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Athletics for All!

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While reading through the interview transcripts of students at Everdeen, one particular theme stood out to me as emerging within many contexts. That theme was sports. One specific interviewee seemed to be able to incorporate his participation in athletics and sports while at Everdeen into his responses to almost every question asked of him. At Everdeen, “everybody has to do sport training in school” (Jake Anderson). This idea of each student being required to partake in some type of athletic activity or sport at school is certainly an interesting one. It is not necessarily uncommon for schools, especially elite ones, to require students to participate in athletics in some capacity. This requirement can’t be considered solely positive or negative for the student’s educational experience, given that there are both pros and cons to it.  

Those in leadership roles at Everdeen “claim sports provide a unifying experience for students” (Howard, 2020, p. 9). In claiming this, they are not necessarily wrong. As student Jake Anderson describes, “kids go and play sport with each other… we all mingle with each other.” The very prominent aspect of sports and athletics in life at Everdeen is a great way for the students to broaden their social circles and get to know students who they would not typically interact with a little bit better. The students are given a space to collaborate and work together on a team in a different atmosphere, and through doing this they are gaining very crucial communication and cooperation skills. Those at Everdeen “believe that involvement in sports provides a much more important instructional setting for teaching these lessons” (Howard, 2020, p. 9) as opposed to other methods that could be used. This aspect of socialization through the various sports teams and athletic events is certainly a pro of the requirement. 

The student whose interview transcripts I read, Jake Anderson, also consistently mentions that sports are “like a way to [get] out of studies, get your mind off things, but have fun with your friends at the same time and just have the best time that you can.” He responded with this after being asked what role sports play in his life. It is clear that he, as well as many other students at Everdeen, truly enjoys participating in his respective sports and athletics. Students feel as though it is a great way to clear their minds of any school-related issues, as well as anything else that might be impacting them. This helps keep the student’s mental health in a good space, by assuring that they are not constantly surrounded by the stressors of school and life and that they have a space to decompress. These are all certainly positive things that come out of the school’s athletic requirement, and they are not to be discounted when considering the negative aspects as well.  

Also at Everdeen, however, the student’s participation in sports seems like it almost overshadows their participation in other extracurricular activities, as well as their academics. As displayed by the tendency of this student to center his answers about his experience at Everdeen, a place of education, around his experience playing sports and participating in athletics, he clearly thinks of it as a very prominent aspect of his life. He rarely describes his actual classroom experiences at Everdeen, which could be a sign of them being on the back burner in his mind. He is evidently very focused on his involvement in sports, almost so much that it overtakes everything else. He also states, “I don’t really do anything else,” when being asked what he does outside of school besides sports. In this, it is clear that the athletic involvement is overshadowing any other extracurricular activities that students may want to partake in, such as music or art. Students seem to become so enthralled in athletics that they forget to leave room for other activities that could be beneficial to them as well. 

This pattern of placing athletics over academics and other activities is not specific to Everdeen and can be seen at many elite educational institutions. For example, many student-athletes at Colby have developed a reputation of caring more about their sport than they do about their academics. This is again, not necessarily a bad thing, it is just something to keep in mind since one of the main purposes of pursuing higher education is to learn. Clearly, elite educational institutions, like Everdeen and Colby, need to be careful how they promote athletic involvement to students. These places need to emphasize that it is definitely important for socialization, mental health, and overall experience. In doing this, they also need to be careful about pushing student involvement too much, because it can easily lead to over-prioritization and hyper-focusing on the wrong things while at school. 

Citation: 

Adam Howard (2020): Globally elite: four domains of becoming globally oriented within elite schools, Educational Review, DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2020.1805412

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The “Food and Festivals” Approach to Educating Students on Global Citizenship

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One of the most crucial educational goals at many elite institutions is teaching students how to be global citizens. Global citizenship refers to being educated about other countries regarding their culture, beliefs, values, etc., and being able to contextualize yourself within the larger social world using this knowledge. This involves understanding your place in relation to others across the globe and being knowledgeable about various things within a global setting. Each of the elite educational institutions that we have studied throughout this course employs different methods and techniques in order to educate their students on the notion of global citizenship. The school that I am researching, Everdeen, has a variety of different approaches that they use. One of their most prominent is what is known as the “Food and Festivals” approach. This approach is one that turns the cultures of different countries “into something the communities consume and celebrate” (Howard 7). Instead of formally educating the students about different countries’ cultures in the classroom and through taught lessons, the school chooses to put on multicultural festivals and fairs instead. 

