23/5/13 – Visit to Jericho Middle School

I set off bright and early this morning to meet with Don Gately, the Principal of Jericho Middle School. The staff and students at Jericho are very proud of their school’s ‘Schools to Watch’ status and were keen to showcase for me the reasons why they are a role model for other schools. But as is so often the case for modern day school administrators, Don had to deal with a cyber-bullying incident that happened overnight and then make one of those “dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t” decisions - whether or not to cancel the Year 7 class fishing trip because of the predicted inclement weather - before he was free to take me on a tour of the school and to meet the kids.

I was impressed that the school website not only acknowledges the original Native American owners of the land on which it stands, but also the town of Jericho’s rich and complex Quaker past. From "The History of Jericho", by Larry Leicht, (1978) we find out that in 1621, Robert Hicks, the great, great, great grandfather of Elias Hicks, came from England to settle in Plymouth, Massachusetts. In 1640, Robert's son John moved to Hempstead, Long Island.

In 1648, Robert Williams bought nine square miles of land, in a place known to the Indians as Lusum, from Pugnipan, chief of the Matinecock tribe, members of the great Algonquin Indians of Long Island. In 1692, the name of the town was officially changed from Lusum, meaning the farms in Indian, to Jericho and remains that way to this day. In 1793, the first school in Jericho was built. Since then building have come and gone but the Long Island Expressway and the clover leaf Jericho turnpike wiped out much of the original village but today there remains a close knit community with an elementary school, middle school, junior high school and senior high school all coming under the District Superintendent’s watchful eye.

I found Jericho Middle School to have a vibrant learning environment with many dedicated staff working with the Principal to support students as they develop intellectually, physically, socially, emotionally and ethically. The school’s website reveals a plethora of programs and events designed to support this mission. Despite their beginnings, it seems there are no Quaker children, or American Indian children attending the school, but still the ethnic diversity of the student body is immense.

 

Don (who is an avid blogger and tweeter and sent a photo of me talking to the class to the parents as we toured) told me that at Jericho Middle School they continue to explore curricula that are challenging, integrative and exploratory; encourage a variety of teaching and learning approaches; employ assessment and evaluation methods that promote learning; expand advocacy programs and articulate this shared vision to teach constituency. In addition, the integration of technology is emphasized in order to provide students with a tool that will be naturally integrated across the curricular areas. These efforts allow the Jericho middle school to continue to be a strong link between the elementary and high school programs and to articulate a clear vision based on research-based best practices.

I was impressed with the confident way in which the students answered my questions and asked questions about Australia (for the most part about kangaroos). They couldn’t believe that our middle school that had all boys and that they had to wear a uniform! They were also stunned to learn that we have compulsory voting in local, state and federal elections. And don’t even start me on how many times I was asked about Cody Simpson….. all in all this was a great visit and Jericho Middle School is an ideal school with whom we at Wesley could form a learning partnership.

(ps: I cannot close today’s blog without noting that the Boy Scouts of America today made the momentous decision to allow openly GLBT boys and girls to join the ranks of scouts and guides … but not to be Scout Leaders.)