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Robert P. Henderson Jr. has been Head of Noble and Greenough School since June 2000. A 1976 Nobles graduate, Henderson holds undergraduate and post-graduate degrees from Dartmouth College, has taught at the Robert Louis Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, California, headed the upper school at Seabury Hall in Maui, Hawaii, and served as headmaster of North Yarmouth Academy in Yarmouth, Maine. He and his wife, Ross, who also teaches at Nobles, live on campus with their three young sons. I'd personally like to invite you to explore a Noble and Greenough education. Our intellectual atmosphere is a direct result of the unique academic relationship forged between Nobles teachers and students, an intangible that can best be appreciated by visiting our school or speaking to our students. For that reason, I encourage you to visit the Nobles community to see for yourself the relationships and resources that are its great strength. Only then will you understand why nearly 100 percent of the students who tour the campus choose to apply. What most sets Nobles apart from other excellent schools in the area? What distinguishes a great teacher? Not many school heads teach anymore. How does teaching mesh with your position as head of school? Parents and visitors frequently comment that the students seem so happy -not a small thing in such a rigorous academic environment. What do you think is the most significant change in the school since you graduated in 1976? Why is the afternoon program required? Overall, how do you measure success? What most sets Nobles apart from other excellent schools in the area? All good schools talk about what wonderful communities they are, but you can actually gauge their efforts by looking at how they create community time in their daily schedules. Nobles has committed itself to an Assembly at the start of the day, four days a week, to gather students and faculty so they can share values, ideas, laughter and information. That shared experience creates a culture and an ethic, and underscores a set of values that last well beyond the student's experience at school. In that sense, it is perhaps the most critical teaching time of the school day. Another distinctive aspect of Nobles life is relational. In his life Socrates modeled that teaching is about mentorship and, ultimately, relationships. Nobles has taken that essential element of a quality education and made it the focus of the pedagogy of the school. -Go to top- What distinguishes a great teacher? The best teachers believe that being with teenagers is rewarding, inspiring and energizing. What's true for all good teachers - whether they endorse highly progressive or highly technological methods or whether they're fairly traditional in their approach - is that they know every student as unique. I want all the students at Nobles to know that our teachers have a vested interest in them, that they understand something about who our students are as people. Teachers have to understand that they are mentors -in the classroom and out. I know that whenever our teachers craft a respectful and supportive environment in their classrooms, learning comes alive. -Go to top- Not many school heads teach anymore. How does teaching mesh with your position as head of school? My reason for teaching is highly personal: I just love it. It reminds me what education is all about, gives me really good connections with the kids. Having a head of school who is also a teacher has been a leadership value and a longstanding tradition dating back to 1866. At Nobles every head has been a teacher first and foremost. Perhaps, most importantly, it reminds me, in an immediate and personal way, of the challenges our teachers face. -Go to top- Parents and visitors frequently comment that the students seem so happy -not a small thing in such a rigorous academic environment. There's no question what the source of self-esteem is for adolescents: achievement. Kids feel good about themselves when they meet really high expectations. I believe that although all teachers at Nobles ask a lot of their students, they then provide the guidance, support and confidence to move them along that challenging path. On another note, Nobles is the only school I know of where humor is part of the Mission statement. Some may think it frivolous, but I assure you, it is not. I believe in humor as a vital component of a healthy community. -Go to top- What do you think is the most significant change in the school since you graduated in 1976? We've seen vast improvement in the school's academic quality and rigor, and we've seen an increased commitment to community service and exceptional improvements in the physical plant. But by far the greatest change is the diversity of the student body and faculty. I believe it is the responsibility of great schools to prepare students for the challenges and opportunities of their world and to prepare leaders to contribute to that world. This ideal begins with a true commitment to diversity and to a community that embraces both the richness and the difficulties that will inevitably arise. Only while learning from each other will we be comfortable with each other's differences. Nobles has clearly made a commitment to learn in such a manner. Diversity at this school is a matter of quality. If we are going to continue to improve and attract the best, brightest and most capable students in the area, those students, as a matter of course, will come from increasingly diverse populations. -Go to top- Why is the afternoon program required? Our experience is that students benefit profoundly from the opportunities presented in the afternoon program: they become much deeper, more fulfilled and balanced human beings. Students who thrive here want to be part of the whole. The students who are willing to throw themselves into the broader Nobles community and all its programs are the ones who contribute the most and reap the greatest benefit. They seek out and enjoy the interchange from social and intellectual interaction with their peers and with their teachers. There's an element of risk in asking students to step outside their comfort zones. We think this leads young people in their later lives to be confident, to be leaders, and to look at all their experiences as adults in the context of what's possible and what's worth risking. A broad commitment to development of character and intellect has to take place beyond the four walls of the classroom. -Go to top- Overall, how do you measure success? Even though our college records and results on SATs and National Merit Qualifying Exams reveal that Nobles is comprised of an extraordinary community of learners, I'm unwilling to limit our definition of success to such measuring sticks. These measures can be illusory and therefore don't tell the most significant part of the story. I believe our reputation should rise and fall on the types of students we produce. As I travel around the country and meet so many graduates of distinctive character and intellect, I feel great pride in this institution. These are people with a firm sense of themselves, their own ethics and priorities in life. Our graduates invariably recognize the connection between what they experienced at Nobles and what they later become. I know that the Nobles of today will create the next generation of similarly distinguished, passionate and ethical graduates.Noble and Greenough School Address
10 Campus DriveDedham, MA
United States