Lincoln Academy Schedule Means Success

Block schedules blanketed the American high school landscape about 20 years ago. Practically overnight, classes went from 28-35 minutes to 60-80 minutes in duration. Teachers simultaneously rejoiced in the extra time to impart their wisdom and grieved the loss of the quick-hit, fly-by-seat-of-pants class, where a game of Grammar Jeopardy would kill three-quarters of the period.

Periods doubled in duration meant that most schools reduced the number of times students sat in a given class by about half, meeting every other day. Not Newcastle, Maine's Lincoln Academy. Instead of maintaining a student's "seat time" like most schools adopting block schedules, Lincoln's then principal Chris Frost decided to boost all students' time in front of their teachers. At LA, all but one period meets two days on, one day off. (A single period meets Monday through Thursday each week, with Friday's short period reserved for an all school meeting, during which students might hear an inspiring story, compete in trivia contests for local prizes, perform on the bagpipes or play a dodge ball final.)

At first, this two on, one off schedule mashed into a five-day week feels like teaching and learning in a washing machine. Throw in holidays, vacations and snow days and the schedule gets truly Byzantine. Proof that humans are remarkably adaptable, LA's students and teachers have marched through this semi-rhythmic routine in lockstep for better than 17 years, and for good reason. Students remember more and therefore learn more.

It looks like the key is the two days on. All memory studies say the secret to learning is review. Review after 10 minutes; review after 24 hours (possibly the most important one); review after a week, a month and six months. The other byproduct of the two days in a row is simple accumulation of time in a class. In most block schedule schools, students see a teacher two or three days out of five. At LA, students see their teachers three or four days out of five.

Yes, teachers work harder at LA. They have less time to prepare and more class time to prepare for. By rights they should be paid more, too, but I won't go down that road. The facts of the school's success can be seen in their SAT scores, Maine Educational Assessment scores, graduation rates and college acceptance rates as they outperform by a long shot other schools in the Midcoast. [Note: this is a rabbit hole website. If you're like me, you will now spend the next 90 minutes checking every area school for its performance. Locally, Knox County is a particularly sad story.]

Lincoln Academy's feeder schools are better than many others too. (I know, the rabbit hole, again.) Also, because of its superior drama and music programs, Lincoln Academy draws imaginative, motivated pupils. Lincoln, a "private school in the public interest" was formed in 1801 and was allowed to keep it semi-private status in the early 20th century when the public school system was created. Like a charter school, LA is not limited to a single district. Students from anywhere can attend. And they do.

Cross-posted at Maine in the Headlines and Dirigo Blue.

Lincoln Academy Group to Head to Greece

Sounds like a news story, yes? Well, I do not know when; I do not who whom, other than my former department head Patti Sims, is going; and I can only presume why they are going. I can tell you that LA is in Newcastle, Maine, is a "private school in the public interest" and has vigorous foreign language and educational travel programs. Off the top of my head I can think of teachers taking students on regular trips to Costa Rica, France and Spain.

Patti just e-mailed me for some help making the Greek trip's fund-raising dinner more fun. She wants participants to learn some Greek dances, so I went online to see if I could brush up my folk dance repertoire.

Misirlou--actually an Americanized Greek dance--in the wisdom of the Oracle Google, was the first thing to pop up with a YouTube video of the Surfaris playing their version of the tune. It long ago became a cliche surfer soundtrack. Did I mention I love all things surf-ish?

I could not resist posting it for other wannabe surfer-types.

Big Dave tells Eagles, 'Go green'

Lincoln Academy graduates propelled by diplomas, speeches and songs last Thursday will face a future more complex than paying the mortgage and getting ahead.

At Lincoln Academy’s June 5 commencement, local businessman Big Dave Page broadened the continuum for graduating students by calling for a new form of community consciousness, embracing not just models for personal success, but a model of responsibility for the world at large in its most literal form, the environment. “I urge the members of our graduating class to be respectful of the environment; consider your own personal imprint, and be mindful of needless waste.” Page, a 1975 Lincoln Academy graduate, owns Big Dave’s.

If Damariscotta’s long Main Street were a mall, Big Dave’s would be an anchor store, selling gas, pizza, clamming gloves and everything in between. It’s a regular stop for locals and tourists, regardless of rank or station. The food satisfies both busy schedules and palates. The owner, unless he’s attending Lincoln Academy board meeting or other civic obligation, is behind the counter. Dave Page, like his jazz playing brother Bobby, is a Damariscotta icon. The family’s DNA runs deep through town annals and local cemeteries.

Aiming to inspire young leaders toward world changing work, Page admonished the generation currently in charge by joking that President Bush might reduce the effects of global warming by “switching from Fahrenheit to Celsius.” Page said the graduates had no “more important mandate for our next generation of leaders than to safeguard and preserve our environment.”

Inspiration, however, is a two way street. If Big Dave inspired students at commencement, he was himself inspired by a Lincoln Academy student group.

Head of the trustees at Lincoln Academy, Page, on the Tuesday following graduation, said that his awareness started with the school’s Climate Club, formed in the fall of 2007. One of the clubs activities was to time how long the school buses spent idling -- carbon dioxide emissions are one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases and subsequent global warming whose effects are said to range from emerging viruses to melting polar icecaps and African drought.

“They were out there timing the buses,” said Page as he outlined activities undertaken the climate club. “They turned the bus zone into an idle free zone.”

Though the styrofoam cups have not entirely disappeared from the coffee counter at Big Dave’s, Page said his business is moving in the right direction, toward green. Cardboard is earmarked for recycling, a fan motor pulls in cooler outside air saving hours of air conditioning in the hot kitchen, and 15 gallons per week of frying fat is recycled into bio-diesel fuel for Regional Rubbish. Demand for frialator grease itself has risen as cars that run on vegetable oil gain popularity. In years past Page had to pay to dispose of the fat.

Lori Bryant, interim office manager at the Damariscotta Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday that Damariscotta businesses had not quite hit their stride in terms of the environment. “We’re just getting started around here,” she said. Admittedly small measures like using more e-mail and less paper were common, she explained, and she lauded the Midcoast Green Collaborative’s well-attended Energy Expo as the area’s best example of green business promotion.

“It’s time. It’s just time,” said Page Tuesday as he contemplated a green future for local business. “What’s new, I guess, is people like me jumping on board.”