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Are you ready for middle school?

Fri, 18 Aug 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Are you ready for middle school? At Providence, we are ready for you! Your Middle School teachers have been praying over you and readying their classrooms to welcome you into seventh and eighth grade.

Ms. Svoboda, Middle School humanities teacher, has some tips and guidance for how to make the most of your Middle School experience at Providence:

Be ready to Choose!

Middle school is as engaging, fun, and interesting as you! You get to decide how you want to engage in your classes, and that choice will make all the difference in your middle school experience. If you are interested and interesting you will enjoy your classes a great deal.

Be ready to Learn!

Middle school involves so much learning – and only a small part of that learning actually takes place in the classroom! You’ll learn to navigate the systems for seven different teachers, getting to know their different personalities and expectations while absorbing the material of the subjects they teach.

You will also learn how to navigate your social world in a whole new way. Emotions run high in middle school, and sometimes you have to learn how to not only manage your feelings but also your reactions to your peers.

As well, you will learn new systems with your parents. Middle school is the perfect time for students to begin to learn independence, but you are also going to need your parents’ help this year! Navigating seven classes, seven teachers, and social interactions can be exhausting and overwhelming. So, this year, you will begin to learn how and when independence is good and necessary, and when you simply need your mom or dad to help you out.

Be ready for Adventure!

The year begins next week with Middle and Upper School retreat. You will hang out with students in different grades, play games, enjoy silly skits, and more! Throughout the year we have more little trips here and there, but the highlights are the Seventh Grade Safari and the Eighth Grade Historic Tour! These trips are legend – involving not only a ton of learning but also plenty of laughter and great times with friends.

Be prepared to be Affirmed and Challenged!

The hope for each of your classes is that we will be able to help you thrive in the spaces that are your strengths as well as the places where you struggle! We want to affirm your prior knowledge and the skills you have already gained and we want to push you to grow even more. Middle school is an exciting time because it is a safe place to fail and try again; we aren’t interested in perfection – we are way more interested in process and progress – and that is exciting!

We will see you next week!

Love,

Miss Svoboda

Ms. Svoboda teaches Middle School Humanities at Providence School, a private, Chrisitan K-12 school in Santa Barbara. She enjoys being part of the Providence faculty because she gets to teach God’s Truth and she gets to validate the worth of her students, at a particularly difficult season of growing up, reminding them they have been created for a purpose by a good and mighty God who loves them. She also enjoys empowering her students to see the value of the contributions they can make to the community around them. Her favorite Providence tradition is the eighth-grade Historic Tour.

Read her full bio here.

Giving Voice to Truth, Beauty, and Excellence

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Giving Voice to Truth, Beauty, and Excellence

by Elaine Rottman, Strategic Communications Director

I’ve been writing about Christian education for almost five decades, beginning as a teen with a letter to the editor of Christian Home and School magazine (published by the National Union of Christian Schools). The topic was why graduates of Christian schools might have trouble articulating their basic beliefs. Even though I took a critical stance, as any worldly-wise 17-year-old should, I stated my gratitude for my Christian elementary school education while calling on the sheltered Christian high schools to get it together to “enable the young adult to face the world and proudly say: ‘This I believe. . .” AND “This is why. . .'” (Kudos to my mom for saving a copy of the magazine so I could quote verbatim from my letter published in the May / June 1977 issue).

Valuing my Christian elementary school education

I valued my Christian elementary school education because I knew my parents sacrificed to send their five children to Christian school, working daily overtime, running side businesses, and providing childcare for other families. (To earn extra cash our entire family cleaned the school every Friday night—something I did not enjoy. What sixth-grade girl wants to clean the boys’ bathroom? Gross!)

I also valued my Christian school education because I knew it was inherently different from public school education. Never mind our academic work was above grade level. Our curriculum was special because it fully integrated God’s creation and Christ’s redemption in every subject—including math. I treasured that distinct difference while I was in elementary school and continued to appreciate it during my public school junior high and senior high days.

Christian education creates a fully integrated life

Forty-six years later, I still believe distinctly Christian education is the best approach for understanding our world, our Creator, and our place in the created world. It is the only way to have a fully integrated life, without an artificial division between what we know to be objective Truth and what the rest of the world would like us to believe is true. Christian education does not compromise. Nor is it rigid or black and white. True Christian education allows room for asking deep and hard questions and pursuing answers as individuals. But it does so within boundaries that provide confidence one can aggressively ask questions and pursue answers without going off the rails.

