have a lapse it is usually because something got
left at home or didn’t dry as fast as was expected.
Chinese teacher Pei Lu with her advisees.
Nurturing The Whole Student
In addition to nurturing a student’s personality,
each student at Keystone has at least one adult
who is tasked with the role of mentor and guide. In
the Primary School this person is the Homeroom
Teacher who spends most of the day engaging in
learning pursuits, monitoring individual needs and
connecting with parents. In the Middle School these
responsibilities fall to the Advisor.
The Advising Program is a new concept for many
of our students. They’ve expressed feeling a bit
overwhelmed by the nature of teacher-student
connections telling us that “in the past at public
schools you were not able to talk to teachers and
here at Keystone I have a chance to do that every
day in class, at lunch time and in the dorms.” When
students face challenges, whether personal or
academic, we encourage them to face obstacles with
the support of their parents and advisor. This is a leap
of faith for some as they explore a new partnership
with adults who are not yet considered family. One
student said she felt unsure about the conversations
she originally had with her advisor since she had
“never spoken with so many foreigners before. But
my advisor has helped me with my confidence and
has encouraged me to speak up more.” At the end of
the first semester, if you ask a middle school student
about ordering food in or walking down to the local
KFC with their advisory group for Wednesday lunch
or dinner, there will quite literally be squeals of
excitement and anticipation about sharing a simple
bucket of chicken with teachers and friends. Others
have connected in ways that they did not expect:
“My advisor is my science teacher, my dorm
parent, grade-level leader and my advisor so she
knows me. She helps me when I am confused,
she observes me and motivates me, and helps
with homework when I don’t know something.
She invites us to her home for dinner and I feel
close to her, she is like my mom in some ways.
She does not have her own child, I feel like I am
her daughter. If I have a problem she will feel sad
for me,” said a grade 7 student.
Another student told me, “My advisor encourages
me when I have problems. My advisor is my Chinese
teacher and can speak Chinese to my parents. She
is able to tell my mom about my situation here at
school. She is like a personal psychologist (a word
this girl looked up on a translator site as we were
chatting)...I can tell her things and I trust her. My
advisor treats everybody the same and is fair. She is
very caring after each student and about our learning
situation and our studies. And she asks us, ‘What are
you feeling at Keystone.’ She is like a grandma.”
One middle school student wrote to me saying,
“I read the Community Handbook and I was
quite surprised when I first read the definition
of an Advisor: ‘The Advising System provides
a mechanism for students to cultivate a strong
relationship with an adult mentor who is then
responsible for the development of a meaningful
educational plan and experience at Keystone
Academy’. I have never had an advisor in my life
and I had no idea how this program would work.
But after a few months at Keystone, I think this
definition could be a mile longer. The relationship
between advisor and advisees is not only a formal
teacher and student connection. We help each
other. My advisor is new to China so I help her
with language difficulties. We have conversations
about worl