Distinctiveness in the
Academy Girls School:
An Update
Susan O. Odhner
Principal, Academy of the New Church Girls School
I
had the opportunity to write an article in the September-October 2012 New
Church Life – The Challenge of Making Conjugial Love Relevant in Today’s
Classroom – about what we are doing with the Gurian Institute and our
Conjugial Love course for senior girls. Many good things are happening in
both areas. We are moving forward and feel very blessed with what we have
accomplished.
Gurian Institute
Two women from the Girls School faculty, Kira Schadegg and Gail Cooper,
attended the Gurian Institute Conference in Colorado in 2012, and became
certified Gurian trainers. [The Gurian Institute studies differences in male and
female brains and how teaching should be adapted to the distinctive learning
styles of boys and girls.] This certification was an important condition for us to
be designated as a Gurian model school, which allows us to train sister schools
in our district.
The Executive Director from the Institute visited and observed our
teachers a year ago. She got into every classroom to see if the teachers were
using the Gurian strategies they had been taught. She was impressed and
pleased with what we are doing.
We knew that while we had the Girls School deeply involved in this
initiative, we needed the Boys School involved as well. In July of 2013, four
men from the Boys School – Principal Jeremy Irwin, Kyle Genzlinger, Baird
Kistner and Kevin Junge – attended the annual conference in Colorado, and
three of them acquired certification.
We also received our Gurian Model School status in July, 2013. The
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