7 Ways Kids Can Avoid Summer Brain Drain

In the first article in this series, Marketing the Small Private School: The First Steps, we looked at the resources available for marketing the small private school. The assumption which we made in that article was that your school probably couldn't afford a full-time marketing professional. Instead, you would assign an existing member of your staff the additional responsibility of handling your marketing. That assumption still stands for purposes of this article. Now we will look at how to use the various resources and tools at our disposal.

The best strategy for successful marketing is to control your message. That means that you have to know who you are speaking to and through what means you can best communicate with them. Let's use the proven journalist's approach to understanding our communications strategy.

• Who are we trying to reach?
• Why are we trying to reach them?
• What are we trying to communicate?
• How can we reach them most effectively?
• When should we communicate our message?

This structured approach ensures that your message will be unified and on message as it progresses from your keyboard to the recipients. Let's look at examples of how we can reach each segment of our school community. My suggestions are merely suggestions designed to get you thinking in a structured manner. Adapt my suggestions to suit your particular requirements.

Communicating with your community

Let's start at the top.

Who are we trying to reach? Everybody in our community as well as everybody outside it.

Why are we

Many years ago, I had no clue what a private school was, much less how to get into one. I can remember one of my public school classmates announcing that he would be attending a private school beginning the next academic year. Indeed, about three of my classmates went to what is still a prestigious old Montreal private school, Lower Canada College. I also had a few friends who had transferred in from a boarding school in the Eastern Townships. As I learned a little later, they had been asked to leave the school. In any case, I am trying to make the point that you are not the only person who isn't sure how private schools work, how to get your child in, and so on.

So, let's keep this really simple. You won't get too stressed. You might find it enjoyable to find the right private school for your child.

Find!

The first step in the process is to find schools that you can explore and investigate as part of your personal due diligence. Sending your child to private school is a major commitment both financially and in terms of your investment of your personal time and energy as a parent. So it is important that we get it right.

Fortunately for us, every private school has a website. Look for a statement of the school's philosophy about educating young people. Does it match yours? If so, add it to your

A couple of years ago when tenure for professors began to look like a thing of the past, I remember thinking that tenure for K-12 teachers would probably be next on the chopping block. And so the rumblings which I thought I heard off in the distance were indeed the precursor of a serious storm. With that in mind let's explore the issue and try to understand what is happening with the concept of teacher tenure in the United States.

The California decision

The judge in the case certainly came down hard against teacher tenure. I am not a lawyer but it seemed to me that the root of his judicial displeasure was the way the California statutes had been written. To understand where those laws originated, you have to go back in time to the early part of the twentieth century and indeed even earlier. Back then teachers could be fired when ever a school board or administrator decided. Essentially teachers had no due process. Teacher protection in the form of tenure was a German idea which began to take hold across the United States back in the 1920s and 1930s. Tenure also curbed another abuse of the teaching profession which was interference from politicians. Teaching positions were considered patronage plums that politicians handed out.

In my opinion tenure for public K-12 teachers was a necessary protection a hundred years ago. But as with

Test your knowledge of private school facts and trivia with these twenty-one questions and answers.

The Questions

1. How many private schools are there in the U.S.A.?

2. How many boarding schools are there?

3. Which private school offers the most Advanced Placement courses?

4. Which private school is the most expensive?

5. Which private school did Bill Gates graduate from?

6. How many Montessori schools are there in the U.S.A.?

7. Where did Reggio-Emilia schools get their name?

8. Who founded the movement that spawned the modern Waldorf schools?

9. Which is the oldest school in the U.S.A.?

10. What was Maria Montessori's degree in?

11. Who founded what we now call the progressive school movement?

12. What percentage of American students attend private school?

13. What are the names of the schools established by the last Hawaiian princess?

14. Which New England family founded Exeter and Andover?

15. Which Roman Catholic order established a network of prestigious high schools?

16. What grade does Fifth Form refer to?

17. How many Jewish schools are there in Brooklyn, New York?

18. What does the term crew refer to?

19. What is the oldest private school athletic league?

20. What is the name of the independent school association based in Washington, DC?

21. Which private school has the largest endowment?

The Answers:

1. How many private schools are there in the U.S.A.?

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) surveys private schools every two years. Their most recent data from