Dear Parents,
This morning I
finds me in Frankfurt, Germany with our Middle School Principal, Mrs. Dirksen and our IT Director, Mr. Crouch to attend the
European 1-1 Learning Institute. We are looking forward to learning more from
visionary experts and experienced educators about how we can best prepare our
students for the future that they will encounter. It should be an exciting few
days.
High School Parent Coffee – Thanks to all of the parents who turned
out for our meeting on Wednesday morning. We had a good discussion of AISC’s
approach to helping our students make healthy choices regarding the use of
tobacco, alcohol and other drugs. The discussion was based on information left
by Mr. David Sherrell, the prevention specialist from Freedom from Chemical
Dependency who visited with our students last week. You can view the slide show
I used in the discussion in the High School
Parent Information folder on the High School Moodle page.
The core message
from FCD is that, “Prevention is a climate, not a program.” What is most
important to helping children develop healthy attitudes and make wise choices
is to ensure that they live in an environment that provides for their physical
and emotional security and that provides them with the information they need to
make the choices that will keep them healthy. Creating and maintaining this
secure environment requires a partnership between students, parents and the
school staff.
What can parents
do? According to Mr. Sherrell, “. . . we
strongly recommend that parents get to know the parents of their kids’
friends. The more parents communicate
with one another, the more they share information, like what the rules are in
their houses concerning alcohol and other drugs, the more securely the children
are protected. Many parents feel like
they enforce stricter boundaries than their peers, and as a result feel
pressure to relax the rules. Through
communication with other parents, you may learn that your boundaries are not as
abnormally strict as you think!
“You also have
the right to have those boundaries travel with your child. If you know that your daughter will be with a
friend whose parents are comfortable with teenage alcohol consumption, but you
would prefer that your daughter not drink, you have the right to set that
boundary, even under someone else’s roof!
“We find that
parents who explain why the rules are the way they are raise teenagers
who have healthy respect for those rules.
For that reason, we recommend explaining to your kids – in an
age-appropriate fashion, of course – what the rules in your house are, and why
you have set those boundaries.
“We also
encourage you to listen to their thoughts and opinions. Have interactive discussions about substance
abuse – you may learn quite a bit from each other, all the while keeping the
door open for your child to come to you with any questions or concerns that may
arise.”
Week Without Walls – Just one week to go!The itineraries for all of the trips as
well as a schedule of departure and return times can be viewed at High
School Week Without Walls. You can find answers
to Frequently Asked Questions at WWoW Frequently Asked Questions.
SAISA tournaments - The SAISA
athletics tournaments will be taking place next weekend, with the Boys’
Volleyball team in Dhaka, the Girls’ Volleyball team in Kathmandu and the swim
meet here at AISC.
Housing for SAISA
tournaments is an established tradition that lowers the costs for the
travelling athletes but more importantly provides opportunities for our
students to get to know students from other American international schools.
This year we will need housing for about 130 swimmers from other schools. We’ve
gotten a lot of support already, but we still need help. If you can house
students from other school for a few days, please let our Athletics Director,
Mrs. Elizabeth Davenport, know as soon as possible.
Have a safe and relaxing
long weekend.
John McCandless
High School Principal