Christian education is not a shelter

Christian schools are not shelters for protecting children from a big, bad world, as my teenage self thought. A safe bubble never has and never will exist. These schools are the institutions providing an intellectual and spiritual framework integrating all learning with Christian faith. They foster the character traits—such as honesty and integrity and pursuit of the good and beautiful—that help us navigate the challenges we all are bound to face.

Promoting independent Christian education by default

Preserving and protecting independent Christian education became my life’s work and it is the impetus for creating this Reason and Rhetoric blog. But promoting Christian and independent schools is not what I originally set out to do and I have not always embraced my work as a significant calling.

Growing up, I wanted to be a doctor, but was discouraged by my parents, who back in the 1970s advised me a woman could not have a family and be devoted to a demanding career like medicine. When my college boyfriend (and eventual husband) and I began to consider a future together, he was not keen on taking on medical school debt. When I switched my major from pre-med to English, I felt relief but also felt I had let myself down.

My next career goal was journalism. I worked on all the Calvin College publications and, after graduating, was hired as copy editor for a Christian arts and culture magazine, Radix, published in Berkeley, California. The work was very satisfying but the pay–when the non-profit ministry could manage it—was very low. To help ends meet, I took communications jobs at the Christian and independent schools where my husband taught and developed a small freelance technical editing and desktop publishing business.

As I took on more responsibilities, directing school marketing and communications became my career, almost by default. I was able to use my writing and editing skills while belonging to a like-minded school community. Serving on the faculty at the same school and sending our two children there was a pleasant way for my husband and I to raise our family and we all developed many close, lifelong friendships. My career still felt like a cop out, though, paling in comparison to the influence a classroom teacher has. I constantly wondered if I should be doing something greater, more significant, more impactful, and, let’s be honest, more prestigious.

Preserving and protecting Christian education is a privilege

Only in recent years, while working through school mergers and rebranding, have I come to understand that what we have in our independent Christian schools is so important for our children and our culture and the future of our nation and world that playing even a small role in creating, guiding, shaping, and protecting such institutions has been a privilege and high calling. I have no regrets and I am grateful for the opportunities I have enjoyed to preserve a way of teaching and learning that can have lasting impact for future generations.

Our charge is to help our children engage with a world that is increasingly hostile to Christian traditions and values, while holding up God’s Truth, creating beauty in every sphere of life, and accomplishing all we do with excellence. We have the privilege of showing children that they have both dignity and destiny. We get to help them develop respect for Christian virtues over the so-called “values” our society embraces.

Over the decades, evolving communications technology has helped and challenged all of us. As a teen I wrote a letter to a magazine on my mom’s manual typewriter (with that satisfying “ding” of the carriage return bell, made even more satisfying when the user is riled up about something). Today, I would send that same letter by email or as a social media post. Technologies have made communication work more efficient—and more isolated. Tools such as social media and AI probe brave frontiers of collaboration and community—and pose incredible moral challenges. (Topics worthy of exploring in future blogs.)

I am thankful that today’s technology allows us to communicate broadly in accessible ways. This is the message I believe: We’ve never needed Christian education more than we need it today, and it’s never been more important to articulate its foundational distinctive to the world.

I can’t wait to see where God leads Providence School and I wish rich blessings on the next Recess and Rhetoric editor.

Senior Capstone Project Grows from the Bedrock of a Providence Education

Thu, 18 May 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Senior Capstone Project Grows from the Bedrock of a Providence Education

by Chris Elwood, Upper School Humanities Teacher & Senior Thesis Project Director

Updated from a previously published post

When people ask me why I am sending my two teenage daughters to Providence, I don’t answer “because I teach there.” I tell them about the excellent teachers and classes, about the individual care students receive, and I describe the beautifully balanced infusion of the Christian worldview within the curriculum.

I share with them about the humanities program that merges the disciplines of history, English, and philosophy in a unique way that allows students to play ping pong inside their minds and hearts as they delve deeper into the interrelationship between educational disciplines.

I further assure them of Providence’s proven ability to prepare students for college as thinkers, writers, and communicators.

To hammer in my rhetoric, I use the capstone Senior Thesis Project as the final example of the Providence success story, for it encapsulates many of the traits and habits we desire a Providence graduate to obtain: critical thinking, curiosity, eloquence, collaboration, and more.

College-level research in a high school setting

This capstone project has drawn attention to the point that Westmont College decided to make it a dual-enrollment class, providing two transferable college credits to all who complete it. Every year, Westmont librarians who assist Providence seniors in their research comment to me on how better prepared Providence seniors are than most of the incoming freshmen they see, particularly in the areas of critical thinking, research, writing, and presenting on challenging topics.

