Hoops Worth Jumping Through
Head’s Weekly Letter – January 19, 2012
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Dear Academy Families,
As our seniors are now back in residence for the second (and last ever) semester, they all are focusing furiously (pun intended) on their Senior Thesis projects. Next week they have 2,000 words of first draft due to their Academy advisors, so that they will be well on the way to a full first draft (about 6,000 words, or 15-24 pages) by late February. This timing will allow both the Academy advisors and their BU professors the chance to give substantive feedback, so that a second draft can be worked on after spring break and a final version submitted by April 23. After that come the oral presentations in early May.
The Senior Thesis is a major research paper about which the faculty has debated long and often. We do not expect “original” research, though sometimes our science students actually are given such assignments by professors in their labs (even periodically becoming published authors with the lab team, because our students have been given real research by the lab). All of our students are capable, however, of having “original” insights in their topics in the sense that they have surveyed the current scholarship, identified points of controversy, and taken a stand on where they think the best answer might be on the spectrum of opinion.
I have four seniors with whom I work as their Academy advisor on the Senior Thesis, and each year I am impressed at the growth in maturity and awareness that emerges in the second semester – when the rubber hits the road, so to speak, as a first draft of 2,00 words is due next week (after many thousands of words of pre-writing in the first semester as they were digesting their sources). A full first draft is due in late February, and feedback from professors and Academy advisors will be complete later in March, so that a final draft can be turned in by late April. This iterative process is an important part of the learning that goes on for our seniors, with a give-&-take of ideas that have to be refined and revised.
One of the most important aspects of this year-long project, however, is already well behind us: the choice of topic. Too often as educators we teach our students how to jump through hoops, when they also need practice at deciding which hoops are worth jumping through. The Senior Thesis provides just such practice.
Finally, the faculty has improved this graduation requirement by revising the length down, adding more Academy advisors for closer support and supervision, and raising important questions about how our curriculum provides skill sets that culminate in this major assignment. This evolution – like our seniors’ iterative revisions – moves us forward step by step, and will help future generations of seniors.
Warm regards,
James S. Berkman
Head of School
