency in Students” and “What Education Will Look Like in 2025.” Additionally, I enjoyed keynote lectures on methods to help children succeed and on the power of mindfulness practices on the brain, the body and the individual as a whole.

Some of the ideas shared in these sessions included:

• New application procedures, fee waivers, marketing and revenue structures have increased the application pools to universities - both public and private - tremendously
• Schools across the country are looking to increase diversity in their student population
• Many schools are looking more at the whole individual - not just test scores and GPA - as they want to know how YOU will add to their campus
• Schools pay attention, even at a public university, if you have shown interest in their school prior to applying: did you visit, go on a tour, answer an email from them, etc.
• Our cultures highlight resume virtues when we really should be highlighting character virtues
• Grit and perseverance are better predictors for success than pure intellect
• In the world of the future,can we move from competition built on defeating to competition for development of collaboration, resilience, challenge; Can we see a loss or failure as a chance for growth?
• Cursive writing will be obsolete in 5 years and keyboards will be soon after; everything will move to audio and dictation
• Teaching is not the wave of the future; the teacher as facilitator, mentor and guide is the wave as all of the information is readily accessible
• Core academic (classroom) success will not be the core of the educational experience; creativity, compassion and critical thinking skills will be near the top as those are the items, coupled with intellect, that colleges and employers are seeking

Rabbi Lesack