Creating and defending an engaging argument, informed by a Christian worldview

What exactly is the Senior Thesis Project? The yearlong project begins with a question that a student is seeking to answer, such as “Is drone warfare ethical?”, “In what ways can we reform the foster care system?”, or “Should capital punishment be abolished?” Students spend most of a semester doing research, engaging in several disciplinary angles on their topics such as science, ethics, politics, and Christian worldview, to then form an engaging thesis to answer their question. They meet with a faculty advisor once a week, connect with an expert in the community, write a minimum of a ten-page research paper, and prepare a multimedia oral presentation they then defend in front of a faculty and staff panel. We select the top three projects to present to the larger Providence community. This community gathering event displays the depth and power of a Providence education.

Owning one’s education

One of my favorite aspects of this capstone course is the autonomy it provides the student. Seniors get to choose their topics and many of them select either something they are passionate about or a question they have been examining for years. Mark Twain asserts, with tongue in cheek, “I never let my schooling interfere with my education.” Twain expounds on the truth that there is an aspect in most formal education that squashes students’ innate curiosity to learn by forcing agendas upon them, rather than allowing them to pursue a subject they are interested in to the outer reaches of the universe.

The senior project gives students the valuable gifts of choice and time, and the faculty come alongside them in collaboration to challenge and assist their pursuits. Albert Einstein comments, “I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” I believe we provide optimal conditions for the students to flourish: college library access, faculty mentorship, empowerment, and encouragement.

Finishing well

It is a most rewarding process to see these seniors struggle and claw themselves through difficult topics and land on a high bedrock of knowledge and wisdom gained through the process. When they stand up front, confident and articulate, presenting an artistically designed and intellectually compelling argument, I beam with Patriot pride, fully knowing the Providence difference in preparing students for college and the world beyond!

Congratulations to all members of the Class of 2023 on completing this capstone course. A special congratulation goes to our three finalists and our honorable mention:

Avala Elwood – Olympic Boycott Debate
Ruby Kilpper – China’s One-Child Policy
Isaac Noyes – Unequal Representation in the Criminal Justice System
Ryan George, Honorable Mention – Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy

To view the recorded presentations made at the community presentation on May 13, click the links above.

Exciting New Developments for Athletics on our Upper Campus

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 04:00:00 +0000

The new Ortega gym is ready to host volleyball games this season – come help us fill it up with Patriots fans!

Girls Indoor Volleyball

While she’s not new to most of us, teacher and coach Taylor Slover brings years of professional volleyball experience to our volleyball program. Last year, Coach Slover led our boys beach volleyball team and this year will transition into girls indoor volleyball.

We’ll be hosting Fillmore our first game at our new Ortega Gym at 5pm on Wednesday. Come and help break in our new court with a full crowd!

While this is an early non-league game, the team is poised to retake the Condor League championship this year.

Girls Tennis

We welcome our new Girls Tennis Coach, LeAnne Patterson, to the Patriots athletics team! Coach Patterson was the unanimous choice for this new season and is a great addition to the program. Cheer the girls on for their first match this week at the SB Municipal Tennis Courts vs. St. Bonaventure, Thursday at 3:30 pm!

Boys Beach Volleyball

Boys Beach Volleyball will kick off its regular season practices this Tuesday at West Beach with Coach/Athletic Director Dan Terry. Coach Terry has over 20 years of volleyball coaching experience and is excited to help our student athletes thrive on the sand. Practice runs from 3:15 to 5:15 pm. Transportation will be provided from the Canon Perdido campus if needed. Regular practice days will be Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

Coed Cross Country

With a new group of young runners moving up from Middle School Cross Country, our returning senior will find himself in a leadership role for building this year. We are still in discussions with a great potential coach, so schedules have not yet been solidified. If your student is interested in participating in cross country, please send Coach Terry an email (dterry@providencesb.org) letting him know so he can keep you up to date on the developing schedule. The cross country team is open to boys and girls.

MIDDLE SCHOOL

Girls Volleyball

After great success last year, Coaches Allie Williams and Todd McChesney will be returning to lead our middle school girls volleyball. The girls volleyball team is open to girls in 6th – 8th grade at Providence.

Tryouts start Tuesday, August 29, after school on the Canon Perdido campus. All girls will make the team: tryouts are for placement.