When asked how their school provides opportunities for students to reflect on different cultural values, students at Everdeen describe that the school puts on a “fair every year.” This fair seems to function as an educational opportunity that the school takes to bring aspects of many different cultures to their students. The student whose interviews I read described the fair like so: “Um, so they bring food, so, different types of foods and then you get to go around and try it all out, but you have to pay for it, obviously. Um, then the house will hold, like, different dances–.” It is clear here that the only aspects of the cultures that are represented at the fair are their traditional food items, music styles, and dances. These aspects of culture are very important, but there are many more aspects that do not appear to be touched on at this fair that the school puts on. With this type of fair, I am envisioning lots of tables splayed out with enormous spreads of authentic food, with music being played behind each and people dancing all around. This is all fun and represents many aspects of the cultures, but it does not quite educate the students on some of the important areas that they would need to be knowledgeable about in order to be well-functioning global citizens. 

At these types of fairs where cultures from around the globe become some type of materialistic object for people to view and eat, students do not always take away the desired messages. The students seem to be associating this supposed multicultural learning opportunity with something that is more along the lines of a “carnival.” One student even mentioned that there are “different rides” at the event, which definitely does make it seem like a carnival. By combining these two functions, a multicultural educational event and a carnival, the school is sending conflicting messages out to students. They are not being given the opportunity to really learn about these cultures in terms of their values, traditions, beliefs, etc. Instead, they are reducing them to certain foods and music styles. There is so much more to be learned about people’s cultures, and these students simply aren’t learning it through this approach. It is easy for the school to brand the event in a seemingly educational way, but when you boil it down, it is not very educational at all.  If these students are supposedly being educated on global citizenship and what it means to be a contributing member of the global community, they should have more to say about how the school educates them on different cultures than just by putting on some type of carnival. 

There are many alternative approaches to educating students on global citizenship that Everdeen could incorporate into its curriculum as alternatives to this approach. Culture needs to be “something to integrate throughout students’ educational experiences” (Howard 7). By this, it is meant that cultures should not just be given one day a year to be showcased to the student body. Information about them should be constantly incorporated into the learning that happens within the classrooms every day. By doing this instead, the school will be able to educate students on the other aspects of culture, not just food and music. Gaining this knowledge will allow students to better understand their own culture in relation to others, and they will be able to contextualize themselves within the larger global community, just as they should be doing as global citizens. 

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Citation: Adam Howard (2020): Globally elite: four domains of becoming globally-oriented within elite schools, Educational Review, DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2020.1805412

 

The Parallel Education Model: A Help or A Hindrance?

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One of the most interesting aspects of the Everdeen school, in my opinion, is its parallel education model. This education style consists of each sex being taught within separate buildings and classrooms, but those buildings and classrooms are all located on the same campus. It appears that the institution was aiming to create some type of middle ground between same-sex and co-ed schooling, something that combines both into one larger system. As someone who has always been educated in a co-ed environment, this was extremely intriguing to me. Before reading about first-hand experiences with this model, I was having a hard time understanding what it would be like to be in an environment like that, and how it could benefit but also harm one’s educational experience. 

While the interviewed student who was currently attending Everdeen did not have much to say regarding this model, the Everdeen Alumnim who had the chance to experience a co-ed environment while at university certainly did. This alone was interesting to me, seeing how the student who was currently being educated within the parallel education model did not seem to think it was notable enough to speak about when being asked questions specifically about his educational experiences at Everdeen. This could be due to the fact that he had yet to experience a co-ed environment at school and had nothing to compare it to, or maybe he just became so used to it that it doesn’t seem out of the ordinary to him anymore. The alumni, on the other hand, having been through a co-ed experience at university during the time of the interview, had a lot to reflect upon regarding her high school educational experiences within this model. 

The alumni immediately told the interviewer that she actually thoroughly enjoyed the parallel education model at Everdeen. She explained that the separation of boys and girls was much more prominent in her younger years at Everdeen, and as she grew older and the class sizes grew smaller, they began to become more mixed. She said that she enjoyed being separated during those younger years because they are typically an awkward time for students, and “all the boys are a bit yuck.” I could see how being separated during that time could be beneficial for increasing student comfort levels within the classroom, especially for girls. 

I remember middle school as a time when boys started to first announce their crushes quite proudly and would attempt to compliment and flirt with those lucky few. As a middle school girl, especially one with very little experience talking to boys, this can elicit some very awkward and uncomfortable feelings. Despite this, I think it is important for student socialization purposes that kids go through this and deal with those awkward and uncomfortable feelings head-on. It taught me, and I can assume many others, how to appropriately respond in these situations, how to react while keeping the feelings of others in mind, and how to continue coexisting after the fact. This alumnus was never able to have this learning experience, and that could have had an impact on her social development later on. However, at the time she was in middle school, I doubt that she was thinking about her social development so I can see how the separation seemed great at the time.  

