On the Same Page

The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

Communications from the Director

On the Same Page

February 2007
David W. Magill, Director

Our new high school principal, Matthew Horvat, admits that he has much to learn. While that may be true, let me add that he is an unusually quick study. In a very short time, he has grown to appreciate the real difference between University High School and most other good high schools that both of us have experienced in the past.

He has observed the special moments of inspiration that happen daily. He deeply appreciates the culture of inquiry that pervades the entire University of Chicago, and he knows that every good organization can improve.

He is leading the high school in a critical examination of its schedule, he is carefully working with our departments to select outstanding new members of our faculty, and he is getting to know one of the most able student bodies in the country.

Leading a high performance high school is perhaps the most difficult job in pre-collegiate education. I am confident that the right person is leading ours.

Matthew Horvat, Principal, University High School

Although I have been at U-High only since July, certain qualities of the high school stand out. In fact, these qualities were part of what I saw when I interviewed, and they influenced my desire to lead the high school. The intellectual life that students and faculty enjoy at U-High is unique. Having worked in five other independent schools, I can make some comparisons among them, and while all of the schools where I previously worked had many students who strove for academic success, often this pursuit was not synonymous with an interest in the life of the mind. Such endeavors were far more utilitarian: good grades lead to prestigious colleges; degrees from prestigious colleges lead to lucrative professional lives.

At U-High there is a lively intellectual life that shows itself in everything from students lingering after class to continue discussing ideas to the research students undertake at Regenstein Library on the weekends for their Model U.N. topics and the number of independent studies that students pursue with faculty advisors. Just this term alone, there are twenty-eight independent studies. Among these studies are beginning Italian lessons, the reading of Robert Fagles' new translation of The Aeneid, and a philosophy project on John Dewey's writings.

I imagine that these observations aren't themselves unique. After all, what would one expect in a school where so many of the families are connected with the University of Chicago. Yet in the broader world of education, what happens every day at U-High is unusual. There's even inspiration in simply reading the fliers posted by student groups advertising community service fund raisers, guest speakers, and, of course the standard fare high school dance (a slightly less intellectual activity).

Of course, fundamental to the culture of the school is the faculty, who promote and nurture the school's intellectual life. Every day dozens of students meet with teachers to go over math problems, to discuss essay topics, or just to talk about shared interests. The relationships that develop between students and faculty often extend years beyond a student's time at U-High.

What also stands out is something that I believe is an outgrowth of the intellectual culture of the school. On the whole, students are respectful of and kind to each other. In my meetings this fall with many students, including representatives from the Black Students Association, the Jewish Students Association, the Queer-Straight Alliance, and the Asian Students Association, all of them emphasized the general comfort students feel with differences as well as the existence of an affinity group for everyone.

Now the challenge is how best to preserve and nourish this culture. We are in the era of packaging young people in efforts to highlight impressive high school resumes. This is a climate that doesn't encourage reading for pleasure, doing something just because one is interested, or digging into an area of study, perhaps even, in the process, becoming passionate about it. Instead, parents are bombarded with such titles as The Trouble with Perfect: How Parents Can Avoid the Overachievement Trap and Still Raise Successful Children and Too Much of a Good Thing: Raising Children of Character in an Indulgent Age. Perhaps we ought to get our own book out there, something along the lines of High School Kids Who Read For Fun.

But part of nourishing what's most compelling about U-High is figuring out what we can do better and where we can improve. As Sara Lawrence Lightfoot underscores in The Good High School, "one of the qualities of good schools is their recognition and articulation of imperfection. Weakness, made visible, can be confronted directly and worked with over time" (p. 24). We are in an enviable position at U-High, having a school culture that invites young people to think and question, to develop clear and persuasive ideas and that does so in a setting where adults are empathic and available. Just as good writing reflects careful revising, we must also determine where we need to revise and edit, take stock of what we are doing, and improve when we need to. And, as we do so, we must ensure that what is unique and noble about U-High, what is actually counter-cultural at this point in time, remains fundamental to our central mission.

I've been here for seven months. Many of my colleagues have decades of experience at U-High. I have much to learn, and I look forward to doing that in such a dynamic setting.