5 Things: Parent Graduation

Author’s note: read the introduction to the 5 Things You’ll Only Do At Hyde here.

So far we have covered Auditions, Faculty Evaluations, Brother’s Keeper, and today I will cover Parent Graduation – The Biggest Job Parent Program.

Key Quotes/Points:

• Early in Hyde’s history, founder Joseph Gauld noticed an unmistakable correlation between the involvement of parents and the success of students. Those parents who had sought to apply Hyde’s five words to themselves tended to have children who acted likewise.
• Hyde Family Weekends are unique because students and parents join together to engage in an ongoing honest and open exploration of three questions: 1. Who am I?  2. Where am I going with my life? 3. How do I get there?
• Since we began our efforts to engage parents in the Hyde education, we have observed what might appear to be an inherent irony. Parents and children at Hyde generally need to learn opposite lessons: students need to learn how to “hang on” and parents need to learn how to “let go.”
• One stereotype of the New England boarding school is that of a place where parents send their children because they don’t have time to properly raise them. If forced to stereotype the typical Hyde parent, I would apply the antithesis of this description.
• In fact, we often feel compelled to encourage our parents to become less involved in the lives of their children. We try to convince such parents that the best way for them to help their children is to instead focus on improving their own lives.

To read the piece on Parent Graduation, hover over the embed below and click the square outline in the lower right corner to view full screen. Alternatively, you can download the PDF here.