Growing older and becoming more exposed to co-ed environments seemed to be something that the alumni, whose interview I read, also enjoyed. She discusses the fact that she had friends who only attended all-girls schools, and after talking to them she feels more grateful for her opportunity to partake in some co-ed schooling. This could be because the real social and professional world is fully mixed gender, so eventually having the opportunity to learn how to interact and behave within these environments was something very beneficial to her. The alumni likely realized that at some point she was going to “actually have to learn to work with boys” and be intermixed with people of different genders than her own, and the sooner she was the better. If she had not ever been given that opportunity, she would have likely had a much more difficult time socializing and integrating into her university and professional communities later in life. Everdeens’ strategy of structuring the parallel education model in a manner that begins more strictly and then loosens up as the students get older is definitely unique, but it is also definitely beneficial to the student’s ability to grow and become well-functioning members of society. 

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Just Having A Whack At It

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For students attending elite educational institutions, it is common to set academic goals and find ways to stay motivated to attain them. At elite institutions such as Colby College, students usually set their standards for academic success pretty high. For example, students strive to keep up their grade point average (GPA) by achieving straight As in their courses, aiming for that coveted 4.0.  This is likely due to the nature of the students that you would expect to be enrolled at these high-level colleges, those whose good grades and high academic achievements in high school led them there in the first place. So wouldn’t you expect these goals of high academic achievement to carry over to students attending other elite institutions? For example, the students at Everdeen in Melbourne, Australia? I know I certainly would, but to my surprise, I found that that is not always the case. 

Now, I cannot speak for all of the students who attend Everdeen, in fact, at this moment, I can really only speak for the student whose interview transcripts I read. While I am sure that his thoughts on academic goals are not the same as all of his classmates, I would have to assume that there are at least a handful of other students who are thinking the same way. When the student was asked if he sets academic standards for himself, he answered by telling the interviewer that he just tries to aim for getting at least a 70% in his courses. In all honesty, this answer kind of shocked me. Coming from a college where anything below 90% is considered “bad” for most students, hearing that this student was just aiming for 70% threw me for a loop. I always assumed that students who get selected to attend elite educational institutions by going through rigorous admission processes are very high achieving academically to begin with, and they strive to keep that up once they are at the institution. While here in the U.S. 70% is considered “average,” it is considered to be about a B in Australia. This is slightly above average, but still not the high range that you would expect from students at elite institutions. This mentality of aiming for just okay grades and scores just did not seem to be lining up with the typical goals and mindsets of students at such an elite school, but let’s take a look at where his motivation is coming from. 

When asked about where this goal is coming from and who set it, the interviewer asked if it was a personal choice, or if it was influenced by his parents and/or teachers. The student replied by saying that he and his parents have discussed it and they agreed that aiming for at least 70% in school subjects and “hav[ing] a whack at it” is the goal. He then explained that the teachers at Everdeen are the ones who are pushing a bit harder, having the students aim for 80% and 90%. To me, this makes a lot more sense given the nature of high academic achievement in elite educational institutions. It is interesting that this student’s parents appear to be aligned with him, and agree that 70% is a good goal. I am sure that they know him better than I do, but from my own personal experience my parents definitely tell me to set my goals high, but they are always understanding if I happen to fall short. Here, both the student and his parents seem to be ready and willing to accept these grades, while the teachers do not. Why could this be? 

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Sometimes, even at Colby, it can feel like your performance while you are here doesn’t matter so much because no matter what, you will have “the name” following behind you. By this, I am referring to Colby College being written on your diploma, and not your GPA. Colby, like Everdeen, carries an incredible amount of worth just in its name from its established reputation as an elite institution. There are standards set in order to be admitted, and there is an expected rigor that occurs once you begin your studies here. These things alone are sometimes enough for people to form their opinions about you and your achievements, both personally and academically, without even knowing the details like your GPA. The reputation that these schools have built up, and the resulting reputation that you get just by attending them, sometimes feels like all you need in order to succeed after leaving. This could be the case with the student that I read about as well as many others. They may feel that just by going to a place like Everdeen they are doing enough to succeed, and how they perform while they are there doesn’t matter so much.

 

Citation

Ola. (2022, August 31). Complete Guide: University Grading System in Australia. Casita.com. Retrieved March 7, 2023, from https://www.casita.com/blog/complete-guide-university-grading-system-in-australia