Reflections of Havergal: 1994-2019

SCHOOL LIFE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CURRICULUM OVERVI EW

acquired 3D printers for student use, and iPads are employed in a variety of multimedia projects in a range of disciplines, including Music, Health and Physical Education and Languages. As well, programming is a key component in technology classes because of the thinking skills it helps student develop and because of its utility in students’ lives now and in the future. In fact, even students in Kindergarten are introduced to coding.  In 2017, Catharine Heddle 1989 wrote an article for the spring issue of Torch that began with very heartening words: “Technology education at Havergal starts early and finishes strong.” The school is clearly taking every step possible to ensure students are well prepared for the world that awaits them beyond the ivy. That preparation includes an understanding of the fact that technological developments are not neutral. An often-quoted observation about technology, generally ascribed to Marshall McLuhan, is that “we shape our tools, and, thereafter, our tools shape us.” Havergal’s administration, faculty and staff have been vigilant in their efforts to understand the social and psychological implications of constant breakthroughs in technology— and so have Havergal students. As the following BTI articles make clear, over the years students have been moved to articulate their excitement and their reservations about the ubiquity of technology in their lives: “Building Digital Wisdom” Torch , Spring 2017

“Our Upper and Junior Learning Commons are learning laboratories where information, technology and inquiry come together in dynamic spaces that resonate with today’s students. They are physical and virtual environments that foster thinking, imagination, discovery, creativity and a love of reading.”

—NICOLE DAVIES AND TONY NARDI, TORCH , SPRING 2012

Every communication tool humans have invented has changed lives, often in very fundamental ways. The printing press undermined long-standing power hierarchies. The computer gave ordinary people the power to make their voices heard all over the world. Advances in technology are never neutral but cannot, in themselves, offer moral guidance. As Leslie Ann Dexter and Michael Simmonds explained in “Starting from Here: Navigating the World with Havergal Values” ( Torch , Spring 2016), [n]o matter how advanced technology becomes, there will never be a moral GPS—a navigational system that gives our girls step-by-step instructions about how to travel from the heart of murky issue to a satisfactory resolution. They have to learn to navigate on their own. So we give them what they need: four fundamental values that will always be there to help them find their way.

“Help, We’re Addicted!” BTI , Fall 1996

“The Cause of Society’s Downfall?” BTI , February 2006

Start from Here: Navigating the World with Havergal Values” Torch , Spring 2016

“Why Do I Hate Technology? An Exploration of the Ageist Mind” BTI , December 2014

REFLECTIONS OF HAVERGAL  115