Coed Cross Country

We are currently hiring for a middle school cross country coach. Spread the word and direct all interested parties to Coach Terry. Athletes who would like to participate in cross country, email Coach Terry to be added to the list for updates.

UPCOMING GAMES:

US Girls Indoor Volleyball
Wednesday 8/30/23, 5pm Vs. Fillmore (Providence Ortega Gym)

US Girls Tennis
Thursday 8/31/23, 3:30pm Vs. St. Bonaventure (SB Municipal Courts)

Coach Dan Terry is the Athletic Director for middle and upper school at Providence. He coaches our boys beach volleyball team and commits to fostering a culture where athletes can excel not only in their respective sports but also in their personal growth and character development through middle and high school at Providence School in Santa Barbara.

To inquire about athletics and coaching opportunities at Providence, email dterry@providencesb.org.

Engineering: A Call to Create

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Engineering: A Call to Create

by Rodney Meadth, Engineering Academy Director

An avid science fiction fan, I recently decided to tackle the Ender series by Orson Scott Card. Brilliantly and beautifully written, this multi-part series weaves together a plethora of seemingly unconnected ideas, including time dilation, microbiology, politics, love and marriage, the Catholic church, and artificial intelligence.

Thinking into being

In the third installment, Xenocide (1991), several characters travel to a place outside our universe—fittingly called “Outside.” In this what-if scenario, such travel is accomplished by simply thinking about arriving there. But once they arrive Outside, the characters find they also have the ability to create things instantly out of thin air—again, simply by thinking about them. I won’t ruin the story any more than I already have—you’ll have to read it for yourself to see just what the characters create with their thoughts and what happens next!

Orson Scott Card does a brilliant job making this far-fetched premise plausible, and his writing made me think about my own life as an engineering teacher. The ability to instantly call things into existence by mere thought is surely the domain of fantasy and the Lord God himself, but I couldn’t help but ponder: as children of God created in his image, we certainly possess a lesser but similar power. In fact, what are engineers but those who create by thought?

Exercising creative thinking

This past week, one of our engineering students exercised precisely this power. It began with a simple idea: Coach Evan Covell, Providence School athletics director and track and field coach, described a need for two stepping boxes. One would be twelve inches high, the other six inches high. Each would be about two feet wide. These items, simple though they are, would help with track and field training. Coach Covell asked me: could it be done?

Never one to shy from a project, I decided that such a design would be best produced using three-quarter inch plywood pieces, assembled like a three-dimensional wooden puzzle. After making a sketch on paper, I rallied the key players together: science teacher Taylor Hurt, who supports the Providence Engineering Academy, would select a student who had the necessary CAD skills (computer-aided design) to translate my sketch into a precise computer model, helping him or her along the way.

The team at Campovans, a vehicle outfitting business in Santa Barbara, which includes Bryan Sheets (2018 alumnus), would receive that CAD model and cut out the pieces on their computer-controlled milling machine. Freshman Annie Haugen took on the project and produced just what we were looking for. She learned to use professional-level CAD tools in Bryan Anderson’s Engineering Design class this semester.

Before long, we’ll have in our hands the two completed boxes, glued, assembled, and ready for use in training. The idea that began in Coach Covell’s mind will then be solid and visible—our thoughts will have become physical reality. Again I ask: is this any different than the experience of Orson Scott Card’s characters, other than his fictional process taking four seconds and ours taking four weeks?

Answering the call to create

The fact is that we all exercise this creative power constantly; we all have a call to create. Whether writing essays, planning events, starting a business, or building furniture, it is our very thoughts that become reality. In our Providence engineering classes, these thoughts take physical form: quadcopter drones, workout equipment, architectural models, stage sets, robots.

Considering the consequences

We would do well to remember the words of scholar Richard M. Weaver, however: ideas have consequences. Orson Scott Card’s characters do indeed turn their thoughts into reality, but the things they create are by no means neutral. As reflections of their creators, these created things carry moral and ethical consequences for good and for bad, shaping the plot and altering the course of many lives.

Again, are engineers any different in this regard? When engineers create artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, or machines that can safely fly long distances, or prosthetic limbs, these things are not neutral. The physical manifestation of the thoughts of human engineers, men and women who are (1) created in the image of God and (2) fallen through sin, must surely carry with them this same complex and multi-faceted potential. Ideas do indeed have consequences.

How glad it makes me, then, to train engineering students who are not only competent in trigonometry and CAD, but also well versed in ethics, history, literature, economics, and the very word of God! Our engineering students are called to create; may they bring into reality the very best things, reflections of hearts obedient and submitted to the one true God.