In her recent New York Times article, Untangled author Dr. Lisa Damour offers parents, caregivers, and teachers a useful way to think about how to support today's adolescents as they resume in-person education while still reeling from the disruptions of the last school year. According to Damour, teen emotions are "like the waters in a cresting river," and the job of adults is to keep that river "moving but not let it burst the banks." Today's teenagers, she says, are working hard to regulate their emotions and keep from feeling completely flooded or overwhelmed. Caregivers and teachers can help by listening to them and refraining from jumping in to respond to their emotional expressions. Adolescents are in a healthy process of adapting, of trying to manage their own surging tides, and the role of adults is to be like sandbags along the banks of rivers -- to be the calming, absorbing buffers to surging distress, and if necessary, to use distraction to redirect the metaphorical rivers of emotion that may be running in unproductive directions. The worst thing adults can do, Damour argues, is to quiet teen emotions or allow them to remain hidden; when teens disengage is exactly when adults need to pay the greatest attention and actively help them resume their momentum. 

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As a new school year and admissions cycle kicks off, many students and families are wondering how to navigate an often stressful and emotionally-charged college admissions process. Jeffrey Selingo hopes to demystify the process by offering a glimpse into the admissions practices at three schools: a selective private university (Emory), a leading liberal arts college (Davidson), and a flagship public university (University of Washington). As Selingo explains how these schools shape a class, he also explores many of the changes to the admissions process over the past century – the rising popularity of early decision, the fixation on U.S. News rankings, the preferential treatment given to legacies and athletes at many selective colleges – and why they have increased our collective anxiety. Who Gets In and Why seeks to redefine rejection not as a reflection of a student's worthiness, but rather as a reflection of that school's institutional priorities in a particular year. As we seek to guide students and families this year in our roles as teachers, advisors, coaches, and counselors, let us follow Selingo's lead to help students and families expand their understanding of what a "good college" is and understand that "there is life beyond the elite, prestigious, brand-name schools."

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If your school is starting antibias antiracist (ABAR) work, how do you begin? What if you are already deep in the work and want to move it forward? Wherever you are in your journey, Liz Kleinrock's Start Here, Start Now is an optimal guide for adopting an ABAR lens and culture. Her personal childhood experiences, insights from her teaching, and proven strategies are accessible and inspirational. Kleinrock provides useful templates and student work as exemplars for teaching and learning. Transcribed student-teacher interactions and model conversations feature the dialogue and tools educators can use to develop a sustainable ABAR practice. She accompanies her reminder to not "reinvent the wheel" with techniques and resources. Start Here, Start Now can function as an all-faculty/staff or PLC read so colleagues can coalesce around Kleinrock's findings and then implement her ideas. Chapters about coalition-building with parents and administrators, holding space for difficult conversations, and engaging white students in ABAR work are especially salient to independent and international school educators. As a result of closely reading Kleinrock, schools and teachers will be more engaged and better prepared for the ABAR journey ahead of them.

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According to Kareem Farah, mastery grading is an essential tool that could transform the classroom and accelerate student learning. Farah proposes that mastery grading is a unique pedagogy that will be particularly useful in filling deficiencies in student learning by encouraging students to take personal ownership of their learning through repeated practice and revision. Farah cites research that found decreased variability in aptitude between students in classrooms where mastery grading had been implemented. Other research found that mastery grading leads to long-term retention in learning, encouraging students to develop competence and self-awareness that translate directly to their future experiences in the real world. Farah acknowledges that mastery grading presents challenges—student frustration with alternative grading practices, the unwieldiness of traditional gradebooks, and the potential for educators to have an increased grading load. With the pandemic still a major concern but school years proceeding as normally as possible, Farah believes that educators have a valuable opportunity to transform their classrooms into spaces where substantial student learning that applies to their future educational careers is encouraged and achieved.

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Shakespeare is far from dead. His plays have survived for centuries due to their universal representation of the human experience. But what can they teach us about our nation's history? In Shakespeare in a Divided America, James Shapiro explores this question by digging into the political and social climates surrounding historical Shakespearean productions. Through this creative lens, Shapiro uncovers periods of unrest that are represented in casting decisions, textual analysis, and audience reactions. Many of his findings resonate with what we are experiencing as a nation today, leaving the reader wondering whether history is repeating itself or just sprouting from seeds of polarity, hypocrisy, and strife that already existed. Shapiro hopes that "we may better address that which divides and impedes us as a nation" today by tackling topics such as class warfare, immigration, adultery and same-sex love. Shapiro brings to light the complexities inherent in American identity and our struggle to reckon with them. His research empowers us to teach and produce Shakespeare's plays through a new historical and artistic lens and to ignite dialogue and change. We may not know where we are headed as a society, but as Shapiro makes clear, art will continue to be a reflection of our times.

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Dan Sinker finds language for the extraordinary difficulty of this pandemic time for parents, an important perspective for educators to hear and to keep in mind as we move into and through the new school year. "I am furious and I am afraid," he writes bluntly. "It happened in a flash: It was good, then it was bad, then we were right back in the same nightmare we'd been living in for 18 months." As the Delta variant evolves, Sinker expresses his dread of this new school year's beginning in person, without a remote option, even though the remote learning experience was less than positive for many students and families. As we create and adapt policies in schools, Sinker's voice (and the parent perspective he represents) is one we must heed; indeed, empathy is the first part of the design thinking process, among other frameworks that guide our practices. Some educators, too, will find the directness and raw honesty of this piece affirming as a testament to the daily dilemmas of this period in our lives and our vocation. Sinker writes, "This is not okay. Nothing is okay. No parent is okay, and I'm not sure how we come back from this." And while part of what we do as educators is believe in ways forward and take steps meaningfully toward them, feeling the feelings or saying the unsayable can serve as a potent healing force.    

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Teaching Tomorrow is a podcast that features powerful conversations with educators and thought leaders, many of whom are in the independent school world. Each podcast episode leaves listeners with a better understanding of a big issue, a new approach to challenges in the classroom, or a reminder about why they are in this profession in the first place. As she seeks out experts in the field, Celeste Kirsh, the host, takes to heart the idea that educators need high quality, easy to access professional learning. The conversations resemble two good friends talking about teaching and learning in an enjoyable and approachable way. Each episode is about an hour long and comes out roughly once a week during the school year. Though there are many episodes available, Klingbrief readers will especially benefit from and enjoy "Decentring whiteness in the English classroom" (episode 3), "The public purpose of independent schools with Danielle Passno" (episode 4), "Everyone belonging in school through diversity, equity, and inclusion learning with Rosetta Lee " (episode 18), and "Growing up trans with Kai Cheng Thom" (episode 25). The podcast episodes are reflective in nature and invite listeners into the conversation, leaving them with fresh ideas and questions.

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